Legislators and Gov. Lamont’s administration have reached a deal to provide $3,200 per child born under HUSKY insurance as a bond to use in the future for certain expenses.
Starting on July 1, babies, who are covered by Husky at the time of birth will automatically receive $3,200 in a CT Baby Bond trust.
“The kids from all over 169 towns and cities across our state will benefit from the program,” Treasurer Erick Russel said.
When a participant reaches the age of 18 to 30, they can file a claim to use the funds for buying a home in Connecticut, starving or investing in a business, paying for college, job training or saving for retirement.
“The children today that are in poverty, these children are struggling and I don’t want them to have to go through what I went through, I don’t want them to be hungry,” Senator Patricia Billie Miller said.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
The participants must live in Connecticut at the time when the claim is filed and must take financial literacy courses. According to the treasurer’s office, each child’s deposit likely would grow from investments to between $11,000 and $24,000, depending on when the funds are accessed.
Supporters said the goal is to level out the playing field for children who would otherwise be locked out of economic and educational growth.
“I want them to have hope and a dream to want something better,” Miller said.
Local
A total of $381 million will go toward the baby funds that are being repurposed from a reserve that was set aside in 2019, during the restructuring of the Teacher’s Retirement Fund, which will now be replaced with a relatively inexpensive insurance policy, according to the treasurer's office.
“We are in a position that we can shift that reserve fund directly into the baby bond trust fund,” Russel said.
House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora said in a statement:
"I appreciate Treasurer Russell's dedication to finding away a to fund the Baby Bonds initiative, but at a time when we're talking about fiscal guardrails, the dire need for tax relief and the importance of investing in education, I have to question a solution that involves repurposing surplus taxpayer dollars that had been used as a contractual makeweight to refinance teacher pension debt. This seems to undermine the message of fiscal responsibility the Governor has promoted throughout the session, and the vague mechanics of how they’ll simply take $380 million for this program certainly deserves more scrutiny.”
