Senator McCrory Votes to Approve State Budget that Invests in Education and Early Childhood

Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford voted Tuesday to approve the 2026-27 biennial state budget. The budget dedicates significant resources to education and childcare, invests an additional $5 million in schools across the 2nd Senate District.

The balanced $56.16 billion two-year budget, which passed the Senate 25-11, does not increase taxes, it reduces state costs and maintains fiscal responsibility in addition to making needed investments in Connecticut communities. It grows at a 5.4% rate in the 2026 fiscal year and 5.5% in the 2027 fiscal year.

The budget includes $2.4 billion in Education Cost Sharing Grants: state aid to support local education. It invests $200 million in early childcare education, expanding access to Early Start CT childcare programs at affordable rates for families and allowing children receive high quality childcare from birth to five years old, also funding a health care subsidy for care providers.

“This state budget prioritizes the things that matter: making sure our schools receive enough resources to give kids in every neighborhood a quality education, expanding child care options to support working parents, helping our districts cover the rising cost of special education, and supporting the local nonprofits that serve our community,” Senator McCrory said. “I’m proud of the resources I’ve secured for the people of Hartford, Bloomfield, and Windsor and I was happy to support this budget for families across this state.”

Important provisions of the new budget include:

-A $250 tax refund for hundreds of thousands of workers with children through an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit program, which will benefit as many as 195,000 households – one out of every seven

-Projected state surpluses and continued investment in the state’s Rainy Day Fund

-In addition to $2.4 billion in Education Cost Sharing grants, the budget includes $186 million in new investments for the two-year period,  this includes “holding harmless” 81 towns that would have seen a decrease in ECS funding

-$80 million in additional special education cost savings and $75 million in additional new special education funding for a total of $442 million in special education excess cost spending

-Investing $76 million in nonprofits in the second year of the budget to support worker wages

-Tax credits supporting refundable personal income tax credits for home daycare owners and farm investments

-Fully funding Medicaid, with more than $400 million in increased funding to support the program 900,000 Connecticut residents rely on

-Investing $7 million in Connecticut Foodshare, helping feed hungry Connecticut families

-Investing $3 million in heating assistance as federal programs may see funding reductions