Ken Dixon's Blog-O-Rama

The Blogster admits that he’s come to this era of constant communications reluctantly. He recently accepted the CrackBerry from his boss knowing that it meant checking for blathering news releases from the governor at 11 o’clock Sunday nights, first thing Saturday morning, etc. Ah, but he’s being sucked into its allure. But he refuses to get into the little tricks of test communications, refusing the LOLs and the little winking eyes and such. He likes to spell out entire words, too.

 This literalist attitude was apparently in preparation to take aim at those temporary digital highway signs along I-95 You know: the ones: informing people of road-paving work during the overnight, resulting in lane closures. The signs are in Old Saybrook, Branford and in Milford for work on the Moses Wheeler.So why is the DOT signage warning of “Nite” work? Hello! It’s spelled N-I-G-H-T. This is just the message we need to send the thousands of motorists traveling I-95: Connecticut doesn’t know how to spell night. Maybe it’s a victim of the budget stalemate. DOT has had to cut their words by 20 percent. Barfola.

The Blogster finally found a reason, but only one, to love the partisan budget stalemate: the continuance of the tax-free week, which nearly every lawmaker seems to want to get rid of in the new spending package. It runs from August 16 – the anniversary of the 2003 state-budget deal – through August 22, the anniversary of the 1991 income tax legislation.

 The sales-tax-free program includes clothing and footwear costing less than $300.

The Blogster thought he was finally safe from Gov. Jodi Rell’s relentless self promotion (who says she’s not running for re-election?) when the flow of vetoes and bill signings ended last month. But he was obviously too distracted by the lack of progress in the budget stalemate, to remember the governor’s prerogative to stage “ceremonial” bill signing before friendly audiences when and where she picks the spots, long after the actual event occurred in the privacy of her Capitol office.

 Hence the mortgage-foreclosure “signing” in Bridgeport on Wednesday.

Whatever, reporters call them mock bill signings, like mock turtle soup and mock turtle necks. This afternoon she’s in the Collinsville section of Canton.

 Here’s the release from Rell’s crack press staff: ”In this ceremony, the Governor will sign landmark legislation that reforms the state’s 300-year probate court system, allowing the courts to become self-sustaining and more efficient through consolidation and centralized accounting and new professional standards requiring judges to be experienced attorneys. The Governor led a bipartisan effort to reform the near-bankrupt system, largely funded by fees courts collect and approximately $2.5 million in state aid each year. Connecticut probate courts were facing a potential deficit of at least $5 million in 2011, when most of the new reforms take effect and at the end of existing elected judges’ four-year terms.  Probate courts have broad jurisdictions over a number of family matters. In addition to helping survivors settle estates, they decide parental rights and guardianship for the mentally ill or developmentally disabled.”

Fine and dandy, but it’s small towns like Canton that stand to lose the most in the upcoming Probate Court reshuffling and consolidations. In a sense, Rell’s journeying to the belly of the local-political-patronage beast.

The nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis is in full fabrication mode today, cranking out documents for GOP lawmakers to propose their own budget, to compete with Democrats and their own leader, Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell. This will presumably be unveiled for public consumption either Thursday or Friday. How is that going to make Rell feel, knowing that even those members of the legislative minority (37-114 in the House, 12-24 in the Senate) do not support her budget, which would raise $391 million in new taxes? Meanwhile, the state is on a path to surpass (surpath? behold a new word) the pitched battles of 1991 (budget settled on August 21/22) and 2003 (August 16).

A trio of Senate operatives, one with a digital video camera, worked downtown Hartford and Bushnell Park for about 90 minutes this afternoon, asking random people if they’d support higher taxes for millionaires to pay for social services that would be cut under Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposed budget. The operatives said all but one of the 15 or so interviewed said higher taxes for the wealthy are needed. None of those interviewed admitted they were actually making $300,000, $400,000 or $500,000, said one operative after being spied interviewing a young lady who was sprawled out on a blanket in the park shade.

Meanwhile, after a 90-minute session today in the important bipartisan budget talks at the Governor’s Residence, the only agreement among legislative leaders was to get together again next Monday. Monday? Hello! Today’s Tuesday! That’s the relative sense of urgency for you. Anniversaries to remember: August 21, 1991, the Connecticut personal income tax is adopted; August 16, 2003, John “Why Should I Resign If I’ve Done Nothing Wrong?” Rowland signs the contentious budget, presumably in the hot tub of his Bantam Lake getaway cottage.

The Blogster loves the Quinnipiac University Poll, don’t get us wrong. It’s the only statewide poll that routinely asks 1,000 to 1,500 people - a nice, large sample - how they think about various issues. The regular updates on the popularity of Jodi Rell and the unpopularity of Chris Dodd are very enlightening. The annual poll on Yankee/Red Sox support is a feature writer’s dream. Voters’ feelings on marijuana legalization/decriminalization may drive public policy in Connecticut.

But today the Blogster is puzzled. Why would anyone care about what people in 2009 have to say about the use of atomic bombs over Japan in 1945? Here’s the Q Poll news release for an event happening tomorrow:

QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY RELEASES RESULTS OF NATIONAL POLL ON BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI

Results of a poll of American attitudes about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, will be sent to the media, TUESDAY, NOON.
            The survey is based on responses from more than 2,000 American voters, a sample size large enough for more valid information on sub-groups.  In the coming months, Quinnipiac University will endeavor to build on its reputation for these larger sample sizes, with information on the diverse groups which make up the American electorate.
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, will be available BY PHONE to discuss the results.