Connecticut Republicans are calling for more transparency and oversight of secretive budget carveouts.
Their announcement Tuesday comes on the heels of reporting from Connecticut Public’s Accountability Project (TAP), which examined how state lawmakers use budget “earmarks” to funnel money to favored groups in their districts.
Earmarks are subject to little oversight. TAP found one organization at the center of a federal probe was found to get $100,000 in carveouts through the 2023 budget.
Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding (R-Brookfield) said the GOP is proposing that groups getting a budget earmark put in a written request for the funding and get a public hearing. He’d also like to see random audits of the organizations, calling it “necessary oversight over the corruption and fraud that we're seeing here in the state of Connecticut.”
The GOP’s call for more transparency comes as federal investigators are examining Democratic state Sen. Doug McCrory’s relationship with the head of SHEBA, the small nonprofit that received the $100,000 in earmarked money in the 2023 budget.
McCrory has denied any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the Connecticut General Assembly is expected to reconvene potentially before Halloween to address cuts the Trump administration has made to various programs.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora (R-Branford) said if the General Assembly is going into a special session soon, “we ask that this issue be addressed sooner than later.”
Democratic state lawmakers said line-items are a part of each annual budget cycle and that Republicans continue to ignore federal budget cutbacks and the impact on state residents.
“The very foundation of our state's economy and health care system is under attack,” Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney (D-New Haven) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) said in a joint statement. “What will it take to get Connecticut Republicans to focus on the real damage happening in our state right now?"
Connecticut Public’s Jim Haddadin and Maysoon Khan contributed to this story.
