With about 150,000 Connecticut residents having lost or at risk of losing nutrition or health care benefits due to new federal work rules, officials here say it’s crucial to help as many find employment as possible. But while state lawmakers earmarked $30 million to train and employ as many as possible, the bulk of those dollars remains unspent. Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration expects workforce development efforts to ramp up soon, but legislators say the clock is ticking. “Any time that we can prioritize job training, it’s important,” said. Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, co-chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee and one of the legislature’s most vocal advocates for job training investments. But when “we’ve already authorized it and we’ve already allocated it, we should spend it,” she added. Osten was referring to $30 million in borrowing for worker training the General Assembly authorized 13 months ago to partially offset vanishing federal grants. Legislative authorization is just the first in a two-step process before the state can borrow funds by selling bonds on Wall Street. But the State Bond Commission, a 10-member panel of Executive Branch officials and legislators, “allocated” or gave final approval to borrow only the first $10 million of that $30 million pot. The state Office of Workforce Strategy, which Lamont helped to create, has assigned $1.2 million to Career ConneCT, a free, short-term training program for in-demand careers administered by OWS. Another $1.5 million will support new positions within the office to support education, training and partnerships with employers. But, to date, no funds have been disbursed to the five regional Workforce Development Boards that use state and federal funding to train workers and link them with potential employers. The boards also operate Connecticut’s American Job Centers, which also provide training and other career services. House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, says this is hard to understand given how Lamont and his fellow Democrats in the legislature’s majority have reacted to new work rules imposed by President Donald Trump and the GOP-led Congress on recipients of federal human services programs. More than 30,000 residents have lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits since Nov. 1, and advocates say most of that stems from new work rules. Some of those removed from the rolls likely are unemployable because of mental illness or other medical conditions, but others could preserve their benefits by securing work or participating in job training. The same could be said for roughly 110,000 recipients of Medicaid health coverage through Connecticut’s HUSKY D program. State social services officials say this group, about one-third of the total HUSKY D population, could lose eligibility by Jan. 1 because of new work rules. Lamont last month used $8.5 million from past state budget surpluses to purchase $300 grocery store gift cards for former SNAP recipients. And administration officials insist the Department of Social Services will work with nonprofit community action agencies across Connecticut to help those who can work find employment — and thereby preserve nutrition or health benefits. How serious is that effort, Candelora asked, if most job training funds authorized more than one year ago haven’t been used? “The Lamont administration and the Democrats are most interested in crowing about handing money out to people than in instituting programs that could lift them out of poverty,” the House GOP leader said. But the Office of Workforce Strategy wrote in a statement it’s been implementing a new grant management system to improve transparency and oversight of public funds. It added that regional workforce boards and the businesses with which they partner will be invited to apply for new assistance “in the coming weeks.” The OWS also said it will ask the State Bond Commission to allocate the remaining $20 million in borrowing legislators authorized for job training “in a timely manner to ensure needs are met.” Those “needs” are real, according to the head of Capital Workforce Partners in Hartford, the largest of the five nonprofit regional workforce boards. Since 2022, much of Capital Workforce’s efforts to train workers in 37 north-central Connecticut cities and towns have hinged on $115 million in federal funds provided through the American Rescue Plan Act, commonly known as ARPA, and other programs, President and CEO Alex B. Johnson told the Connecticut Mirror. All those temporary funds, however, were exhausted before the latest fiscal year began July 1. Capital Workforce’s $20 million budget is down about one-third from just two years ago, Johnson said. Meanwhile, it served 14,000 adults and youths last year, and demand appears on the rise given federal rules changes surrounding SNAP and Medicaid. “Now the system is now kind of operating at a substantially less level in terms of capacity,” Johnson said, estimating Capital Workforce’s ability to provide training could drop as much as 70% this fiscal year unless new state funding is provided to offset vanishing federal dollars. Simultaneously, he added, individuals displaced from federal assistance programs “are coming to our centers, you know, really in need of our support that help guide them.” Rhonda Evans, executive director for the Connecticut Association for Community Action, added that regional action agencies also are hearing from people seeking job training to regain or preserve their human services benefits. And Osten noted Connecticut defense manufacturers and tourism and hospitality industries recently have been seeking to expand employment, which makes an immediate state investment in job training crucial. “We have employers who are reminding us daily that they have substantial numbers of job openings,” Johnson added, “and right now we’re struggling with responding to this.” ...read more read less