This has been a tough few months for Slossberg. First she had to stand by while Gov. Dannel Malloy moved forward with a merger of elections enforcement and other state watchdog agencies. It was a move Slossberg strongly opposed but, given the politics of the situation, there was not much she could do other than offer some politely restrained public comments to the press.
And then the SEEC goes and hires Giuliano…
Hartford – State Senator Gayle S. Slossberg (D-Milford) and Representative Russ Morin (D-Wethersfield), co-chairs of the legislature’s Government Administration and Elections Committee, today forcefully urged members of the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) to reconsider their nominee for executive director.
Yesterday the SEEC nominated former Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano to lead the agency’s day-to-day operations; the position is scheduled to be filled at a meeting next Wednesday. Among other things the SEEC administers grants through Connecticut’s public campaign financing program and more generally, oversees and enforces fair elections statewide. It must also rule on elections-related disputes.
“I strongly believe the SEEC must first and foremost be an independent watchdog of Connecticut’s elections policies, procedures, and processes, without even a hint of partisanship, and a chief elected official, of any party and any municipality, who served in office and ran for re-election as recently as this nominee, compromises that desire for irrefutable nonpartisanship,”Senator Slossbergsaid. “Individual SEEC commissioners must be removed from partisan politics for three full years before they are eligible to serve; I think the same standard should be applied to the agency’s staff positions as well.”
Senator SlossbergandRep. Morinsaid ethics standards of any type prohibit not just outright conflicts of interest but also the appearance of a conflict, and this nominee, given his recent position and campaign, remains unsuitable given that standard. The co-chairs emphasized how their objection has nothing to do with Giuliano as an individual – that they would object to anyone of either party so recently removed from office and partisan political activity.
“There is no place for partisan politics at Elections Enforcement,”Rep. Morinsaid. “In essence, the commissioners are naming an executive director whose feet are still tired from walking the campaign trail. This is a job that rises above party politics – even the slightest hint of partisanship would contaminate Election Enforcement’s ability to carry out its mission.”
The co-chairs cited their comparable and consistent position during the Regular Session of the General Assembly last year, when they insisted upon the untainted appearance of all state watchdog agencies during negotiations to consolidate them.
The Hartford Courant has published an editorial questioning the recent hiring of an $100,000 a year executive director for the state’s Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission during still tough fiscal times.
“This is good news for the commission, but Connecticut taxpayers may be asking themselves why, in financially strapped times, this group exists with such a price tag attached,” reads the editorial, which can be viewed in full here.
The state has other commissions on African American, Latino, women and elderly affairs – groups proponants say are invaluable resources for those residents and that critics argue should at the least be merged into one entity to cut costs.
Not mentioned by the Courant is the fact the commission’s creation was a pet project of state Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford since his election in 2006. Tong was the first Asian American to join the General Assembly and is currently campaigning for U.S. Senate.
Tong is one of three Democrats vying for their party’s nomination to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by “independent Democrat” Joseph Lieberman, also of Stamford.
While I have a hard time seeing either of Tong’s primary opponents – U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy and ex-Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz – making hay over the commission, the Courant’s editorial I’m certain will be in play should Tong make it to the general election.
Accurate or not, what Republican candidate is going to pass up the chance to say, “William Tong grew big government, creating a commission in Hartford run by a highly paid director while your taxes were increasing.”
Michael Fox, head of the Stamford-based Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers of America, is launching a petition drive that, according to him, has never been undertaken in recent memory.
Fox is asking his 450 members to provide customers the opportunity to sign a petition demanding lawmakers lower Connecticut’s gas taxes.
Our high gas taxes are a favorite target of politicians. And yet, Fox said, he has avoided asking service stations to directly engage motorists in this manner in the past.
“We never did that before. We never wanted to, for lack of a better word, imposition our customers,” Fox said.
He began distributing the petitions Wednesday. Participation is voluntary, so it will be interesting in the coming days to learn how many station owners are on board, how they’re approaching drivers, and their success obtaining signatures.
If orchestrated correctly, a petition drive such as this could be hugely successful and, potentially, influential.
“Sir? Ma’am? You happy with the price you just paid for your gas? No? Want to take a minute to demand the General Assembly and Governor Dannel Malloy do something about it?”
As state officials will tell you, it’s never that simple because the state depends on the revenue and it will have to be made up somehow, either through cuts or revenue increases in other areas.
But c’mon. How many drivers are really going to stop and weigh all the pros and cons? What better place to get them to vent their frustration over what they just paid at the pump than at the pump?
