Connecticut House votes to add $500 million to ‘rainy day fund’

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — Shortly before 10 p.m. on Wednesday, the Connecticut House of Representatives signed off on a plan to set aside a $500 million surplus into the state’s “rainy day fund” as a temporary stopgap against cuts from Washington.

The $500 million will sit in the state’s budget reserves and be available for use at the direction of Governor Ned Lamont — who must get sign-off from the legislature’s leadership — until the legislature reconvenes for its regular session next February.

When lawmakers were crafting the legislation, they envisioned the funds being used to fill in the gaps created by the federal government shutdown, as well as cutbacks included in President Donald Trump’s signature “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Even with a deal in place to end the shutdown, the legislature’s majority Democrats held to their course and pushed for the deposit into the budget reserves. Funding for programs like SNAP food assistance, Democrats reasoned, should be guaranteed by the state in the face of uncertainty at the federal level.

“To bank on Washington not falling back into chaos or dysfunction is probably not a bet we’re willing to make when we’re talking about pretty important programs,” State Rep. Matt Ritter, the Democratic House Speaker, said.

Ritter’s Democratic caucus voted uniformly in favor of the $500 million measure and were joined by a majority of the House’s Republicans. State Rep. Vincent Candelora, the House GOP leader, helped craft the funding bill and voted in favor of it’s passage. Most of Candelora’s top lieutenants and key committee leaders also voted in favor. 21 members, mostly members of the GOP caucus’s more conservative wing, broke ranks and opposed the bill.

Candelora said that, with the shutdown over and the need to backfill programs like SNAP and the LIHEAP heating assistance program now negated, he is hopeful the money will not be spent — though some Democrats have floated using the funds to counteract cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies that are currently set to take effect in the new year.

“I imagine most of that money will be intact and it will return to the rainy day fund,” Candelora said.

Now that it has won approval in the House, the bill heads to the State Senate, which is scheduled to convene on Thursday.