A bill that would have required public transparency for the UConn Foundation that died earlier in the legislative session was just revived in the Government Administration & Elections Committee. Sen. Mike McLachlan, R-Danbury, ranking member of the committee, brought it up with Rep. Richard Smith, R-New Milford, the other ranking member. It’s a good day for it, since the Foundation, which is exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act, came up during Gov. Malloy’s news conference this afternoon on his order to ban state employee travel to Indiana, after its anti-LGBT legislation was signed last week. McLachlan said he’s okay if a transparency bill includes exemptions for donors to check off a box for anonymity. “There have been a number of questions about the University of Connecticut Foundation,” he said. He said that complaints that contributions want to remain anonymous rings hollow for him. “Don’t put their names on the side of a building or a bronze plaque in front of a building, or on a list with hundreds of other donors and tell me it’s anonymous,” McLachlan said, calling the death of the bill at the hands of committee leaders a big disappointment.
Rep. Ed Jutila, D-East Lyme, co-chairman of the committee, praised McLachlan’s work, then talked it down, saying it was a surprise. The proposal went down in flames in a voice vote.