
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy didn’t give any ground Monday when asked about Democratic criticism of his mid-September emergency budget cuts.
Democratic lawmakers have blasted Malloy’s decision to reduce Medicaid payments to hospitals and funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment, homeless shelters, and residential and day supports for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“I think it’s time that we sit together with the governor and talk about what’s appropriate to be cut here,” Rep. Cathy Abercrombie, D-Meriden, said last week. “These rescissions are not appropriate and many of my colleagues are saying the same thing.”
Democratic lawmakers are still compiling a list of alternative budget cuts. Meanwhile, at least one Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, has proposed looking at state employee furloughs as a way to find money to help some of the state’s neediest residents.
But Malloy wasn’t about to disclose whether he will ask state employee unions for furloughs, which are unpaid days off, when he sits down with unions to negotiate their salaries.
“I’m not going to negotiate through you,” Malloy told reporters Monday. “. . . We’ll be looking at making Connecticut more sustainable, as we have attempted to do with other efforts.
Malloy repeated remarks he made last week that he’s willing to have “serious conversations with anybody who is serious about having conversations.”
Those “serious” conversations between Malloy and Democratic legislative leaders have yet to take place.
Last week, House Speaker Brendan Sharkey and House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, asked the governor to release the overdue first quarter payments to the hospitals. The hospitals are given back a portion of the tax they pay to the state three times a year. That pool of money is separate from the Medicaid money Malloy cut on Sept. 18.
“This is an obligation of the state, and it is not an option to not pay our bills for services our hospitals have already provided. Having already cut future commitments to hospitals . . . holding back these funds makes a bad situation worse,” Sharkey and Aresimowicz said in a statement.
The reduction in funding for hospitals could be 25 percent higher if the first quarter payments are not made.
Asked about the reasoning behind withholding the payment, Gian-Carl Casa, undersecretary for legislative affairs at the Office of Policy and Management, said, “We have made clear publicly and privately for over a month that we have been open to their alternative ideas. We look look forward to eventually seeing them, because we continue to wait for them.”
It’s unclear when Democratic leadership will share their alternative budget cuts with Malloy.
What is clear is that it’s having an impact on the hospital industry.

Hartford Healthcare announced Monday that it has ended negotiations on a strategic partnership with Day Kimball Healthcare.
“Given the magnitude of the state’s cuts, it would be imprudent for us to consider moving forward with such a partnership at this time,” James Blazar, Hartford HealthCare’s senior vice president and chief strategy transformation officer, said. “This reckless slashing of Medicaid funding makes it difficult for HHC to create a path forward with Day Kimball Healthcare right now. Both our organizations have just taken a gut punch.”
Malloy reiterated his position that the hospitals in the state are doing fine without the state’s help.
“What we need to do is look at where we can save money and where we can’t and do the best we can,” Malloy said.
Three of the 29 acute care hospitals in Connecticut lost money last year and Malloy said he thinks that’s a situation that needs to be addressed. But he doesn’t think the state should have to give money to the hospitals that are making the lion’s share of $916 million in total profits.
“I’m trying, I suppose, to find the right balance, and we’ll work with everybody on it,” Malloy said.
Last week, Democratic lawmakers suggested Malloy should scale back his 30-year commitment to transportation in order to help fund the $16 million cut to social services. But Malloy quickly dismissed the idea.
He said there’s plenty of money in the budget for those services. He said the state devotes a larger portion of its budget to social services than other states. And if the legislature wants to give him the authority to cut other places in the budget, then he would be happy to have that authority.
However, he’s not touching his transportation initiative.
Support authentic, locally owned and operated public service journalism!
“The most business-friendly legislation the House and the Senate could be engaged in right now would be to pass a constitutional lockbox and get it on the ballot next November and forever deal with this issue, so that no one could ever divert any income raised specifically to support transportation,” Malloy said.
He said he wants to make sure that some governor in the future doesn’t start diverting money dedicated for transportation and the fastest way to do that is to approve a constitutional lockbox. The legislature passed a statutory lockbox earlier this year with the acknowledgement that it contains loopholes.
“Connecticut underinvested in transportation for 40 years,” Malloy said. “It’s why we’re in the mess we’re in.”
More State Budget news

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
Ritter: Time Is Running Short For Budget Agreement
The legislature will have a difficult time approving a state budget before the end of its session in two weeks if lawmakers and Gov. Ned Lamont do not reach an agreement in the next 48 hours, House Speaker Matt Ritter told reporters Wednesday. During a morning press briefing, Ritter said the legislative schedule was looking…
Keep readingMore Health Care News & Analysis

Coalition of Health Insurers Questions Viability of Connecticut Partnership Plan
Members of Connecticut’s Health Care Future, a coalition of health insurers, hospitals, and businesses, are questioning whether Connecticut lawmakers have done enough this year to protect teachers and municipal employees from increases in health insurance premiums. “Despite repeated bailouts from taxpayers, the Connecticut Partnership Plan continues to be a fiscal Titanic that demonstrates why government-controlled health…
Keep reading
AG’s Tackle Mental Health Parity
Attorneys General in Connecticut and Rhode Island threw their support Monday behind a coalition of mental health advocacy groups asking a federal appeals court to revisit a recent ruling giving insurance companies more flexibility to deny mental health claims.
Keep reading
Budget Green Lights Psychedelic Therapies
Buried in the budget Gov. Ned Lamont signed this week is a provision that would create a pilot program to allow Connecticut to be the first-in-the-nation to study the impact of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and MDMA on patients with depression and PTSD. The budget now creates a pilot program within the Department of Mental…
Keep reading
Officials Highlight Effort To Boost Mental Health Services For Kids
At a Hartford-based community provider Wednesday, Gov. Ned Lamont and a handful of his agency commissioners highlighted the expected impact of more than $100 million in recently passed funding aimed at increasing behavioral health services for Connecticut children. The governor appeared at The Village for Families and Children, a recipient of new state funding included…
Keep reading
Democrats Turn Focus To Roe v. Wade
With the legislative session and the conventions in the rearview mirror, Democrats in Connecticut are turning their focus to the U.S. Senate and the upcoming vote to codify Roe v. Wade and the impact it could have on the 2022 Elections. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy was on Fox News Sunday talking about the issue, which…
Keep reading
OP-ED | Policymakers Did Little to Lower Healthcare Costs This Session
Last year, Connecticut policymakers accomplished little to reduce the cost of healthcare, and those costs haven’t gotten any better since then. Incumbents will be asked what they did this year to provide some relief. Unfortunately, they have little to offer.
Keep reading