The budget and more on Legislature’s plate [Connecticut Post]

January 6, 2015

Article as it appeared in the Connecticut Post

The 21-week, budget-setting session of the General Assembly will begin Wednesday under the shadow of a multibillion-dollar deficit and a state economy still trying to emerge from recession.

While the state Constitution requires that lawmakers create a balanced budget, thousands of other bills will be submitted for consideration by members of the House and Senate.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has already vowed to ask for major transportation initiatives when he presents his budget in mid-February. Education will also be a major issue in the session that runs through June 3.

The two-year, $40 billion-plus budget that lawmakers will be crafting in coming weeks is the main reason for their annual gathering, but many also have personal bills they will be pursuing.

Greenwich lawmakers will try to improve boater education in memory of Emily Fedorko, 16, a Greenwich High School student killed last summer by a boat propeller during a tubing accident off Greenwich Point.

Veteran Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, wants to look closer into the emerging science and technology of so-called e-cigarettes.

Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, the incoming co-chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee, said it’s likely that lawmakers will consider legislation regulating the private use of drone aircraft and strengthening domestic-violence law to possibly take guns away from abusive spouses.

Rep. Jack Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said he wants to make sure the state home for vets in Rocky Hill has the resources to provide its residents with what they need.

But the biggest issue facing lawmakers is certainly the deficit, estimated at between $2.4 billion and $3.2 billion for the two-year cycle beginning July 1.

“The best thing to do is work together, and I would hope that when the first week of June comes and we’re finished for the year, we can all say we’ve done the best we can,” said Rep. Themis Klarides, R-Derby, who will become the first woman to lead House Republicans when the General Assembly convenes on Wednesday.

Klarides said in an interview Friday that she had a long meeting with Malloy.

“I hope the spirit of communication continues,” she said, noting that since the governor made a campaign promise to not raise taxes, spending reductions will have to be the focus of the committees with budgetary oversight.

“The real bad news is the forecast for the next two fiscal years,” said Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-Greenwich, ranking member of the tax-writing Finance Committee. “Until we get our cost structure under control and stop giving people raises while still in a difficult period, there will be more problems in the future. Frankly, I’m worried about our tax base. People who don’t want to pay more taxes or can’t afford to pay may leave for a better tax climate, or the weather.”

Limits of bipartisanship

“Our first and foremost priority, as it has been for my six years in the Legislature, has to be the budget and how we manage the deficit and how we really get our spending as a state government under control,” said Rep. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, who will take the seat of outgoing Senate Minority Leader John McKinney. “We really have to be honest and respectful of the people of our state, and get a budget solidly based on revenue estimates and our ability to afford, as a state. The big question is how do we, as a General Assembly, work to create jobs and help our jobs and businesses grow?”

Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, said Friday he welcomes working with minority Republicans, but sometimes bipartisanship falls victim to political reality.

“I think the budget, by definition, (reflects) a policy direction, and to the extent that there are differences in how Democrats and Republicans view the policy direction, it’s kind of difficult to have a true bipartisan approach to the budget,” Sharkey said. “Obviously, the minority party has a role to play on the budget in the Finance and Appropriations committees. But in the end the majority party, for good or ill, has to produce the product and rise and fall on that product.”

Sharkey, whose tenure in the Legislature has focused on regional cooperation to save money for towns and cities, said he’ll push for a number of recent recommendations of an advisory commission.

“There’s a new reality out there that I think every voter and taxpayer understands in their personal lives,” Sharkey said. “We just cannot continue to financially support inefficiencies. To the extent that towns and cities are open to this, state government wants to continue supporting towns and cities, but I think we’re going to insist on real efficiencies on the local level in exchange for the levels of aid they have been receiving since this governor took office.”

During the so-called long sessions such as this year, lawmakers are allowed to submit personal bills, while in even-numbered years, bills in such sessions have to have direct fiscal impact.

Rep. Fred Camillo, R-Greenwich, wants to reintroduce a bill that McKinney submitted annually and was ignored by Democrats, which would create a state office of inspector general to handle whistleblower complaints.

“This may take a few tries, but could be really beneficial to the state down the road,” Camillo said Friday. He also plans to resubmit a bill on tree liabilities that was changed on the last day of the 2014 legislative session, then vetoed a few weeks later by Malloy. The bill would provide protections for neighbors who warn tree owners of diseased or dangerous trees.

Boating, e-cigs and drones

Both Frantz and Camillo are expected to sponsor a boating education bill. They say they are not sure how it may be written, but something needs to be done to prevent another fatality.

“We know accidents happen, but when there is a tragedy like this, it’s incumbent on us to look to make it better,” Camillo said. “We don’t want to put an undue burden on people who are good boaters; we don’t want to make it harder. We want to establish a safer environment for people to enjoy themselves out on the water.”

Godfrey, who won his 14th term and is heading into his 27th year in the House, said Friday he’s looking to help his district and city, particularly with school-construction funding.

A longtime member of the Judiciary Committee, Godfrey said while the General Assembly last year banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, many questions have since emerged about their chemicals and vapors.

“It’s essentially an unregulated product,” Godfrey said. “And there’s not a lot of research and science about it.”

The issue of airborne drones and privacy is also going to be up for discussion this year.

Tong, who is replacing state Rep. Gerry Fox III — the new probate judge for Stamford — as House chairman of the joint Judiciary Committee, said Friday several committee members have voiced concerns about drones.

Tong expects to revisit a bill that died in the Senate last year that Malloy administration officials wanted in place to address the U.S. Supreme Court directive on making sure juveniles don’t serve overly harsh prison terms such as life in prison without parole.

Tong also wants to bring up an issue from his former position as Banks Committee chairman in an attempt to update Connecticut corporate law. Tong said in response to a Hearst Connecticut Media report on a program to take away guns from potentially dangerous people without charging them with crimes, he wants to look at the differences between voluntary and involuntary commitment for mental health screening. Those who voluntarily submit to screening do not have to surrender firearms under state seizure laws.

Tong also wants to consider laws to make it safer for people in domestic abuse cases to have the guns of their abusive spouse or partner taken away, at least temporarily.

Klarides, a longtime Judiciary Committee member prior to her election as House minority leader, said she’s concerned about the state’s early release of inmates.

“I don’t understand how a system works when someone who is in jail fails multiple drug tests, wins an early release, then goes out and kills a 1-year-old,” she said.

Klarides also plans to challenge a tactic in which state Democrats, led by the Malloy campaign, took money from a federal elections account and used it for his re-election campaign, although state rules bar the use of contractor contributions, which are allowed in the federal account.

“That was a slap in the face of the public trust and our so-called clean elections law,” Klarides said.

She also did not like the outside funding that went into a shoreline state Senate campaign won by Ted Kennedy Jr.

Hennessy, who in recent years has submitted bills that would ban Bridgeport city employees from sitting on the City Council, noted that two obstacles to such legislation — Sen. Anthony Musto, D-Trumbull, and Sen. Andres Ayala, D-Bridgeport — will not be back in the Senate.

“Hopefully, it gets passed this year,” Hennessy said.

Musto lost a primary and Ayala was recently named commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Hennessy, co-chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said a recent report indicates the condition of the home in Rocky Hill is troubling and the state will have to contribute more resources to the facility.