Political Capitol

Spoke briefly this evening with House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, who said he hopes the legislature’s Democratic majority will have a revised two-year budget proposal to vote on before the start of the new fiscal year July 1.

“We want to have one certainly before the fiscal year’s over. That’s the plan,” Donovan said.

Without divulging details, Donovan said “we’ll have a new tax package. The one (proposed in April) was a trial balloon.”

And also, judging by the fact the Democrats did not try to force a vote on their original proposal and send it along to the Governor to sign or veto, a lead balloon as well.

I asked Donovan if that meant jettisoning the controversial centerpiece of the last tax package – an income tax hike on households earning $250,000 or more. That proposal turned off several Democrats in lower Fairfield County and other places populated by high earning voters. And Republicans, including Gov. M. Jodi Rell, have also, predictably, said they do not support tax increases (Although the newest GOP line is they don’t support tax increases NOW because they may have to accept them in a few years, depending on the economic recovery nationwide and in Connecticut).

“That’s still in there,” Donovan said.

I had the opportunity yesterday to talk to Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell about whether she will sign or veto the chronic Lyme disease legislation clarifying Connecticut physicians can diagnose and treat the controversial illness with long-term antibiotics without fear of reprisal.

During our conversation Rell said she realizes Lyme disease is a major problem in the state and particularly around Brookfield, where she has lived for years.

She mentioned how Brookfield First Selectman Robert Silvaggi, a fellow Republican, has been involved in a regional Lyme task force.

I was unable to reach Silvaggi for my story but we spoke briefly today.

“Lyme is a major problem, particularly up in this area,” Silvaggi said.

He hopes Rell signs the chronic Lyme legislation.

“It gives the doctors the option of treating (chronic Lyme) if they believe it’s appropriate and it gives townspeople the option of going to doctors who believe in treatment,” Silvaggi said. “If you don’t believe in it you don’t go there. It’s all about choice. No one’s going to be forced to take treatment.”

During the final weeks of the legislative session it appeared House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden and Senate President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn were playing “good cop, bad cop” with Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell over the state budget.

Williams in letters and through legislation took shots at the Rell administration, continuing the battle majority Democrats have waged with the Governor since early February, when, despite having stated the two-year budget deficit was nearing $8 billion, she put a no-tax-increase fiscal plan on the table built around a $6 billion hole.

Donovan, for the most part, was not as aggressive as Williams.

But then today I received a pair of interesting e-mails from the two leaders.

Democrats have spent the past few days holding press conferences to criticize some of Rell’s proposed budget cuts. The next rally featuring Williams, other state lawmakers and “more than 100 students” was scheduled for tomorrow at New Haven’s Amistad Academy in New Haven to protest the impact of the Governor’s fiscal plan on charter schools.

But today Williams’ spokesman Derek Slap suddenly cancelled the Amistad event, citing “encouraging talks” with Rell’s office “to save this critical funding.”

About a half-hour or so later, however, Donovan’s office shot off an e-mail announcing the House Speaker would be spending Thursday touring sites in his district – a library, a YMCA, a senior center, a courthouse, a housing authority and a train station – to highlight how the “Governor’s budget cuts go to (the) heart of local communities: seniors, children, community centers.”

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell was at the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol today promoting the second-annual “Staycation” initiative that urges money-conscious residents to spend the summer enjoying the state’s various attractions. And she’ll be doing a similar event in Danbury tomorrow.

“We started this campaign last year when gas prices were soaring. Although prices are down from the record-highs of 2008, families continue to look for ways to stretch their household budgets and that includes vacations,” Rell said in Bristol. “Staycation offers them endless choices at world-class attractions at affordable prices, all just a short car ride away.”

Rell added the campaign boosts Connecticut’s $9 billion tourism industry “which supports thousands of jobs and helps businesses and attractions increase their customer base.”

And at this point I can’t help but note the fact some of those very attractions have been contacting The Advocate and other media outlets talking about how alarmed they are that the Governor’s revised two-year budget proposal suspends around $24 million for statewide marketing and cultural and tourism grants to address the deficit.

But at least the Governor reversed her proposal to close some state parks.

In late May the state Senate gave final passage to a controversial bill that, if signed into law by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, specifically states physicians can diagnose and treat chronic tick-borne Lyme disease in Connecticut without fear of retribution from peers or the Department of Public Health.

