Defying a likely override, Gov. Ned Lamont promised Monday to veto a bipartisan $40 million supplemental special-education appropriation rushed through the General Assembly during his absence from Connecticut last week, as well as $2.8 million in partisan grants for nonprofits targeted by the Trump administration.
Lamont, sporting a sling after breaking his arm in a fall during last week’s trade mission to India, told reporters his use of line-item vetoes was necessary to preserve the integrity of a spending cap central to Connecticut’s so-called fiscal guardrails, a harbinger of difficult broader budget talks to come.
“This was just extraordinary, Republicans and Democrats joining together saying, ‘Guardrails are great, but we’re going to spend the money, and the heck with a budget.’ It’s just no way to do business,” Lamont said in a press conference prior to signing the two line-item vetoes.
His vetoes were expected later Monday. House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said he would call a vote on veto overrides on Wednesday, when the House and Senate will be in session.
Lamont’s hard line on continued fiscal discipline is a source of growing friction with lawmakers who are chafing at not meeting pressing needs in an era of budget surpluses and a rainy day fund now full to its legal limit of 18% of General Fund spending. The cry for special education help is the most recent example.
“Right now, the state has the resources to afford this investment in our children, and right now, our towns need this funding,” the two top leaders of the Senate Democratic majority, Sen. Martin M. Looney of New Haven and Sen. Bob Duff of Norwalk, said in a joint statement.
The $40 million appropriation to help local school districts meet rising special-education costs and the $2.8 million in new grants came in emergency bills that bypassed the regular budget process or any vetting by a committee or a public hearing.
His veto of the grants could be upheld in the House, where two Democrats joined every Republican in opposition. An override requires 101 votes in the House, where Democrats hold 102 of the 151 seats. Lamont said the prospect of an override on the other bill would not dissuade him from a veto.
“I’m 71 years old. I don’t have to compromise on my principles,” he said.
Lamont entered his briefing room with his left arm in a black sling, noting that polished marble and water were a dangerous combination. He fell in the shower and was treated in India. He writes with his right hand.
The promised veto is awkward for the House Republican minority. Their members generally stand with the Democratic governor in his defense of the fiscal guardrails, but they overwhelmingly voted with Democrats in favor of providing local districts a financial boost in the current fiscal year.
One of Lamont’s first phone calls after returning from India on Saturday was to House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, testing whether the GOP would opt for fiscal restraint over the desire to help local districts.
Candelora offered him no assurance of upholding his veto, saying he would raise the measure in caucus.
“When a governor threatens to veto a bill and does veto a bill, that can’t be taken lightly,” Candelora said. “And I believe he deserves consideration.”
Lamont said he felt blindsided by Senate Democrats, who had sought the $40 million in emergency special-education funding — a feeling he says he shared in a phone call with Democratic leaders Sunday.
“I said, ‘What’s going on, guys? We’ve always had communication. You know, my door is always open. You can always call me. I always pick up the phone, especially with you. This is something we can figure out. Why the sudden emergency rush to do this?’” Lamont said.
The other measure offers $2.8 million in grants to organizations that are being impacted by Trump administration policies, including Planned Parenthood and groups that serve refugees, immigrants, and an LGBT clientele, including persons seeking gender-affirming care.
Lamont said he was not unsympathetic to the groups but questioned how they were chosen and what other requests would be coming.
“Right behind those groups is another 100 not-for-profits. They’re going to be knocking on the door and say, ‘How do these 15 get it, and how about me? Are they more important than I am?’ We’re going to have to sit down with the leadership and say, ‘There’s a new reality. We’re going to have to collaborate on how we do this.’ ”
Lamont said the $40 million and $2.8 million appropriations were not offered with offsetting cuts in other spending.
“I think it’s the wrong way to budget — buy it now, pay later,” he said. “That’s just the type of budgeting that has got this state into the ditch over the last 20 years.”
A law passed in 2017 that limits how revenues from volatile sources can be used has helped Lamont’s desire to pay down debt. Lamont was elected in 2018.
The volatility cap limits how much legislators can spend from quarterly income and business tax receipts, which have been tied to capital gains and other investment earnings that fluctuate significantly. It has enforced an annual average of $1.4 billion in savings or debt payments.
Lamont said that has coincided with economic growth in the state.
“I think people are looking at the state of Connecticut right now,” Lamont said. “We’ve made so much progress in the last five or six years. This is no time to fall off the wagon.”
Looney and Duff said the special education funding was prudent.
“This spending on special education in no way violates the spending cap or fiscal guardrails. It is both fiscally responsible and morally necessary to allocate these funds to meet the pressing needs of our communities at a time when the special education caseload is growing throughout the state,” they said.
Several education associations, including those that represent teachers, superintendents and boards of education, said they were disappointed in Lamont’s veto.
“I find this just a very frustrating moment, because we’ve been hearing time and time again — education is important, thank your teachers — all the sort of rhetoric around that politicians support education, but when the rubber meets the road and it’s time to write the check, everyone backs away,” said Kate Dias, the president of the Connecticut Education Association. “If not now, if not this issue, then what are we waiting to spend the money on?”
Lamont said $4.3 billion in the rainy day fund is a backup for federal funding. Some educators said that was an excuse.
“It’s an escape valve sometimes to say, ‘Well, we don’t know what’s coming.’ Well, you know what’s here, and what’s here is a shortage of $137 million,” said Fran Rabinowitz, a former superintendent in Bridgeport and Hamden and now executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents.
Rabinowitz also served as one of the chairs on the Task Force to Study Special Education Services and Funding, a 14-member group convened by statute in 2021. The task force, which has met monthly since spring 2023, delivered its final report to state lawmakers last month, which included a recommendation to fully fund the Excess Cost Grant.
“That was one of the major recommendations, and there’s nothing going forward on that,” Rabinowitz said, adding that the emergency vote last week made districts across the state “feel heard,” that lawmakers were going “out of their way to do something this year,” but it was short-lived.
“I’m devastated that he vetoed it. I probably should have expected it, but I didn’t,” Rabinowitz said. “I thought that he would understand how important these dollars are to public education. … We’re looking at our options. We’re looking at advocating for the legislature to override, but I’m just taken aback.”
Patrice McCarthy, the executive director at the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said Lamont’s veto “isn’t even kicking the can down the road, it’s widening the gap in the safety net.”
“The special education Excess Cost Grant was designed as a safety net so that the state would share in these costs with local communities, and the safety net has been destroyed, and local communities now have this great uncertainty in terms of what they can rely on from the state,” McCarthy said.