Connecticut faces funding cuts ahead of 2026 legislative session

[Excerpt from news article by Nellie Kenney, 2/3/26]

As state legislators prepare to descend on Hartford for the 2026 legislative session, which begins on Wednesday, federal funding cuts are top of mind.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont submitted a plan to the Connecticut General Assembly to offset funding cuts by dipping into the state’s new Emergency State Response Reserve, the governor announced in a press release on Thursday. Legislators will discuss extending the emergency response fund, which was originally intended to expire this month, at the first meeting of this year’s legislative session, according to New Haven Rep. Roland Lemar. [….]

Cuts will hit low income New Haveners particularly hard. A recent study by DataHaven projected that the cuts in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid and other federal programs will result in the bottom 25 percent of New Haven income earners spending $1,100 more a year on average.

That makes it the town in Connecticut with the fourth highest projected uptick in costs for that demographic. The middle 50 percent of households will receive $500 and the top 25 percent of households will receive $6,200 in tax relief on average, according to the study.

Lamont’s plan would allocate $18.7 million of the $332 million remaining in the reserve to “support items necessary for food and nutrition assistance, Medicaid assistance, youth mental health services in schools, and children’s wraparound services,” according to his press release. [….]