Citing a lack of vetting and transparency, Republican state legislators called upon Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday to veto $3.85 million in state grants to non-profits in a Democratic-written bill.
House Republican leader Vincent Candelora and other colleagues said Lamont should use his line-item authority to remove the grants from a 121-page, 95-section bill that covers a wide variety of topics.
While the grants represent a tiny portion of the state’s overall $28.7 billion proposed budget, Republicans said the legislature needs more vetting and details of individual grants that are known as earmarks.
“This bill doubles down on providing more earmarks to organizations,” Candelora told reporters at the state Capitol. “I think all of this needs to be put to a stop, given that the safeguards are not put in place. I believe the governor could veto any line item. … I want to hear from the governor on where he truly stands on this corruption. He has an opportunity to set a tone.”
Lamont later told reporters that he has concerns about the spending, but he did not rule out a line-item veto. Instead, he said he needs to talk first to the two highest-ranking legislators, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney of New Haven and House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford.
“I think we’ve got to do a better job of giving people confidence that the taxpayers’ money is going to the purposes as it was intended,” Lamont said at the state Capitol. “As regards vetoes and such, let me talk to the legislative leadership. Let me talk to Marty and Matt about that.”
When asked if there are items in the 121-page bill that he would look to erase through a line-item veto, Lamont responded, “Let me take a look at that. I think the answer to that is yes, but I’ve got to talk to the legislative leadership on it. I care deeply about the earmark reforms that we put in front of the legislature.”
Even before the latest debate came up, Lamont had proposed a four-page bill that calls for greater oversight for nonprofits that collectively receive millions of dollars annually in state funding. Lamont’s bill requires stronger guidelines and scrutiny before any money is awarded.
After a seven-hour debate, the House on Thursday night approved the omnibus bill that includes the earmarks by 96-48 with seven lawmakers absent. The Senate on Wednesday had approved the bill, which now goes to Lamont.
The state’s two-year budget that was passed last year had 289 separate lines that simply listed the groups that received money and the amount received. Lamont said he understands the calls by legislators for more details.
“I have legislation on the table that, as you said, puts some meat on the bones,” Lamont said when asked Thursday by The Courant. “Total transparency. You know who is putting forward the earmark. You know what it’s purposes are. Our job is going to be to test its effectiveness over time to make sure that the money goes in a way that’s most effective.”
In addition to the legislation, Lamont is calling for a cut of 20% of legislatively directed funds in the fiscal year that starts on July 1.
After earmarks were debated in last year’s budget, the issue came up again this week in an omnibus bill that was approved by the state Senate on Wednesday and then debated in the state House of Representatives on Thursday. Some of the groups receiving money are not known to the general public, while others are better known.
Sen. Douglas McCrory
Both House and Senate Republicans also raised questions about Sen. Douglas McCrory, a Hartford Democrat who has been under federal investigation regarding state grants he lobbied for that were awarded to nonprofits in recent years in the Greater Hartford area, including the now-defunct Blue Hills Civic Association. Blue Hills funneled more than $1 million to a nonprofit known as SHEBA that is run by McCrory’s friend, Sonserae Cicero-Hamlin.
A forensic audit was ordered last year after state officials were stunned when the Blue Hills Civic Association reported that $300,000 in state money suddenly disappeared when it was apparently sent to scammers in a fraudulent bank transfer. Workers at the nonprofit were laid off after the money went missing and the organization eventually ceased operating.
Lawmakers Thursday questioned a grant of $750,000 in the omnibus bill for a teacher residency program for the Capital Region Education Council, where McCrory works. McCrory is a longtime educator, and CREC is well-known for running magnet schools in the Greater Hartford area.
“I think CREC is a really important organization,” Lamont said when asked by The Courant. “I think a lot of that money was previously allocated at least for that broad purpose. Whether it goes just to CREC or some other organizations, it’s the type of thing we ought to look at.”
Candelora, though, questioned the move.
“Why does CREC get another $750,000?” he asked.
On the House floor, state Rep. Toni Walker of New Haven said, “The money is going to CREC schools. That is not the CREC agency. … We are desperately needing teachers [in major cities] because we have a shortage. … This is not a new program. This is an existing program.”
State Rep. Tammy Nuccio of Tolland, who serves as the ranking House Republican on the budget-writing appropriations committee, questioned why the New London VFW should receive $174,000 as outlined in the omnibus bill.
“There are at least three other legislators on my side of the aisle, by the way, that asked for money for VFWs, and they all got taken out of the budget,” Nuccio told The Courant. “How do you pick one VFW over another? What is the process? Do they have to do prevailing wage? How do you pick which one? So, now we get one that gets $170,000. To do what? It wasn’t in the budget.”
Nuccio added, “This is not hard. It’s just transparency. Request it publicly. Come and defend it publicly. Then let us pick.”
Nuccio brought the issue up Thursday on the House floor.
“The legislators from the New London area urgently needed money to be sent to them that was supposed to be sent to them last year,” said Walker, a New Haven Democrat who serves as the longtime co-chairwoman of the legislature’s powerful budget committee. “This project was already started with the money that additional dollars would follow through. For some reason, it was taken out and used for something else.”
Noting that there was unspent money in the state education department budget for the VFW, Walker added, “The money was left available in the SDE budget from a lapse.”
During the House debate, Nuccio said, “I think we have a problem under the Gold Dome when it comes to transparency. … It happens with no process. It happens with no accountability.”
Nuccio offered an amendment that money should not be awarded to nonprofits unless there is a public hearing in front of the appropriations committee that names the legislative sponsor and states that no employee of the applicant is a member of the state legislature.
Democrats said the measure could be sent to the new Government Oversight Committee for further study, and the amendment was defeated on a strict party line vote by 98 to 47 with six members absent.
Rep. Maria Horn, a Salisbury Democrat, brought out the omnibus bill on the House floor, noting that the lengthy measure covers multiple topics.
“We know that every item in an e-cert may not meet everyone’s definition of an emergency,” Horn said.
Christopher Keating can be reached at [email protected]