As Connecticut’s legislative session ended on May 4, a budget proposed by the Democratic majority would reduce school funding in Wilton by $891,813, according to a press release from state Senator Toni Boucher (R-26). This budget has not been voted on.
School funding decreases throughout the rest of Boucher’s 26th district are:
- Bethel — $109,587;
- New Canaan — $816,759;
- Redding — $423,899;
- Ridgefield — $1,258,066;
- Weston — $567,084;
- Westport — $1,078,974.
“The bad news is in,” Boucher said in a press release. “The Democratic budget closes the deficit, not by reducing the highest state benefits in the nation, but on the backs of our children and local property taxpayers. Seniors who are on a fixed income will be particularly ill-equipped to absorb the increased tax burden. They are already reeling from a financial squeeze that has forced so many from their homes.
“There will be no vote on the Democrats’ budget today, the last day of the regular session,” she said on Wednesday. “Though it should not, the continuing unwillingness of the legislature to act and put the state on a financially sustainable path still astounds me. Never have so many people expended so much effort and accomplished so little. The $960-million deficit will not be addressed until a special session, lengthening the tenuous and uncertain situation our local towns are facing from likely cuts in state aid and education funding.
“The Republican Alternative budget does not propose any of these cuts. We have presented a balanced budget that focuses on core services and education by making long-term structural changes and spending only what we can afford. By contrast the Democrats’ budget jeopardizes our children’s education.
“The governor promised a budget without tax increases. By cutting pilot funding and the Education Cost Sharing Fund, the deal that legislative Democrats reached with the governor, only further shifts burdens to local taxpayers.
“There is a better way to govern, but one-party rule in Connecticut continues to lead to business as usual, and to fewer private businesses willing to brave the tax-and-spend policies that the majority party has imposed.”
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