Olha Yarynich

Even Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont needs help keeping up with the cascade of President Donald Trump’s executive actions in the past three months.

Cuts and delays in federal spending, along with other policy changes, have come down from Washington in letters and executive orders — some of them unclear or held up in court. The impacts so far in New Haven have been scattered, leaving City Hall and some organizations scrambling for money in a cloud of uncertainty.

Lamont’s office announced in a press release on Wednesday that the state has created a new online form where cities, companies and nonprofits can report how Trump’s policies are affecting them. The centralized data, encompassing funding cuts and the effects of tariffs, will help state officials respond to the situation, according to the announcement.

“The reporting system unveiled today not only shines a light on the true scope of the damage being done to our economy and our people,” Treasurer Erick Russell is quoted saying in the press release, “but it provides real-time information that allows us to push back, to demand accountability, and to fight for the resources we all deserve.”

In New Haven, federal funding freezes have affected food aid organizations and the Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services resettlement agency, as well as grants directly to the city for environmental projects. The city is challenging those funds’ withdrawal in a lawsuit.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has emerged as a vigorous opponent of the Trump administration. He has joined other states in a wide range of lawsuits from an attempt to prevent the dismantling of the Department of Education to a lawsuit against cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services.

It was not immediately clear whether the data compiled through the state’s new reporting system would become publicly available. The “Federal Impact Reporting” webpage says that information submitted there “should be considered public information and may be released by the state to interested parties.” 

The website also says that “no commitments of state action in response to these issues is expressed or implied.”

Joe Delong, the executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, told the News he welcomed the state’s data collection efforts and encouraged his members to participate. However, he cautioned that the state’s response to federal cuts should not distract from the state’s own underfunding of municipalities, particularly public schools.

Cities and towns were already discussing large property tax increases due to gaps in state funding before the Trump administration cuts were proposed. Connecticut municipalities are struggling to make sense of the potential impact of the cuts as they finalize their budgets for the coming year, but the impact of state underfunding is already being felt, Delong added.

“The optics of it are wonderful when the state steps in to cover any of those federal losses,” Delong said. “But it’s kind of like helping with part of your car payment when you’re not making your mortgage.”

At the start of the legislative session in January, Lamont advised legislators to “focus on what we can do to build on the progress we’ve made over the last six years” rather than attempt to anticipate federal cuts. 

In his February budget proposal, Lamont proposed small changes to the state’s fiscal guardrails, to support a historic investment in early childhood education in Connecticut. In March, Lamont approved $43 million in additional funding for special education in the state, a proposal he had originally vetoed. Meanwhile, local leaders have called for an increase in the state’s standard per-student contribution to public schools.

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said in an interview on Thursday that he worried the scramble to address Trump’s actions could “give elected leaders at the state an excuse not to increase funding that is desperately needed now for our education system.”

But he said that Lamont’s new reporting form “seems like a good idea.” Elicker added that city officials are regularly in contact with local nonprofit leaders, although the city has not kept a centralized database of how Trump’s funding cuts have hit New Haven.

“Submitting this data is purely voluntary,” Lamont said in Wednesday’s press release, “but I think everyone understands the importance of sharing this information so that we can better understand what exactly is happening and formulate a response on the state and local levels.”

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