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A coalition of five Connecticut mayors, including New Haven’s Justin Elicker, called for more funding for urban schools after Governor Lamont opened the 2025 legislative session in Hartford last week.

Zachary Suri

2:49 am, Jan 15, 2025

Staff Reporter

Olha Yarynich, Contributing Photographer

The 2025 legislative session in Hartford began last week with obvious disagreement over the state’s fiscal guardrails. Governor Ned Lamont made his support for strict adherence to spending limits clear.   

“We have broken the bad habits of the past when we habitually put more and more costs on the taxpayers’ credit card for our children to pay down,” Lamont told legislators in his annual State of the State address. “We have freed up hundreds of millions of dollars in our budget to expand access to affordable childcare, affordable healthcare, and expanded education opportunities. And we are just getting started.”

Last Wednesday, Lamont opened the legislative session praising Connecticut’s steps toward financial stability in the address. Five days later, mayors and superintendents of the state’s five largest cities, including New Haven, demanded a larger state contribution to urban public schools — regardless of fiscal guardrails — in a press conference at the capitol. That same afternoon, leaders of both chambers of the General Assembly held a joint press conference declaring education and affordable housing funds a priority this session.

While Lamont expressed a shared interest in expanding social policy and urged legislators to prioritize early childhood care, gender diversity in teaching and support for public higher education, he did not call for the state to push the limits of its constitutionally imposed fiscal guardrails to provide greater funding for public education. 

On Monday, Mayor Justin Elicker — joined by Superintendent Madeline Negrón and the mayors and superintendents of Bridgeport, Hartford, Waterbury and Stamford — called for the state to do just that. 

At Monday’s press conference, they asked the state to increase education funding by $545 million, an increase which would likely require loosening the state’s spending limits. 

“We’re here to call on an increase in state funding,” Elicker said. “We come together as the mayors of the five largest municipalities and the superintendents of the five largest municipalities to call on the state to loosen the fiscal guardrails to ensure that we can pay for that funding.”

In particular, Elicker asked Connecticut to increase its set amount of $11,525 in state funding per student, a number which has not changed since 2013, even as inflation skyrocketed and municipalities raised taxes to increase their fiscal contribution to public education. New Haven alone has increased its contribution by 50 percent over the last five years, Elicker said.

Urban districts in the state support significantly larger numbers of high-need students, Elicker added, even as they spend less per student than the state average due to lower property tax revenue. 

An hour and a half later in the same legislative office building, another unprecedented press conference took place two rooms over. Senate and House leaders held a joint press conference announcing priority legislation to address education funding needs and support affordable housing in the state. 

Senate Bill 1 this session will address the state’s dire education funding needs, Senate President and New Haven Senator Martin Looney announced at the press conference. 

“We all know that we need to do all that we can to increase resources for our entire education system,” Looney said.

Looney echoed the cities’ call for an increase in the state’s contribution to the Education Cost Sharing program which redistributes tax revenue to high-need districts and emphasized the need to address disparities in special education funding. 

In September, Looney expressed concern that state investments in New Haven Public Schools facilities were being squandered by the district’s failure to complete routine maintenance. On Monday, Looney insisted that increased funding must come with increased oversight.

“We know that taxpayer investments directly benefit students, but the taxpayers need to have confidence that those investments are well placed and well spent in all of the municipalities that are justifiably clamoring for more funds,” Looney said.

House Speaker Matt Ritter insisted that increases in education funding could be made without major adjustments to the state’s fiscal guardrails, but admitted that he and Looney are open to “minor modifications” in the spending limits.

Asked about the mayors and superintendents’ proposal, Ritter made clear that the numbers were likely to change. 

“I look forward to reviewing their proposal,” he told reporters. “They tend to ask on the high end, and we’ll work through it.”

For many, the fiscal guardrails are likely to be the dominant issue in the next year. Vincent Mauro Jr., chair of the New Haven Democratic Town Committee, called it the “biggest issue” of the year. 

Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, told the News that education funding was a top priority of his organization this session. He views an increase in the state’s contribution to the Education Cost Sharing program as essential to preventing property tax increases. Connecticut already has some of the highest property taxes in the country. 

“I’m a supporter of the guardrails,” DeLong said. “I just think they’re not sacrosanct. I don’t think that you should completely get rid of them, but they’re something that you have to analyze and continue to grow with the state.”

While the governor is clearly wary of adjustments to the guardrails, DeLong predicted that the legislature would come to a compromise.

“He’s afraid of opening the door a crack and it turning into the flood waters coming in. But I think ultimately, what’s going to happen through the course of the session is the governor will modify his position on the guardrails a little bit, the legislature will still work to protect them, and we’ll probably come out of the session with still having the fiscal guardrails, but just having some slight adjustments to them that make them more workable,” DeLong said. “The work lies ahead.”

Lamont, a Democrat, was first elected governor of Connecticut in 2018. 

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Trinity Health of New England has informed medical staff at its three hospitals in Connecticut that they now have to work for a third-party company based in California.

Trinity Health told employees they will lose their jobs if they don’t agree within 90 days to work for the company, called Virtuity.

“Trinity Health Of New England has entered into a partnership with Vituity, the nation’s largest physician-owned-and-led medical partnership group, to manage emergency medicine and hospitalist medicine services at our Connecticut acute care hospitals,” the healthcare provider said in a statement.

The decision affects more than 100 medical employees at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford, and Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford.

Lawmakers are concerned the decision could worsen the existing statewide staffing shortage.

“If these things do not work in the right direction, this is going to be a healthcare challenge and a disaster,” said Sen. Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor).

Anwar and Sen. Jeff Gordon (R-Woodstock) both raised the alarms Tuesday about what happens if medical staff decide not to work for Virtuity.

“Could there be disruptions to patient care in a transfer if some of the doctors do not go over to this new group?” Gordon asked.

Both lawmakers are doctors. Anwar is chairman of the legislature’s Public Health Committee, while Gordon is also a member.

Trinity Health said it’s had a 15-year partnership with Vituity, which describes itself as a physician-owned company.

“This collaboration prioritizes physician engagement, ensures smooth transitions, and upholds exceptional patient outcomes,” Virtuity said in a statement.

Neither Trinity Health nor Vituity answered several questions, including whether the staff were guaranteed to receive the same salary and benefits.

They also would not say if Trinity Health would offer similar positions elsewhere for any workers who don’t want to work for Vituity, or if Vituity is committed to maintaining staffing levels if employees choose to leave.

The deal does not require state approval but Anwar and Gordon both said they’re trying to convince Trinity Health to back out of the deal.

“This is just more of what we see with regards to these types of arrangements, the business-type of decisions that get made,” Gordon said.

Trinity Health would need approval from the state’s Office of Health Strategy if it wanted to cut or eliminate services due to declining staff, though.

Lawmakers said they are trying to make major reforms to Connecticut’s healthcare system this session.

The news of Trinity Health’s decision comes on the heels of Prospect Medical Holdings’ decision to file for bankruptcy over the weekend.

Prospect Medical, a California-based private equity firm, owns Waterbury Hospital, Manchester Memorial Hospital, and Rockville General Hospital.

Both Gordon and Anwar said they favor legislation that keeps private equity firms like Prospect from buying hospitals in the future.

“How can we make sure that not only the people are healthy, but the healthcare systems are healthy?” Anwar said.

They also plan to consider ways to recruit more people into the medical field. And they want additional protections to safeguard patient care whenever hospitals or other healthcare providers cut staff.