The Governor’s proposed budget makes painful cuts to essential investments that support the health, education, and economic well-being of Connecticut’s children and families. Among other provisions, the budget reduces HUSKY health insurance coverage, underfunds education, and hikes taxes for the working poor. This fact sheet outlines how these cuts would affect families in each Connecticut town, with local data on HUSKY enrollment, births to mothers enrolled in HUSKY, Educational Cost Sharing grants, and Earned Income Tax Credit recipients.
- Health: The proposed budget eliminates HUSKY A health insurance coverage for over 30,000 pregnant women and parents. When parents have health insurance coverage, their children are more likely to remain covered as well. Furthermore, two out of every five children are now born to women on the HUSKY program. When women give birth while covered by HUSKY A, their infant children automatically receive insurance through the program for a year; eliminating coverage for pregnant women jeopardizes the insurance coverage of their newborn babies as well.
- Education: The budget continues to underfund and unfairly allocate the Education Cost Sharing grant, the primary source of State support for public schools. In fact, many towns would receive less than half of what they are owed from the State, even as a few very wealthy towns actually receive more than 100% of their “target grant.” Underfunding public education can lead to larger classes, less qualified teachers, fewer extra-curricular opportunities, and higher property taxes, as towns try to make up for the State’s shortfall.
- Economic well-being: The budget delays full restoration of the State’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This imposes an $11 million tax hike on nearly 200,000 low-income working families, families who are already paying the greatest share of their income in taxes.
These cuts will affect children and families in every single Connecticut town. Instead of balancing the budget on the backs of our State’s children, the legislature should consider raising new revenue to:
- Preserve HUSKY coverage for parents and pregnant women;
- Continue annual increases in support for public education;
- Fully restore the State’s earned income tax credit; and
- Maintain support for other critical public investments in children and families.
