Political Capitol

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell has several problems with Democrat-written legislation intended to put the 2009-10/2010-11 budget the majority approved Sept. 1 to bed.

But a proposal I wrote about last week to eliminate a shellfish fee is not on her hit list.

In a letter issued today to legislative leaders, state Budget Director Robert Genuario outlined concerns his boss, who is out-of-state on vacation for the week, has with pending “implementer” bills.

He also added that, despite her veto of a revenue implementer passed by the Democrats during last week’s special session, Rell is okay with certain portions, including “elimination of the per-bushel fee for harvesting shellfish.”

Rell vetoed the revenue implementer because it hiked fees at the Department of Motor Vehicles .

Just got an e-mail that the Democratic-majority in the House of Representatives has scheduled a caucus for  Friday and a session of the legislature afterward.

The e-mail included specific times but those have proven meaningless in the past, so let’s just leave it at the House will be in session at some point Friday afternoon/evening.

I called Derek Slap, spokesman for the Senate Democrats, who said his caucus is also planning on convening Friday afternoon.

But when we started talking times Slap first gave me a specific hour, then we kind of laughed about it and he said: “It’d probably be safer if you just said the Senate’s coming in on Friday as well.”

Derek, I salute your honesty.

About a year ago, give or take a month, The Advocate ran a couple of stories focusing on legislative travel.

It is not unusual for Connecticut lawmakers to head out of state to attend various professional conferences. But with gas prices soaring and the state budget gushing red ink last summer, it was a good time to examine which legislators continued to hit the road on the taxpayers’ dime.

Gas is cheaper, but the state is worse off financially, so I figured it was worth requesting the most recent travel expense info from the Office of Legislative Management just to see if anyone dared cross the border and ask the state to pick-up the tab.

But according to an OLM spokesmen, no travel expenses have been accrued in the current fiscal year, which began July 1. Only two lawmakers – House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden and Sen. Joseph Crisco, D-Woodbridge – did any traveling at all this calendar year.

Check out the full list.

TRVLSUMM_452897[1] –

House Majority Leader Denise Merrill, D-Mansfield, in a phone interview said she is uncertain whether the General Assembly will return to the capitol this week to  wrap-up the budget process.

Last week’s special session was aimed at passing a variety of bills required to implement the 2009-10 and 2010-11 spending plan the Democratic-majority approved Sept. 1.

But the Democrats remain at odds with Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell over several issues and adjourned early Friday morning with plenty of unfinished business.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate met today.

“We talked about doing something Thursday or Friday but the Senate seems to have a lot of problems,” Merrill said. “There’s various people on vacation and they’re telling us they’ll have trouble getting people in … And the Governor’s on vacation. So who knows?”

Among the budget-related bills the General Assembly passed during last week’s special session was the two-year state bonding package – a wish list of projects funded through borrowing.

The bill was a mainly party-line vote. Republicans being the fiscal conservatives that they are typically argue they are taking a stand against increasing the state’s debt, even though any bonding ultimately has to be authorized by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the state Bond Commission.

Only four Republicans, including Rep. Livvy Floren, R-Greenwich, joined the Democrats in passing the bonding bill in the House.

And Floren had a good reason for her “yes” vote – she was on the bi-partisan subcommittee that wrote the legislation.

“Of course I was going to support it,” Floren told me today by phone.

She continued: “I felt it was fair. I think people don’t understand that all of the things in there are not going to be funded in their lifetime. But (the committee) worked really, really hard to be fair to everyone. All the old projects were honored. We did pools of interests we felt were fair so people could compete – a pool for brownfields remediation and open space. It took out highly competative and personal earmarks. We cut agencies’ requests.”

But Floren’s stamp of approval did not sway Greenwich colleagues Rep. Fred Camillo and Sen. L. Scott Frantz. However Rep. John Hetherington, R-New Canaan, backed the bonding package.

The state’s budget was supposed to be put to bed by now.

Well, technically, it was supposed to be in place by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

But it was, once and for all, supposed to be done BY TODAY.

You see, even though the legislature’s Democratic-majority passed a two year budget on Sept. 1, the General Assembly reconvened Wednesday and Thursday to pass a variety of “implementer” bills which spell-out all the details.

Legislators passed some of the implementers, but Democrats, the Republican minority and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell remain at odds over several others.

Oh, and Rell today said she would veto one of the implementers that increased Department of Motor Vehicles’ fees, so it’s back to the drawing board on that piece.

But here’s the real kicker.

Democrats have yet to schedule a day next week to return to polish off the budget and Rell’s office late this afternoon announced she will be on “a family vacation” from Sunday until next Saturday.

In an effort to raise much-needed revenues during the budget crisis, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle pursued a variety of fee increases this year, many of which are part of the final two-year budget.

But one that was stricken from books during the special session of the last few days is the Department of Environmental Protection’s proposed $1-per-bushel charge for oysters.

“Totally history,” Sen. Eileen Daily, D-Westbrook, co-chairman of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee told me tonight. She said although the fee was included in the budget Democrats passed earlier this month, it was stripped from the so-called implementers – the fine print of the budget – that lawmakers have been voting on over the past two days.

The $1 fee was targeted by several lawmakers from shoreline towns in lower Fairfield County, including Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, Rep. Christopher Perone, D-Norwalk, and Rep. Terry Backer, D-Stratford.

Backer, who is heavily involved in the protection of Long Island Sound and its related industries said the estimated $40,000 in revenue from the fee did not outweigh the harm.

“Local fisherman have to compete with very low cost states like … Louisiana,” Backer said.

With restaurants cutting back during tough economic times the last thing state shellfisherman need is an added fee, Backer said.

Of course, this means it’s time for the laid-back Backer and the dress-to-impress Duff to hold another press conference with local Oystermen.

Remember several months ago when Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell proposed closing some courthouses, including the building in Norwalk, to help address the state’s budget crisis?

That proposal never came to pass.

But if folks in the Norwalk area want some reassurance, they’ll get it at tomorrow’s Bond Commission meeting at 10:30 a.m. here in Hartford.

The Bond Commission, chaired by Rell, meets occasionally to vote on releasing funds previously authorized by the legislature for various projects.

Included on tomorrow’s agenda (page 15) is approving $150,000 for HVAC upgrades at the Norwalk courthouse.

Since Rell sets the agenda, she’s clearly abandoned any effort to shutter the building.

Or I just stumbled onto a great story about the state spending money on a soon-to-be shuttered building.