A top Republican leader who contends Gov. Dannel P. Malloy violated state law when revising his executive order for the budget last week is seeking a legal opinion from state authorities.
On Friday, Malloy reshuffled $100 million in current fiscal year spending, a move that mainly affects nonprofits and school systems.
In a letter dated that same day, Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Len Fasano (R-North Haven) asked Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen to determine the legality of three actions Malloy took when he shifted education dollars for municipal aid as part of an executive order in the absence of a budget.
A month and a half after the 2018 fiscal year began, Connecticut is still without a state budget.
Fasano charges in his letter to Jepsen that state law prohibits Malloy from actions taken Friday without the legislature’s input: reducing excess cost grants for state aid for special education; withholding funding mandated by the municipal revenue sharing program without legislative approval; and using an executive order to adjust the motor vehicle mill rate tax cap from 32 to 37 mills.
