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.

Jalen Rasheed Skeete, 24, of Bridgeport, is accused of eluding state police multiple times Friday morning, including a during a police pursuit that began in Newtown and ended in Brookfield, according to state police. 

State police said Skeete is also a suspect in Friday’s home invasion and fire at a home in the 100 block of Sylvan Avenue in Waterbury. 

Waterbury Police Sgt. Joseph Morais said the incident remains under investigation. 

Responding firefighters found heavy fire in the back part of the house, overtaking both the first and second floors, according to fire officials. 

Fire officials said the house was left uninhabitable but is not a total loss. It has heavy damage in the back and smoke and water damage everywhere else, they said.

Earlier in the day on Friday at around 7:15 a.m., Skeete allegedly fled from police in the parking lot of a Prospect school and struck a police cruiser.

After the fire, state police said he again evaded capture during pursuits in Newtown before being stopped in Brookfield. 

Skeete is being held on $250,000 bond on charges by state police in the evading in Prospect and the pursuit in Brookfield. He is charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, interfering with police, reckless driving, engaging in a police pursuit and evading responsibility. 

NEW CANAAN, Conn. (WTNH) — A New Haven teen suffered life-threatening injuries after being thrown from a moped on Route 15 Monday afternoon, according to Connecticut State Police.

State police said the 16-year-old girl was a passenger on a black moped being driven by a 17-year-old boy, also from New Haven.

They were driving southbound on Route 15 when the driver lost control of the moped while moving into a lane for the Exit 13 off ramp.

As a result of the collision, the 16-year-old passenger was thrown from the moped.

She was transported to Norwalk Hospital first, then Yale New Haven Hospital for a higher level of care, state police said.

The driver had no apparent injury, according to a report from state police.

Route 15 South was closed for more than three hours as the incident was investigated. The collision remains under investigation.