Sharkey tells Fasano to mind his own chamber

HARTFORD – Len Fasano, Senate GOP leader, blamed Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey for keeping lawmakers overnight, until he gathered enough support to pass the budget 73-70 at 10:30 a.m. It then left the Senate only a few hours to review it and even fewer hours to complain about it on the Senate floor before Senate President Marty Looney nearly went nuclear, almost calling the question before Looney wound up the debate around 11:30. After the General Assembly slid into special session to finish budget bills early Thursday, Sharkey, D-Hamden, was informed of the criticism from Fasano, R-North Haven. “I think there was high drama going on in the Senate,” Sharkey said. “I think frankly both Sen. Looney and Sen. Fasano and Sen. (Bob) Duff (majority leader) did a great job of avoiding a scenario that would have potentially done serious damage to the relations in that chamber. I think avoiding that confrontation of calling the question was really a testament to their statesman. And I think that was the right thing to do.”brendan

A reporter informed Sharkey (left, photo by Dixon) that Fasano said that House members were kept in the chamber overnight while arms were twisted. “Well,” Sharkey said, “Sen Fasano is a very good friend of mine. We’ve known each other for many years. He doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about and I’d appreciate it if he’d keep his remarks to the Senate and not to the activities of the House.”

 

AP Photos from Jessica Hill

Top left: Rep. William Tong, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, (left) speaks with House leaders including Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, (right). Top middle: First-term Reps Pam Staneski, (left) R-Milford and Laura Devlin, R-Fairfield, enjoy their sleep-deprived closing night activities in the House. Top right: Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey, (right) and Aresimowicz confer at the speaker’s podium. Lower right: Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney almost used a rare parliamentary move to head off a filibuster by conservative Republicans, before GOP leaders relented. Lower middle: Pledge of Allegiance in the House. Lower left: First-year Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, of Fairfield, was one of 11 Democrats who voted against the compromise Democratic budget.

 

 

HARTFORD — A quick tour through the budget contains some good news for non-profits of local interest.

The historic Governor’s Horse Guard units in Newtown and Avon will remain independent and receive $45,000 in state support in each year of the biennium, under the budget approved Wednesday night.

The budget also includes:

*annual contributions of $315,930 and $324,699 to the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport.

*$327,136 and $336,217 to Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport.

*$78,982 and $81,174 to the Culutral Alliance of Fairfield.

*$25,000 a year to the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport.

 

 

 

HARTFORD — Just before midnight rolled into Thursday morning, the House and Senate voted to go into special session to deal with trailer legislation to enact the budget on July 1. No date has been set but it will occur later this month, according to leaders who are checking lawmaker schedules. On the agenda will also be a couple of major issues that could not be completed before the end of the session. One is Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s Second Chance Society legislation which includes lowering all drug-possession charges to misdemeanors. Rolled into that legislation would be another bill that died that would pay for body cameras for local police departments.

 

 

 

 

HARTFORD — The House of Representatives pulled an all-nighter of Democratic soul searching and scrambling for support, before leadership finally gained enough commitments around dawn Wednesday to approve a two-year, $40.3 billion budget.

After seven failed Republican amendments and five hours of debate, the spending package squeaked by 73-70 with 11 Democrats voting against the final bill at 10:30 a.m., before the bleary-eyed House members recessed until mid afternoon

At 5:30 p.m., after voting on several bills supported by House Democrats, the Senate began the debate to finalize the budget before the 12:01 a.m. Thursday legislative adjournment deadline and send it to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s desk.

It was unclear whether lawmakers would have time to vote on separate aspects of the bill that would trigger particular sections of the spending package, or whether they would have to declare a special legislative session to perform the necessary review, debate and vote.

The budget includes a 50 cent increase in the per-pack cigarette tax over the two-year budget that starts July 1, and it adds taxes on corporations and Connecticut’s wealthiest earners.

The proposed budget that starts July 1 is $19.8 billion, and the second year is $20.5 billion.

Republicans warned that Democrats would raise taxes by another billion and a half dollars just four years after the record tax hikes of the governor’s first year in office.

