Democrats say the state budget plan they released Tuesday was put together in the hope it would generate some Republican votes on the legislature’s Appropriations Committee, but when they didn’t materialize Democrats were unable to hold their slim majority together to pass the plan.
Here’s what their so-called “compromise budget” would have provided in state education aid, according to data provided to some legislators by the Office of Fiscal Analysis.
Greenwich was the biggest winner for education aid. Its Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant – the state’s main tool for distributing aid to local school districts – was slated to increase by $1.25 million. Lisbon was the biggest loser, taking an ECS hit of $155,279. School aid for troubled school districts was boosted slightly – with Bridgeport, Hartford and Waterbury each scheduled for a $500,000 increase next fiscal year.
Most towns would have received increases in state aid for special education. That’s because the state must make up for cuts to that grant last year to comply with federal rules that forbid the state from cutting spending on special education programs.
(How did the school aid plan in the proposed budget compare to the other plans that have been offered? Read details on Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s plan here and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff’s here.)