Political Capitol

There has been a tug-of-war occurring at the capitol this winter over whether Stamford deserves additional education funding from the state, and I’ve been wondering if and when newly-elected Republican Stamford Mayor Mike Pavia might get involved.

Here’s the situation…

Lower Fairfield County lawmakers from both parties continually gripe that their districts do not get enough state aid in return for all of the tax revenue constituents send to Hartford. They are particularly critical of education grants.

Despite the state budget crisis, the Democratic lawmakers who run the legislature miraculously were able to come up with $854,000 in additional school aid for Stamford, split between the 2009/10 and 2010/11 budgets.

Proponents have argued the move simply righted a wrong and made up for Stamford’s being short-changed for years despite its being one of several “priority school districts.” Critics have countered the Democrats came up with the money as a bribe to secure some votes from Stamford’s mostly-Democratic delegation and that it is unfair the 168 other municipalites who saw no increases during tough times.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration has been unsuccessfully trying to eliminate this funding for a few months.

The issue arose again this week during a meeting of the legislature’s Education Committee. Member Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, used Rell Budget Director Robert Genuario’s appearance before the group as an opportunity to question him over the administration’s opposition to the Stamford school bucks.

“This was the only change to the Education Cost Sharing formula going forward. We don’t think it’s appropriate,” Genuario said, arguing Stamford is a wealthy city.

“Stamford has far and away a higher grand list than any priority school district in the state,” Genuario said.

McDonald pointed out that in the past other municipalities – including Norwalk, home to Genuario and Republican House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero – have received boosts in school grants.

Genuario countered those legislative decisions have occurred during surplus budget years and during the current fiscal crisis the Rell administration’s position is no city or town should lose or gain money.

This brings me to Pavia, who replaced retired Democrat Dannel Malloy. I was unable to reach Pavia a few months back for a previous story on this topic and I’ve been curious if he was planning to reach out to fellow Republican Rell and urge her to back off.

I placed a call to Pavia and his staff a few days ago and this morning spokesman Bob Lupinacci got back to me with the following statement: “At this point he (Pavia) hasn’t spoken to the Governor. But the Mayor does plan to speak to her to reiterate the injustice and imbalance and how unfair the funding structure is to the city of Stamford. We have the same complexities as other urban cities but we fall woefully short when it comes to state funding and he has precise plans to reiterate that to the Governor.”