Nearly 11 months after the first budget proposal was released, Governor Dannel Malloy put pen to paper and signed the majority of the bipartisan budget into law on Oct. 31. While the bipartisan budget came as a victory and a relief to many, local legislators and leaders are keeping an eye on the cuts and possible future cuts within the new budget.

The State House and Senate passed the budget with sweeping, veto-proof majorities on Oct. 26. Once the budget hit the governor’s desk, Malloy signed most of the budget into law, but used his line-item veto to reject a new tax arrangement on hospitals.

Shoreline legislators praised the bipartisan nature of the budget that brought an end to the 123-day budget impasse. While members of both parties said certain issues required compromise, this budget includes cuts of five percent or less to the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant, an increased tax on cigarettes and hospitals, and revisions to prevailing wage and binding arbitration laws, and preserves the senior property tax credit while cutting funding to higher education and social services. While municipalities will not pay into teacher pensions as originally proposed, contributions from teachers will increase from six percent to seven percent of their salaries.

The final numbers look good for Guilford. In the governor’s February proposal, Guilford’s ECS grant, which serves as the state’s primary financial resource to help municipalities run their schools, was completely zeroed out, taking the town’s total ECS grant from $2.7 million this fiscal year to nothing in the next. In the budget referendum, the town assumed a significant cut to ECS funding and accounted for a loss of $1,892,955 in its adopted budget. The signed state budget gives $2,603,374 in ECS money to Guilford, creating a surplus of $710,419.

Looking at all of the state revenue sources including ECS, PILOT, Town Aid to Roads, and the Municipal Stabilization grant, Guilford receives $3,211,747 in state aid this fiscal year, creating a surplus of $251,111 over what was assumed in this year’s adopted budget.

First Selectman Joe Mazza said he was pleased with the final numbers.

“Obviously I am pleased that we finally have a state budget now and, now that we know where Guilford stands, I unfroze the capital expenditures, which I had put a freeze on at the beginning of the fiscal year,” he said. “Now all of the uncertainty is gone and we are pleased because in putting the budget together, we reduced our reliance on state funding by $1 million and in effect, the reduction under the new state budget to municipal funding to Guilford was less than what we reduced ourselves by, so bottom line is we are getting $251,000 more than we had anticipated.”

While the numbers look good now, State Comptroller Kevin Lembo recently came out and said the state is looking at a $93 million deficit this fiscal year. Municipalities like Guilford are familiar with the concept of mid-year cuts to municipalities to help close the deficit, so Mazza said he would recommend to the Board of Selectmen elected Nov. 7 (after press time) that they keep the projected surplus in the budget in the event of further cuts.

“The state could cut back on the funding, so I would recommend leave it in the budget because we don’t know what is going to happen until the close of the fiscal year,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut that number back somewhere in the spring. Right now we are ok but who knows what is going to happen.”

State Representative Vincent Candelora (R-86) confirmed the deficit and said that future cuts this year are a possibility.

“As I had said on the House floor, nobody should be surprised if these numbers change because Connecticut is in a real fiscal crisis and what this budget really represents is a whole new way of building the foundation for spending,” he said. “It is not going to get fixed overnight and we very well could be in by Christmas time looking at making additional budget cuts.”

However, Candelora said having solid numbers now is very important to local communities.

“By the governor signing the budget, for our communities it brings a real sense of relief for education and we can begin to start planning for next year,” he said. “I think everyone was really holding their breath and while many communities had budgeted some sort of reduction, there was no way communities could sustain the cuts that were in the executive order.”

State Representative Sean Scanlon (D-98) said while it is unfortunate the budget process took so long, the bipartisan nature of the budget was the right step forward. Scanlon said he thinks due to the timing of this budget, mid-year cuts may be less likely.

“The budget that required there to be a cut last year was passed in June of 2015, so I think so much time had gone out that it had been out of balance, but if we passed this thing in late October, I just don’t anticipate there being a need to make any adjustments that quickly,” he said. “Obviously we hope that the numbers from this budget pan out for the next two years.”

Scanlon said he hopes certain features of this budget, like the spending cap, will also help to get the Connecticut economy up and running again. A constitutional spending cap was ratified back in 1992, but was not implemented by the legislature until this budget. In prior years the legislature had used a statutory cap that was more flexible.

“I think there are a lot of things in this budget that should give people, and businesses specifically, a lot of confidence that we are doing what is being asked of us from that community, specifically when it comes to reining is spending,” he said. “We put a spending cap in this budget, spending only grew by less than one percent in this budget over last year. From a spending cap to a bonding cap I think we are basically saying to the business community here in the state and outside Connecticut that we are taking care of this problem on a bipartisan basis so that we can get Connecticut moving again and making progress again. I hope that they see we have come together to do this and take that as a sign that it is time to invest in Connecticut because this is a state that is worth investing in.”