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Gary L. Rose, chairman of the Department of Government & Politics at Sacred Heart University, has informed the Blogster that a “Candidates Day,” will be held in the University Commons on Tuesday, April 13, from 1 until 3.
The meet-and-greet event will include hopefuls for governor, U.S. Senate and others.
We all know the speed limits are the most widely ignored laws. You see it everyday, from interstates to suburban back roads. The Blogster asks readers today what’s the second ? Is it the rule that you have to have your car lights on if it’s raining enough to use your wipers? Or is it the stop-for-pedestrians-in-a-crosswalk law? Or do you have other statutory peeves and their relation to your fellow Connecticut residents?
The Blogster doesn’t write very often about U.S. Rep. John Larson, the Democrat from the First District, but his schedule tomorrow is pretty funny. From 7 until 8 a.m., Larson will talk about health care reform with Brad Davis, the ultra-conservative/unrepentent John Rowland apologist on WDRC radio, 1360 AM.
From there, Larson will journey to Torrington Middle School to discuss Internet safety with sixth graders..
It’s kind of a regular thing now that when it rains hard in Hartford, the water sneaks under the panes in the east and west atriums. Hence the row of garbage cans collecting drips near the statue of Nathan Hale, the state hero. Now, high above the statue, in the fifth floor, drips are coming through the dropped ceiling of the beautiful pig sty called the Capitol Press Room. Work was held up on fixing the atriums (atria?) when the Office of Legislative Management ran out of money. It was an entirely different project to pour the “Genius of Connecticut” statue, which if it rains any harder, might need an umbrella. So readers of Blog-o-rama should not think that the atriums were not sealed because of the new statue.
So at 5 p.m. Friday Senate President Don Williams and Speaker of the House Chris Donovan stood side by each and promised to ram through a deficit-mitigation plan to erase the half-billion-dollar shortfall in the budget that runs through June 30. Over the next 12 hours, culmimating in a 5:19 a.m. Senate vote, the deal with the House unraveled under threat of a Gov. Rell veto. How much fun do you think the governor, in Denver visiting her grandkids, no less, and her chief of staff, Lisa Moody, had? The Blogster believes plenty indeed.
Here’s Williams’ current news release on the state of reduced budget expectations. Williams could round up only 21 of his 24 votes, proving that the Senate Democratic caucus was the weaker link in this ploy.
So today, Williams “is urging” the House to schedule a debate on the Senate bill. “The mitigation plan contains nearly $185 million in spending cuts and fund reductions. It also increases the state receipt of federal funds through a hospital fee (similar to Gov. Rell’s proposal), and delays the cut in the estate tax for multi-million dollar estates,” Williams said. “Not only does the plan balance the current year’s deficit, it also reduces the deficit in the next fiscal year by more than $70 million. It is time for the House to pass this bill. I am also calling for a bipartisan budget meeting with all leaders as soon as the governor returns to Connecticut.”
They’ve been in caucus since before 10. There’s a looming 5 p.m. deadline to act. So there will be a trail of tears throughout the afternoon as debate eats up minutes and hours and bills die on the vine. There are a whopping 75 items on the agenda. Any one of them could result in a multi-hour debate, so Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, and Rep. Mike Lawlor, D-East Haven, had better pick their spots for what they’ll bring up for debate. The GOP proposal for the alleged “stream-lining” of the death penalty? The extended statute of limitations on sex offenses? Enhanced penalties for drunken boating? One thing that’s not on the agenda; the reprise of medical marijuana.
Fresh from the defeat of his “10th Amendment” resolution in the Government Administration & Elections Committee, Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, reached into his stack of amendments and came up with a sensible proposal that would force winners of primaries for state Senate, House and higher offices to subtract the value of things like lawn signs and money in the bank, from their General Election grants through the Citizens Election Program. Ah, but like so many things that make sense, if it comes from a Republican, blah, blah, blah.
”They essentially have a clear advantage in the General Election, with assets carried from the primary,” McLachlan said, adding that his proposal would “equalize the playing field.”
Rep. James Spallone, the committee co-chairman, called it “a major policy decision” and would be related to the fixes the committee did last week to the 2006 campaign reforms. So McLachlan’s brain storm died in a partisan voice vote.
It’s a little early in this do-nothing legislative session to have dead-of-the-night debates, but Senate majority Democrats will caucus tonight at 6, making sure public discussion of the deficit-mitigation plan is debated under the transparency of a late-Friday-night veil of disinterest.
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