While meeting with reporters, Gov. Ned Lamont claimed that “Municipal aid’s up about 59% since we took office.”
About 20 minutes later, as reporters pressed for clarification, Lamont’s budget director, Jeffrey Beckham, clarified that the governor’s statement only applied to “the general government grants that [the Office of Policy and Management] administers.”
What neither Lamont nor Beckham mentioned was the 59% growth they cited took place in just one-fifth of the total municipal grants program — which has an overall annual value approaching $3.6 billion per year.
The entire grants package has grown about 16% in total, stretched across the first four fiscal years of the Lamont administration.
Read more: CT budget battle heats up as Lamont offers rosy financial picture