Outgoing Speaker of the House Chris Donovan said Monday that they’ve reach a tentative bipartisan agreement that will close this year’s $365 million budget deficit.
“We got all four caucuses to come to agreement,” Donovan said Monday in the hall of the Capitol. “People were serious and wanted to get the job done.”
Democratic and Republican lawmakers worked until midnight Friday to reach the agreement with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration. The General Assembly is expected to convene Wednesday to vote on the package.
Donovan was reluctant to share any specific details before caucusing later on this evening.
Sources say there were a handful of changes made to the framework Malloy released on Dec. 7.
For starters it no longer raises $22 million in revenue by closing what the administration called “tax loopholes” in both the electric generation tax and the corporation tax credit cap.
It also doesn’t eliminate the 1 percent cost-of-living increase for community nonprofit providers. Some thought a scheduled 1 percent increase in the cost-of-living allowance for providers may be on the chopping block.
Sources said Monday that the package also includes enhanced income tax fraud recovery and eliminated longevity bonuses for non-union state employees. The amount the state will save by eliminating the bonuses for non-union employees and political appointees is about $6.2 million this year.
There were also some small cuts to municipalities, but sources were unable to offer specifics about which accounts may be impacted. Malloy needs the legislature’s approval if he wants to cut municipal funding. The Malloy administration argues the statute only applies to statutory grants like the Education Cost Sharing formula, but the state’s largest municipal lobby has argued the definition is much broader and includes all grants to cities and towns.
All four caucuses will meet later today to hear more about the details of the deal.