Guest Essay: State Rep. Anne Hughes
Photo: Brian O’Connor
It’s tax season: the most unfavorite time of the year, as we wake up to how the federal tax system is grossly skewed in favor of the wealthy, even as the current federal administration is single-handedly gutting essential public programs like Medicaid, the Low Income Heating Assistance program, Head Start, the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, the National Institutes of Health, and firing Social Security and Veterans Administration staff.
All to give tax handouts and federal contracts to the very rich, like a certain unelected billionaire who is orchestrating the chaos and cruelty on top of this unnecessary trade war that will raise prices on consumers and cause a catastrophic economic recession.
In Connecticut, our constituents are fed up and pushing back — attending rallies, town halls, and reaching out to their state electeds like me. I share your outrage and frustration. This is demoralizing, completely unnecessary, and demands bold state leadership now. It’s up to us on the state level to protect our people, and fund our services.
Our state has what are referred to as “fiscal guardrails” which establish budget rules for our revenue and spending. In concept, these make sense because Connecticut does need to responsibly pay off our long-term debt and build a strong savings account for a rainy day. Well, it feels like a torrential storm is upon us.
Connecticut is in a stronger financial position than most other states, with reserves built up for a recession or an emergency. This moment is giving 2020 early pandemic emergency-chaos vibes. If we continue to prioritize additional debt payments while so many in our communities suffer, it is like making additional mortgage payments while your foundation is caving in.
If we fail to make the public investments most needed in areas (education, housing, healthcare, and environmental protections) that are further collapsing due to the federal cuts, we only further accelerate the economic recession we are sliding towards.
I joined with my colleagues to propose common-sense adjustments (HB 6752) to the “guardrails” earlier this legislative session, anticipating the nonsense promised by Project 2025 to gut our government, fire the experts in civil service, and leave states on their own to fund and fill the holes. We must not fail to respond to this moment and make the essential investments in our residents and in our state.
The challenges we are facing now are far different from those of eight years ago, when these fiscal guardrails were placed to reduce debt liability and ensure spending did not outpace revenue. Our approach to budgeting in this moment must protect our people and fund our essential services.
The proposed federal cuts to nursing home care, Medicaid for our 900,000 low-income residents, support for students with developmental disabilities, the NIH and life-saving research, are just the beginning. These are not just abstract numbers on a spreadsheet; these are our neighbors, our families, friends, our elderly parents like mine.
I, for one, refuse to pit the needs of nursing home residents against those of our veterans, or our neighbors with developmental disabilities, or Head Start children, or our elderly neighbors who rely on Meals on Wheels and the Low Income Energy Assistance program, and the workforce that keep these services alive.
Connecticut is in a much stronger position due to our responsible commitment to paying down our debt, fund our pensions, and save for a rainy day (you’re welcome). We have paid down almost $8.6 billion since 2020, resulting in savings of more than $730 million each year for the next 25 years. Our pension liabilities remain about $35 billion between state employees and teachers. Yet we have built up $2 billion in reserves to protect us in times of crisis like this.
By adjusting these fiscal guardrails, we can ensure that we don’t sacrifice our most vulnerable residents to the whims of unpredictable chaos and cruelty-mongers. We can protect our people, maintain our essential services, continue to pay down our debt, all while staying true to our fiscal responsibilities with the flexibility we have proposed.
We were elected to meet THIS moment. Now is the time to make the tough decisions that protect the future of our state and our residents. The fiscal guardrails should not stand in the way of our ability to safeguard our people and our future so we can more than survive this mess together. I’m proud to be your representative in such a time as this.
State Representative Anne Hughes,
135th House District, Weston, Easton, Redding.