Appropriations Chairs Announce State Budget Spending Plan

(Hartford, Conn. WTIC)-The Appropriations Committee Co-Chairs announced their state budget spending plan, saying only twenty percent of the changes are different than the plan presented by Governor Ned Lamont.
Highlights include the continuance of debt-free community college and an increase of 108-million dollars under the Educational Cost Sharing Formula.
Five positions are being added to the Contracting Standards Board to provide oversight to quasi and state public agencies. Money is earmarked for the creation of the office of Pandemic and Public Health Preparedness to be operated within the Department of Public Health. 15-million goes to market the state's Tourism and money is provided to create the Commission on Racial Equity and Public Health. And more than double what is currently being used in surplus funds will be invested in the state's troubled pension fund.