Ken Dixon's Blog-O-Rama

Monday night November 24, 2008

It’s almost 9 o’clock and the average lawmaker has been here for 11 hours. Finally, at 6:30 the House and Senate began debate on the two bills that will help the state address the $300-million hole in the current budget.
Speaker of the House Jim Amann, D-Milford, was sitting back in the chair atop the House podium, as House Minority Leader Larry Cafero, the best orator in the chamber, painted a grim picture of multi-billion-dollar deficits in next year’s budget.
Amann was grinning as he scribbled large letters on a legal pad, before lifting it to show the right side of the House, where the heart of the Democratic caucus sat. “10 in 2010″ the note to the caucus said. That was Amann’s prediction that the current 44-member GOP caucus, cut to 37 in the recent election, would be reduced to in the next General Assembly election.
Speaking of 37, the Blogster notes that the way the House seating areas are divided, there are exactly 36 seats on the far left side of the chamber where Republicans currently have most of their membership. So in the session that starts January 7, one Republican will have to sit across the aisle in Democratic territory.
Who shall it be? The Blogster says veteran Rep. T.R. Rowe, R-Trumbull, should go across the aisle to win new friends and influence people.

Monday November 24, 2008

Too bad they didn’t schedule the special session of the General Assembly for Wednesday instead of today. Then the lame-duck session could be the lame-turkey confab of the House and Senate.
Speaking of turkeys, the unredeemed nickel deposits called escheats by wonks like the Blogster, will not be part of the deficit-mitigation plan. Sure, Jodi Rell just tossed it out there as a way to get another $25 million (or $10 million if you listen to the soda and beer distributors)but sooner or later, the state’s gonna retrieve that money.
“It’s unclaimed property and we should take it for the people,” Senate Minority Leader John McKinney just told a couple of reporters. “Every governor from Lowell Weicker has proposed it.” McKinney said that 30 years ago, the deposit law was passed as a recycling-and-litter strategy and that no one anticipated the possibility of people paying the deposit at the purchase point, then failing to redeem the empties.
“It should be a slam dunk,” said McKinney, noting that the state’s landmark campaign-finance reforms should have prevented lobbyist influence and yet clearly the beverage industry is winning this one, today.

Friday November 21, 2008

Attorney General Dick Blumenthal’s announcement to sue the owner of the Hamden Plains Cemetery for improper financial gain and failure to properly mark graves, has inspired Connecticut Blog-o-rama to come up with a potentially lucrative brainstorm.
Unfortunately, those most likely to reap the rewards are undertakers who want to be called funeral directors in honor of the exorbitant costs they charge bereaved families.
Anyway, the cemetery allegedly misplaced the deceased, mismarking graves and the like. While there’s no proof that the dead are disturbed by this, the folks they have left behind are justificably upset.
Here’s the Blogster’s simple solution: GPS transmitters attached to the coffins. As Elvis would say: “Thank you….thank you very much…”

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Gov. Jodi Rell wants the state-employee unions to sign off, which is a big IF, but she wants to take $14.5 million from their pension fund and use it to offset some of the burgeoning Connecticut budget deficit.
Dan Livingston, the chief negotiator for the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), said this morning that they’ll listen to her pitch, but the pension and retiree healthcare plans are underfunded.
“Our bigger concern is that the state government must recognize wha tthe incoming Obama administration already recognizes,” Livingston said. “The current problems must be understood not as budget problem for the state, but as a jobs, services, and quality of life problem for Connecticut’s people.”
In an interview, Livingston offered the union position on any possible layoffs down the line, when majority Democrats realize a $6 billion deficit is gonna take alot more than a tax amnesty plan ($40 million) to pay off.
The SEBAC coalition represents about 45,000 state employees.
“We’re willing to sit down and talk about how to make progress on the big issue,” Livingston said. “The budget problems are a symptom, not a cause. We’re willing to be part of a solution to the economic crisis,but to be part of that solution you have to realize during a downturn in the economy, people have more need for public services.”

Wednesday November 19, 2008

The Blogster, at this point, thinks Rep. Chris Caruso, D-Bridgeport, has an even chance in keeping the co-chairmanship of the joint Government Administration & Elections Committee. But he just finished testifying in a public hearing before the State Elections Enforcement Commission on how the new public financing worked in this month’s elections.
He just suggested that leadership PACs, which were not affected in the state’s landmark campaign finance-reform egislation, should be regulated, especially in cases where they created uneven playing fields in competitive House and Senate races.
“We need to wean that off the system and close them down,” said Caruso, who last week had a closed-door meeting with Speaker-to-Be Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, about his future in the majority caucus.”If not, we should provide additional funding for the challenging candidate.”
I guess Caruso’s future could be determined on how Donovan sees his PAC and reacts to Caruso’s not-so-veiled threat.

Tuesday Nov. 17, 2008

Now that gays have the right to be unhappily married like nearly half of Connecticut’s heterosexual couples, the regional advocacy organization called GLAD this morning announced a new “6 x 12″ campaign to push for same-sex marriage in all six New England States by 2012.
Today’s the fifth anniversary that the Massachusetts Supreme Court issued its marriage-equality decision.
“We can make New England a marriage equality zone by strategically combining existing legal, electoral, and on-the-ground know-how to fast-track marriage in every New England state,” said Lee Swislow, executive director of the Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. “By 2012 we not only can have marriage equality throughout New England, we can have a road map for the rest of the country.”
That map may attract California gays back to the Right Coast, after the success of Prop 8.
GLAD wants to pursue more court cases and foster grasssroots pressure on state legislatures.
“The route to marriage equality looks different in each state-not everystate is ripe for a marriage lawsuit like Massachusetts and Connecticut,” said Swislow.

Friday November 13, 2008

Jodi Rell’s too busy worrying about the state’s economic meltdown, but her felonious predecessor John “Why Should I Resign If I’ve Done Nothing Wrong” Rowland, is down in Miami at the Republican Governors Association meeting.
How bizarre is that?
Well, Johnny Gee, who served 10 months in federal prison after that corruption plea bargain, always liked to schmooze.
The Boston Globe reports that while Rell joined two other New England governor’s in missing the confab, Rowland “cut a prominent figure around the conference.” After the recent trouble on November 4, hanging out with crooks probably isn’t the best way to rebuild the Republican party, but what does the Blogster know?

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/11/im_miami_new_en.html

Thursday Nov. 14, 2008

What could be a better destination than Miami in November?
Apparently Connecticut, where Gov. M. Jodi Rell is staying this week rather than hanging with her GOP homeboys at the Republican Governors Association meeting down there in the sun and amid the palm trees.
Donna Tommelleo, Rell’s Capitol spokeswoman, just told the Blogster that it’s no time for the governor to lose focus on the state’s potential financial nightmare.
“The Governor could not justify the time nor the expense of attending the convention and feels her time is better spent here addressing to the pressing economic needs of Connecticut,” Tommelleo said in an e-mail response.
The Blogtser thinks that Rell is staying home to avoid an angry confrontation with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who so obviously dragged down the GOP presidential ticket during the recent troubles of November 4.