More than eight in 10 voters support tapping the state’s flush coffers to bolster human service programs weakened by severe federal cutbacks, according to a new poll commissioned by Connecticut nonprofit social service agencies.

The survey released by the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance also found slightly more than half of voters favor these investments, even if it requires adjusting the state budget caps that have forced unprecedented surpluses since their enactment nine years ago.

“I understand the need to save for the future,” Gian-Carl Casa, president and CEO of the alliance, said this week. “But it doesn’t help somebody hungry to get food.”

The poll, conducted online last month by the Connecticut-based STATS Group, surveyed 602 voters and has a 4% margin of error.

State government uses hundreds of community-based nonprofits to deliver the bulk of publicly-sponsored social services to people with disabilities or mental illness, patients struggling with addiction, children with various needs and people re-entering society following incarceration.

The alliance, which represents most of those agencies, has argued in recent years for a major adjustment in state compensation, insisting payments have lagged inflation for more than a decade, costing the industry more than $300 million annually.

Agencies praised the General Assembly and Gov. Ned Lamont last May for boosting funding by roughly $60 million for the fiscal year that began July 1. But they also fear new and impending cuts in federal programs will create a climate of need and demand for aid that swamps all services.

For example, nearly 63,000 residents have lost federal nutrition benefits since Congress and President Donald Trump tightened eligibility last July — roughly double state officials’ projections, New Haven-based Connecticut Voices for Children reported last month.

An estimated 110,000 low-income adults who receive health insurance through the Medicaid-funded HUSKY D program are at risk of losing coverage this January due to new federal work rules. And hundreds of lawfully present immigrants are expected to lose Medicare eligibility — regardless of work status — at the same time.

State officials project the maximum, federally-funded heating and energy assistance benefits this winter will be down 33% from prepandemic levels for Connecticut residents in need.

The survey found 86% of voters want the state, which has run up unprecedented surpluses averaging more than $1.8 billion or about 8% of the General Fund since 2017, to spend Connecticut dollars to ease this pain.

The state has been using those surpluses chiefly to build reserves and reduce the state’s hefty pension debt, which still exceeds $30 billion.

But critics say Connecticut could shift hundreds of millions of dollars toward social services and still wipe out pension debt by a significant margin each year, especially now that the emergency reserve — commonly known as the rainy day fund — holds nearly $4.5 billion or 18% of annual operating costs, the maximum allowed by law.

The survey found 54% of voters favor adjusting the state’s budget caps to redirect more funds to top social services.

And 56% of those surveyed said they would be more likely to support a gubernatorial candidate who wants to adjust those caps to send more funds to community-based nonprofits.

Gov. Ned Lamont, a fiscally moderate Democrat, largely opposed all efforts to modify budget caps during six of his eight years in office, frustrating many liberals in his party.

But the governor compromised and supported several efforts to work around the caps in recent years, including dedicating $712 million outside of the formal budget system to expand affordable childcare. He also declared fiscal emergencies — the first step in legally exceeding the cap — to allow legislators to order more than $280 million in additional municipal aid this spring.

He also helped legislators create a special $550 million fund, also outside of the formal budget, to begin to mitigate cuts to federal programs. Since last November Lamont has used this fund to help low-to-moderate income households purchase health insurance, bolster food pantries, provide $300 grocery store gift cards to 25,000 residents removed from SNAP, and to assist legally present immigrants that have been stripped of temporary protected status by President Trump’s administration.

But all of that assistance has been one-time in nature, and many legislators are pressing for Connecticut to establish ongoing, state-funded assistance programs for many of these groups.

The governor has not ruled out providing ongoing assistance in some cases, but has cautioned legislators that state government cannot afford to backfill all federal cuts.

“Governor Lamont shares concerns about federal cuts that affect critical services for our residents,” Chris Collibee, the governor’s budget spokesman, said Wednesday. “The Lamont administration continues working with nonprofit providers and legislative leaders to protect essential services while maintaining the fiscal stability that allows us to be there for residents when they need us most.”

Republican gubernatorial nominee Ryan Fazio does not support modifying the caps. But Fazio, a state senator from Greenwich, also says Lamont and legislators have not done enough to cut wasteful spending, which then could have been redirected toward social services.

Fazio and others have criticized Lamont and Democratic legislators for awarding most unionized state employees annual raises around 4.5% since 2022, compensation Republicans say tops most private sector pay hikes.

The GOP also says Democrats have allowed public colleges and universities to spend far too much on administrative costs and also could save on Medicaid by denying benefits to undocumented immigrant adults and children.

Sen. Cathy Osten of Sprague, who co-chairs the Appropriations Committee, is one of several Democrats who predicts the 2027 session will feature an extensive debate on expanding Connecticut’s role in protecting vulnerable residents.

Osten has called for a state-funded benefit to assist those who’ve lost federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits but still cannot work due to mental illness or disability.

As inflation rises and the average price of regular gasoline tops $4.40 per gallon in Connecticut according to the AAA, “it’s becoming dire for people. Their incomes are not going up anywhere near the level the need. And it’s eating into the middle class,” she said.

Rep. Tammy Nuccio of Tolland, ranking House Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said the GOP is ready to find more dollars to assist Connecticut’s most vulnerable.

But for that to happen, she added, majority Democrats in the General Assembly must be ready to hear ideas on cutting wasteful spending.

That effort “has to be fully bipartisan, and not just bipartisan in name,” she said.