“This budget is an attack on the middle class,” said Rep. Jason Perillo, R-Shelton. “A failure to listen is a failure to lead.”

“What we forget is, if you’re wealthy enough to pay more taxes, you’re wealthy enough to live somewhere else,” said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, of Derby. “What we’re doing is not working.”

Rep. John Frey, R-Ridgefield, whose conversation with a General Electric executive last weekend resulted in a snowball of corporate criticism against the budget proposal and nearly scuttled the legislation this week, warned of the potential backlash.

“What we do today here on this amendment in particular, I think, can have cataclysmic damage to the state of Connecticut,” he said of the Democratic proposal that ultimately prevailed in the House.

Corporate tax at issue

Amid opposition from major corporations including GE, The Travelers Companies and Aetna, Democratic leaders and Malloy’s staff tweaked their plans only slightly on Monday and Tuesday. But they did not back away from a planned increase in taxes on corporations with headquarters in Connecticut that would raise about $62 million over the two-year budget cycle.

They revised a planned increase of sales and use taxes on computer and data processing. Instead of increasing it immediately to 3 percent, it would be phased in from the current 1 percent to 2 percent on Oct. 1 and to 3 percent on July 1, 2016. By 7:45 a.m., Wednesday, the first House Republican attempt to change the package failed 82-60 with nine members missing. It would have restored some funding for state hospitals and eliminated a new 6 percent tax on ambulatory surgical centers.

“We’ve got them in a corner,” said Rep. Dan Carter, R-Bethel, in defense of state hospitals. “They’re not able to hire that extra nurse practitioner. They’re not able to hire that extra physician’s assistant. At Western Connecticut Health Systems, we’re going to lose jobs. We’ve got to stop hammering them.”

Most Democrats were quiet during the debate, as Republican amendments were proposed, supported by GOP lawmakers, then voted down handily in the chamber, which is controlled by the majority, 87-64.

At the end, House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz of Berlin chastised critics and the business community.

“Is it all roses and rainbows and everybody is happy about it? No, we’re not,” Aresimowicz said, stressing the budget restores funding to people who need social services and depend on programs of the Department of Developmental Services that were cut under Malloy’s original budget proposal in February. “I’m going to feel a little bit bad when I press that button, but when I go out into the hall and see the faces of the people we’re helping in this state, I know that it’s worth it and that’s what we stand for. That’s what we continue to stand for, and when I go back to my district, I’ll be proud to say it.”

Aresimowicz said that while he is sympathetic to the complaints of companies including Fairfield-based GE, big corporations need to help support government.

“They pay zero taxes,” he charged, seconds before the final House vote. “Zero state and federal taxes. We go after GE for one moment and it’s `Oh, they’re going to leave the state of Connecticut.’ ”

The threat of departure

First-term Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, who lives 2 miles from GE’s sprawling headquarters, said she voted against the legislation because she wants Connecticut companies to remain and help the state’s economic growth.

“GE doesn’t tend to be an alarmist type of company, so I want to listen,” McCarthy Vahey said in an interview on the House floor. “I also recognize for us in Fairfield County that GE has been the source of a lot of jobs. Those folks who work there pay a lot of taxes into our economy.”

Democratic leadership did not pressure her to support the budget, she said.

The budget would cut $600 million from existing services in the first year and $860 million in the second, with a two-year average spending increase of 3.5 percent.

One percent of the revenue generated by the state’s 6.35 percent sales tax would be split between transportation infrastructure investments and municipal aid. Cities and towns would have the option to cap the mill rate on local car taxes at 32 mills in the first year and the state would make up the difference.

At 8 p.m., two hours into the Senate debate, lawmakers were focused on the first GOP amendment that would more clearly define the 1992 constitutional cap on spending, which was redefined twice since Malloy took office, with billions of dollars in spending removed from the bottom line.

“We must balance the budget within our means and live within our spending cap,” said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven.

“This budget is over the constitutional spending cap,” charged Sen. Rob Kane, R-Watertown, whose district includes Oxford and part of Seymour.

kdixon@ctpost.com; 860-549-4670; twitter.com/KenDixonCT; facebook.com/kendixonct.hearst; blog.ctnews.com/dixon