I used the word “controversial” because although the proposal received overwhelming bi-partisan support from the General Assembly, it has been condemned as irresponsible by some local and national doctors or doctors’ groups who consider chronic Lyme a myth.

One such opponent – Dr. Phillip Baker, executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation – last week wrote Rell urging her to veto the legislation on the grounds there is no evidence a form of chronic Lyme disease exists but there is plenty of evidence extended anti-biotic use can prove harmful to a patient.

This is one bill to watch.

It is rare for a Governor to veto legislation that has such enthusiastic support from the General Assembly and, in particular, her own party (Sen. Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, is a big booster of the chronic Lyme proposal).

But as Sen. Leonard Fasano, R-North Haven, cautioned his colleagues before their vote on the legislation, it is also a big deal for state lawmakers to choose to ignore “evidence based medicine” and come down on the side of chronic Lyme believers. Particularly state lawmakers in Connecticut, ground zero for the disease.

But the Connecticut State Medical Society endorsed the legislation on the basis that it frees physicians to practice medicine as they choose.

If Rell does veto the bill, the General Assembly then has the opportunity to over-ride her decision and Republicans in particular will have to decide whether or not to respect her wishes.

I should note Rell lives in Brookfield and that corner of the state is no stranger to Lyme disease. Many lawmakers who backed the legislation told personal stories about dealing with the illness. Perhaps Rell has a few of her own that she will use to defend a decision to sign the bill.

Besides the arguments she has already made about her belief in capital punishment for the most heinous crimes, I think there’s another pretty obvious reason Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell today had to veto the legislation abolishing executions.

In late May she signed legislation codifying the state Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing gay marriage in Connecticut.

And while the vote to abolish the death penalty was not strictly partisan (although far more Republicans voted against it than Democrats) I think it’s too much to expect a Republican Governor – even a moderate like Rell – would within about one month not only legalize gay marriage but sign an equally high-profile bill doing away with capital punishment.

If that happened she might as well issue an executive order to decriminalize marijuana while she was at it and, what the heck, go all the way and switch parties.

I spoke briefly with former House Speaker/current gubernatorial candidate James Amann, D-Milford today about an upcoming story. He told me he watched the final 45 minutes of the 2009 session on television Wednesday night.

Amann, who turned in his Speaker’s gavel last session, had just returned home from meeting with a Democratic Town Committee in Bethlehem Connecticut and dining out on “two inch thick” Prime Rib at a restaurant there.

He headed to bed, turned on the television and, about 11:15 decided to turn to CTN and watch his former colleagues end the 2009 session without a two-year budget deal in place.

“Usually the last night of session is an exciting night, a night of fanfare and celebration and a job well-done,” Amann said. He said instead it looked as if the wind had been taken out of the room.

As the clock ticked away to the midnight deadline Amann watched his successor, House Speaker Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, take several phonecalls from his perch behind the podium at the front of the chamber.

Amann recalled those frantic last minutes cutting deals by phone to get as many bills up for vote and out the door as possible.

“You don’t know if it’s coming from (Republican Gov. M. Jodi) Rell, (Rell Chief of Staff Lisa) Moody or (House Minority Leader) Larry (Cafero, R-Norwalk) or whoever. Maybe it’s your own guys ready, if a bill comes out, to filibuster,” Amann said.

And he also witnessed the tense exchanges Cafero had with members of Stamford’s legislative delegation over an amendment the group attached, against Rell’s wishes, into a larger bill in an effort to stop the state from closing J.M. Wright Technical School.

“I was watching him walk back and forth … He went over to the middle of the room, his hands were flapping left and right. I saw (Rep. William) Tong (D-Stamford) talking to him and I think it was (Rep. Gerald) Fox (D-Stamford),” Amann recalled.

Amann wasn’t aware at the time of all the details, but having been speaker said he knew some last minute issue had arisen over a piece of legislation.

“It’s fun to watch it,” Amann said. “You can watch it and know what’s happening without having the sound on.”

The Advocate has the story about the death of Sen. Bob Duff’s, D-Norwalk proposed hedge fund regulations in the final day of the session Wednesday. The bill, passed by the Senate, faced major GOP opposition in the House despite the backing of Rep. John Stripp, R-Weston and was never called for a likely time-consuming debate and vote.

But a Hartford Courant photographer captured a fantastic photo (go to #15) of Duff’s unsuccessful attempt to win over House Republican Minority Leader and fellow Norwalk lawmaker Lawrence Cafero.