Creative Commons License

The state budget for the next fiscal year includes nearly $280 million in aid to towns, with about $100 million in one-time aid for non-education programs and $180 million for schools that communities could expect year after year.

Gov. Ned Lamont, who negotiated the budget with legislative leaders and is expected to sign it, said it would stipulate that municipalities that already have set their local budgets can re-open those documents and use the extra state aid to lower taxes if they choose.

As CT Mirror's Managing Editor Stephen helps manage and support a staff of 16 reporters.  His career in daily journalism includes 20 years at The Hartford Courant, where he served as a member of the editorial board, data editor, breaking news editor and bureau chief.  Prior to that Stephen was city editor at the Casper Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyo., and the editor of the Daily Press in Craig, Colo.  He has won many awards for editorial writing, data journalism and breaking news. While he was breaking news editor, The Courant was a named finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for its coverage of the Sandy Hook shootings.  Busemeyer is a Koeppel Journalism Fellow at Wesleyan University, where he teaches data journalism, and he has also taught at the University of Hartford, the University of Connecticut and the University of Colorado.