🔒Appropriations Committee to vote on Lamont’s budget recommendations, 18 other bills

Legislation offering Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget recommendations is among 19 bills being considered Wednesday by the state legislature’s Appropriations Committee. House Bill 5030 is the first item on the committee’s agenda. The 142-page bill includes everything from a proposal for the state Department of Motor Vehicles to create “Pizza State” commemorative number plates, to be sold for $65 in addition to other registration fees, to eliminating the state Office of Health Strategy. Under Lamont’s proposal, many of OHS’ duties, including overseeing health care review programs and the certificate of need application process, would be handed to a new three-member panel within the state Department of Public Health. Hospitals across the state have opposed the changes, particularly to the CON application and review process. The bill also places certain other responsibilities from OHS with DPH, the state Office of Policy & Management, and the state Department of Social Services. Also on the agenda is HB 5418, which seeks to alter the conditions for the Kirklyn M. Kerr grant program at the University of Connecticut, which offsets the cost of tuition paid by veterinary students. Under the change proposed in the bill, students receiving the grant would now be required to reside in the state for “not fewer than five years after graduation.” The grant is named after Kerr, who has served UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources in various capacities for more than 30 years. The committee will also consider HB 5424, which would require the legislature’s Office of Fiscal Analysis to conduct a review of appropriations authorized from the General Fund in the state budget for the biennium ending June 30, 2027. In particular, the bill would require the Office of Fiscal Analysis to flag broad spending categories where appropriations rose by at least 10% compared with General Fund levels approved in the prior two-year state budget. OFA would be required to file its report no later than Feb. 1, 2027. A separate bill, HB 5425, would require the Office of Fiscal Analysis to conduct a similar review of expenditures of appropriated funds outside the General Fund over the same period, with the same reporting deadline. The Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote on approving all 19 bills during its meeting Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.