Ken Dixon's Blog-O-Rama

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

It’s 8:45 p.m. and as the Connecticut House prattles on about a National Popular Vote (as if it might get taken up in the Senate) House Press Guy Doug Whiting of Fairfield just dropped off a one-page news release, the fruit of afternoon-long discussions among Democratic leaders, to reporters in the Capitol Press Room.
The release says that the House “as early as tomorrow” will ratify the SEBAC union givebacks and that the House and Senate majority are finally planning on a bill to address the more than billion-dollar deficit in the budget that runs through June 30.
The Blogster notes that it’s less than 10 weeks until the end of the fiscal year and he’s relieved that the Democrats have finally noticed the calendar.
Taxpayers, however, might wonder why they waited so long.

Tuesday May 12, 2009

Yes, it’s hard to believe that there are still about 950 bills out there in legislative land; the June 3 midnight deadline is fast approaching and there is virtually no chance that a bipartisan budget will be voted by then.
Maybe about 200 bills have had joint votes in the House and Senate, but two thirds of them were nominations that have nothing to do with changes in state law that average about 300 bills a year.
So it seems that a calculus has been made in Democratic leadership, with the tacit, paralel approval of Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, to let this political vaudeville play itself out, then maybe, maybe, cut a budget deal before the start of the fiscal year July 1. The Blogster sees more of a 2003-like end game, though, with the fiscal year starting without a deal, which finally gets hammered out in August or so.
Rell seems stalled on offering further budget cuts, while Democrats don’t want to go out on a limb and raise taxes without the governor and Republicans coming along for the bumpy political ride toward a new 7-percent sales tax or higher income taxes in a recession.
This brings us to the 1 p.m. meeting Rell will have today in her Capitol office with editorial-page editors from throughout the state. She’ll be in serious spin mode and the Blogster imagines the governor’s message will center on the “foot-dragging Democrats” and the approaching June 3 deadline.
In reality, this budget year has been a moving target, with negative momentum from sharply declining revenues, ever since Rell submitted her two-year $38.4-billion budget on February 3. That budget, we see now, was balanced at the time, but is now $2 billion in the red.

Monday May 11, 2009

It’s 4:15 and the Appropriations Committee is closer to approving the so-called Paid Sick Days legislation pushed by employee unions.
It’s on track for a governor’s veto if, unlike last year, it gets approved in both chambers of the Legislature.
Sen. Ed Gomes, D-Bridgeport, a former union negotiator, reminded the committee that to rent a two bedroom apartment in Bridgeport, someone needs to make $21 an hour. He took umbrage at some criticism indicating that the paid sick leave could be misused by workers to get longer weekends or take a day off to nurse a hangover.
“We’re not pushing this bill in order to take care of people who are slackers and don’t come to work,” Gomes said. “It makes it sound like the company has a lot of goofoffs who take Mondays and Fridays off. What we’re talking about is people who can’t take a day off from work to go to a doctor.”
He reminded committee members of the restaurant workers who come into work while sick.
“This bill here was made to take care of people who are not making much money and companies that have restrictions on people who say if you take a day off or three days off, you won’t have a job anymore,” Gomes said. “You have to come to work sick or you’ll get fired.”
Gomes recalled a conversation Monday with a CBIA lobbyist who indicated that the pro-business association offers its employees paid leave.
“Everytime we have a bill that’s supposed to help employees, we hear about the loss of jobs,” Gomes said. “Eight-dollar-an-hour jobs do not put companies out of this state.”
The bill would allow hourly employees to accumulate up to six-and-a-half days a year that could be carried over if the time is not used in the year.
Sen.Dan Debicella, R-Shelton, said that South Carolina officials have been trying to lure away companies from southwestern Connecticut. One businessman told Debicella that he’ll stay in Connecticut for now, but higher costs are making the south more tempting.
“Make no mistake, these people are seriously courting our businesses,” Debicella said, warning that the legislation could hurt working-class families in the state.

Friday May 8, 2009

If you can you think of a less-likely person than Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch to provide words of wisdom for ag-school graduates, please let the Blogster know.
Finch is scheduled to deliver a commencement address tomorrow at the
University of Connecticut’s School of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
What’s he gonna tell the budding aggies? “Don’t come to Bridgeport if you want to farm?” Or maybe he’ll lean into the city’s shortcomings and suggest that they take up hydroponic gardening on some of the city’s contaminated brownfields.
Finch is a 1979 graduate of UConn, so there’s a connection for the occasion. The mayor said he was selected because of his, “extensive service and dedication to public service,” according to a letter inviting him to make the scene in Storrs on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Gampel Pavilion, no less.
Readers should recall a few years back, when Finch was in the state Senate and one of his sons was still a UConn undergraduate, that the duo got into a barroom altercation following a basketball game at Gampel. Both Finches received acceleated rehabilitation for the incident, which involved a bouncer,

Thursday May 7, 2009

The Senate yesterday referred the legislation that would make possession of less than a half ounce of marijuana an infraction punishable by a $250 fine, to the Finance Committee. Since the bill is projected to save millions od dollars in the criminal justice system and make the state a few hundred thousand dollars in revenue annually, it’s likely to be approved there and regain a spot on the Senate calendar.
Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, the chief proponent of the bill, just told the Blogster that despite Sen. Toni Boucher’s planned multi-hour filibuster if it gets to the Senate floor, there’s support for the legislation, which was modeled in part by last year’s overwhelming statewide referendum in Massachusetts.
“The bill, for people who are not blinded by ideology, is a reasonable way to proceed with common-sense reform,” Looney just said in a late-afternoon interview. He said that opponents are wrong to say it’s a way to tacidly accept marijuana use.
“People are blurring the distinction between legalization and decriminalization,” Looney said. “Some alarmists say it’s a gateway to heroin and cocaine, but after 24 years as a criminal-defense lawyer, I can tell you that heroin and cocaine addicts are more likely to start from abusing alcohol and prescription drugs.”

