When the smoke from the 2013 legislative session cleared last week, environmental advocates were crying foul over the General Assembly’s decision to raid two energy conservation funds in order to balance the two-year state budget.
In an effort to plug a last-minute budget gap, lawmakers tapped the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Some of the money they swept from the programs was replaced during the final day of the legislative session.
But it’s an old budget trick environmentalists are sick of seeing played out. It was done as recently as former Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration and there was hope, with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s attention to the creation of an energy strategy, that it wouldn’t happen this year. But it did.
“It’s extremely disappointing that this fight over funding had to happen at all,” Mark LeBel, energy fellow at the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, said in a press release. “Dollars invested in these funds are returned to the economy many times over, so it is counterproductive to balance the budget in the short term by taking money from them.”
Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes said Thursday they were able at the last minute to eliminate the $5 million raid of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the fund in which electric generators buy allowances to emit carbon dioxide. And they were able to decrease the reduction of $24.2 million in funding in the second year of the budget to the Connecticut Energy Finance and Investment Authority, bringing the reduction down to about $19 million.
Barnes said they are anticipating that there will be a surplus on the greenhouse gas account that they will be able to transfer to the the Connecticut Energy Finance and Investment Authority.
“We gave the board flexibility to be able to assign that surplus to CEFIA,” Barnes said.
House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, said in the House they were boosting funding to the conservation load management fund with one bill and in the next they’re sweeping those funds into the general budget.
Sen. Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, said there was an “intent to deceive” taxpayers and that he believes they will figure it out.
“We’re going to charge people on their electric bills a little bit more, but we’re going to do it because it’s going to go into an energy conservation fund which everybody thinks is important. Oh, by the way we just swept the money for the operating budget,” McKinney said.
Malloy admitted Thursday that sweeping the funds was not “optimal,” but lawmakers left them with fewer choices when they decided not to auction off customers’ electricity bills. The electricity auction was expected to bring in $80 million in one-time revenue. However, it did not gain enough support in the House where more than 50 Democratic lawmakers signed onto an amendment to kill it.
While environmental advocates appreciated the change of heart regarding the greenhouse gas funds, they said the raid on the funding in the first place sets a bad example.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a nine-state effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Northeast. Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont all participate in the program. Through the end of 2012 the program had conducted 18 successful auctions, selling a total of 498 million CO2 allowances for $1.1 billion.
Support authentic, locally owned and operated public service journalism!
William Dornbos, Connecticut director of Environment Northeast, said he’s pleased the last-minute budget implementation language restored the RGGI funding.
“Programs like RGGI and the state’s energy efficiency fund are providing huge economic and environmental benefits to Connecticut,” Dornbos, said. “Connecticut’s support for RGGI is critical to the program’s success and to setting an example for other states that inappropriate diversions should not be tolerated.”
More State Budget news

Stefanowski Talks Abortion, Employee Raises & Budget In First Press Conference
For a half-hour Wednesday, Bob Stefanowski stood outside the state Capitol and fielded questions on abortion rights and state employee raises in a sign the Republican candidate plans to run a more conventional campaign in this year’s rematch with Gov. Ned Lamont.
Keep reading
Lamont Signs The Budget
Alongside Democratic legislative leaders, Gov. Ned Lamont signed the $24 billion budget adjustment Monday that includes $600 million in tax relief. That’s more than they anticipated they would be able to offer Connecticut residents this Election year because revenue came in higher than expected, but it still creates about an $800 million deficit in 2024. …
Keep reading
ANALYSIS | It’s A Wrap: The Winners and Losers of the 2022 Session
It was a short legislative session, but the House and the Senate were able to move a lot of business this year, including the passage of a $24-billion budget with around $600 million in tax cuts.
Keep reading
Connecticut Acts To Help Its Lead-Poisoned Children
After decades of inertia, Connecticut is finally moving to help its thousands of lead-poisoned children and prevent thousands of other young children from being damaged by the widespread neurotoxin.
Keep reading
Bill Bolstering Contracting Oversight Board In Jeopardy After Lamont Administration Raises Concerns
It passed unanimously in the Senate, but a bill that would give the State Contracting Standards Board greater oversight over state contracting appeared stalled in the House Wednesday on the last day of session. “The governor and I have not talked about the bill,” House Speaker Matt Ritter said. “The commissioners have sent us a…
Keep reading
Senate Approves Tax Cuts, Sends $24B Budget to the Governor
The state Senate gave final approval late Tuesday to a $24 billion election year budget plan that includes around $600 million in tax relief while enabling the state to make an $3.5 billion payment on its unfunded pension debt. Senators voted 24-12 at around 10:30 p.m. to send the midterm budget adjustment to the desk…
Keep reading
House Green-Lights $24B Budget
On a party-line vote early Tuesday, the House passed a $24 billion budget adjustment package containing more than $600 million in tax cuts which Democrats heralded as “historic” and Republicans derided as temporary. Lawmakers voted 95 – 52 at around 12:20 a.m. to send the 673-page budget document to the Senate for consideration before the…
Keep reading
Budget Materials
The General Assembly is preparing to debate adjustments to the $24 billion state budget. Below are a few of the documents we’ve been provided as back-up materials. The budget, HB 5506. Town runs. Car tax impact on municipalities. Finance Committee Power Point.
Keep reading
Lawmakers May Vote for First Pay Increase in 20 Years
With legislative retirements mounting, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were considering Monday raising the salaries of General Assembly members for the first time in more than two decades and indexing their pay in the future. During a morning press briefing, House Speaker Matt Ritter told reporters that funding for pay raises had been…
Keep reading
Amid Surging Revenue, House Prepares to Vote on Budget Adjustments
Connecticut’s House of Representatives was expected to vote Monday on a $24 billion budget adjustment package, buoyed by revised revenue predictions that exceeded expectations by more than $350 million. The revised consensus figures released Monday confirm the surge in revenues that enabled Gov. Ned Lamont and legislative Democrats to reach an agreement last week on…
Keep reading
Dems Detail Budget Deal With $500 Mil in Tax Cuts, Extension of Gas Tax Holiday
Legislative Democrats and Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration announced Wednesday the details of a $24.2 billion budget adjustment package, which they say provides around $500 million in tax relief including extending a gas tax holiday until December. Lamont and legislative leaders outlined the agreement during an afternoon press conference in the state Capitol building. Both chambers…
Keep reading
Health Care Workers Call for New Hires
After a record number of health care workers are expected to retire this year, health care staff called on Gov. Ned Lamont to commit to filling 1,000 vacant positions by August 1 of this year. A record 1,137 state workers who notified the state that they will retire this year comes at a moment of…
Keep reading
Senate Joins House And Votes To Give Raises, Bonuses To State Employees
The Senate gave final approval by a 22-13 vote on a plan to give unionized state workers a set of raises and bonuses. The plan, negotiated by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration and a coalition of public sector labor unions, provides three years of 2.5% raises and step increases as well as a total of $3,500…
Keep reading
House Advances Labor Deal In Historic Vote
Lawmakers in Connecticut’s House of Representatives signed off on a plan to give state workers a set of raises and bonuses Thursday in a mostly partisan vote on a negotiated labor agreement. The House voted 96 to 52 in support of the deal with 1 Republican, Rep. Tom Delnicki of South Windsor, joining all Democrats…
Keep reading
Republicans Propose Last-Minute Tax Package
Legislative Republicans pitched a $1.2 billion tax relief plan Thursday which reduces state income, sales and gas taxes and proposes to join other states in suing the federal government to challenge restrictions on spending pandemic relief funds. House and Senate Republicans announced the plan during a state Capitol press conference Thursday morning. It cuts the…
Keep reading
The Budget Battle Begins To Take Shape
Tax collections have improved and pushed Connecticut’s budget surplus to $4 billion, but the state budget still relies heavily on federal funding and without it the state would end up running a “sizeable operating deficit.” The Office of Policy and Management told state Comptroller Natalie Braswell Wednesday that if not for the use of the…
Keep reading