,

Thursday May 7, 2009

Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, co-chairwoman of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, this morning asked Gov. Jodi Rell to rescind her decision to hire eight new employees for the next three years as part of the federal-stimulus program for weatherization projects.
The employees would be working for the duration of the program.
Durational project managers are kind of a punchline to long-running joke in the Capitol and are generally a way for administrators to get around the kind of hiring freezes that Rell ordered about a year ago.
“In its current state, the plan calls for the hiring of eight durational staff members including: four field staff, two fiscal staff, one project manager and one auditor,” Slossberg wrote to the governor.”While I share your concern for accountability in this project, and understand that our current weatherization program does not operate at anywhere near the ARRA funding level, I feel that this funding would be better spent on the program rather than personnel.”
Connecticut is poised to gain $65 million for home weatherization through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Slossberg noted that the the Commission on Enhancing Agency Outcomes, of which she is co-chairwoman, is currently rooting out agency inefficiencies.
“DSS has two deputy commissioners, three regional administrators, a director of administration, several program managers and an entire fiscal department that includes an accounting department just for federal funds,” she said. “This agency does not need any more administration, even if it is only durational.”
In response, David Dearborn, spokesman for the DSS, said Thursday afternoon that Slossberg “may not be fully aware” of accountability equirements for stimulus funding.
“In fact, the federal government is requiring strict accountability in this huge program — which is
why it’s allowing all states to use a portion of the stimulus dollars for administrative oversight,” Dearborn said.
“What’s more, the feds have said that the Office of Inspector General is going to closely monitor weatherization as one of the very first stimulus programs it will oversee. States are on notice that unaccounted-for dollars will have to be paid back,which is another reason for extensive monitoring and oversight at this level.
“Critical to note — no state dollars will be used for the durational oversight staff. They will be funded through stimulus dollars made available by the feds for this purpose. So, to criticize the level of fiscal accountability in this way is missing the point about what’s involved with this $65 million stimulus project. And the notion that DSS should simply try to add this huge weatherization program and its strict accountability and reporting requirements to the workload of existing staff for the next three years is not really feasible. Again, this is probably why the federal government itself recognizes that states should use some stimulus dollars for administrative oversight.”

Sen. Slossberg replies at 3:40: “We have an agency that has more than 2,000 employees who handle billions of federal dollars. It’s hard to believe that they can’t handle an additional $60 million without hiring eight new people. Accountability is extremely important but it’s disappointing that the first reaction is just to grow government. I have no doubt that DSS is trying to be responsible, but we have an obligation in this economic climate to hold the line on spending. If we receive federal dollars that should go to people for weatherization, that’s where it should go, not the state payroll.”

Wednesday May 6, 2009

Rep. Diana Urban persuaded a few of her Democratic House colleagues to demonstrate against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus tonight in Hartford, over allegation of animal abuse within the pachyderm contingent of the famous traveling show.
But it’s 6:45 now and the House is still prattling on, so they’re not going to be able to walk to the XL Center to join animal-rights protesters.
Urban, D=North Stonington, was going to be joined by several veteran lawmakers, plus first-year Rep. Auden Grogins, D-Bridgeport.
“We need to look at what we’re teaching our children, and what messages we’re sending them,” Urban said. “They should be messages of compassion and respect, not violence.”
In recent years, there has been a lack of will among lawmakers to approve legislation that would ban the use of sharp prods called bullhooks. Ringling Bros. is scheduled to perform in Bridgeport in October.
“This bill is not anti-circus, and would not stop the circus, just the animal abuse,” Grogins said in a statement issued in anticipation that the lawmakers would get downtown.

Wednesday May 6, 2009

Sure, the Web is wide open and free, but the Blogster is reticent to use some of the street language that Frederick Douglass Knowles, a poet and activist whose emotional word portrait of his brother rocked the estimated 450 people who gathered on the Capitol’s north steps this morning.
Knowles, who took off his coat to show off his faded “We All Have AIDS” T-shirt, didn’t use any notes as he recited a poem about his brother, hospitalized and near death, toothless from extractions, yet strong in his will to live.
“My brother’s bright smile never discloses the pain,” Knowles began his five-minute performance. “My brother’s bright smile never discloses the pain,” he repeated, ending his poem.
Shawn Lang, the Capitol lobbyist for the Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition, recalled for the crowd a trip she made the South Africa, where she learned a great phrase for the need for community action.
“I am, because you are,” an African man told her and she has taken it back home.
.