Lembo a few minutes ago took a victory lap via press release.
“I am delighted that the Governor agrees on the importance of evaluating tax expenditures,” he said. “I look forward to an open and impartial conversation and analysis of this important portion of our state budget. There are more than a half billion state tax expenditures on the books – and we need to confirm whether they’re working. With so many dollars at stake, particularly concerning job-creation initiatives, they must be monitored closely to ensure success.”
Pretty quick work.
So maybe Malloy-alist advisors Roy Occhiogrosso, Mark Ojakian and Andrew McDonald aren’t the real gatekeepers to Oz after all…
“Who rang that bell?!?!?”
Maybe it’s the quiet numbers cruncher with the glasses…
The World Wrestling Entertainment executive-turned-professional U.S. Republican Senate candidate wants folks to help her choose from among three different campaign bumper stickers, including one with a bright pink background clearly intended to soften her image and court those female voters that helped sink her 2010 Senate bid.
But in order to vote you have to turn over contact information including your email and zip code.
Unfortunately there is no place to suggest other designs.
I was thinking ”LINDA 2012? OOOH YEEAAH!!!” but that’s sooooooo 2010.
She could repackage the, “It’s time for something different” slogan from 2010. “LINDA. IT’S TIME FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT … FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DIDN’T SUPPORT ME TWO YEARS AGO.”
Nah. Too wordy.
I also like, “LINDA 2012. AND VINCE IS FINE, THANKS FOR ASKING.” Often along the campaign trail wrestling fans ask McMahon about her husband, WWE founder/chairman/occasional performer Vince McMahon.
Gov. Dannel Malloy through executive order is forming a task force to examine Connecticut’s business tax policies, which provide a total of $5.35 billion in annual breaks to various entities.
So it’s not surprising critics (Connecticut Voices for Children, the Working Families Party) and even some allies (Democratic Comptroller Kevin Lembo) have been pushing for a closer look at whether the state’s getting the most bang for its buck.
“You’ve heard the conversations around the capitol forever — who’s getting what and why and what are they doing about it?” Lembo told us in a recent interview. ”Every time we focus on the budget … (lawmakers) will move to the revenue side. And instead of examining these pots, they go to a tax increase. We need to look at all of this. These are items that, once passed into law and absent very concrete language of accountability and reporting, are there forever.”
Here’s the governor’s press release with a link at the bottom to his executive order. Time will tell if his task force goes further than the DECD – and if Malloy, who has three appointments to the group, taps at least one tax credit skeptic:
GOV. MALLOY FORMS TASKFORCE TO REVIEW AND ASSESS EFFECTIVENESS OF STATE’S BUSINESS TAX CREDITS
Group will monitor job creation and look for ways to make Connecticut more competitive
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy today signed Executive Order 17 which will create a nine member Governor’s Business Tax Policy Review Taskforce. The taskforce’s mission will be to review the state’s business tax policies to ensure that Connecticut is getting the maximum return on its investments, with an eye toward policies that will make the state even more competitive for future job growth.
“Over the last year, we’ve made every effort to reinvent our state, so that we could turn around twenty years of job loss and spur our economy,” said Governor Malloy. “From First Five to the bipartisan jobs package, we sent a message across the country and around the world that Connecticut is open for business. This taskforce will make sure that Connecticut is getting a solid return on those investments by closely examining ways to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used to create and retain good, permanent jobs for our workforce. It will also be charged with finding policies that will make our state even more competitive so that we can pull even more jobs into our state.”
The taskforce will be jointly headed by Commissioner Catherine Smith of the Department of Economic and Community Development and Commissioner Kevin Sullivan of the Department of Revenue Services. Legislation stemming from the work of the taskforce will build on Governor Malloy’s 2011 Economic Summit and the October special session on jobs to improve Connecticut’s business tax policy and encourage business development and growth.
They will report findings and recommendations to the Governor by October 1, 2012.
Gov. Dannel Malloy’s administration in early December launched an ongoing probe into allegations public workers improperly applied for and received low income Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP) funds.
The benefits were distributed in September by the state Department of Social Services to victims of Tropical Storm Irene.
Around 24,000 households – including 800 state employees - received an average of $700.
Under state ethics laws it might be possible to ask a judge to go after retired state workers’ pensions were they found guilty of fraud. But my source indicated that would likely be deemed overkill by a court.
The state has two gas taxes – a flat .25 tax on gasoline sales and a fluctuating gross receipts tax on wholesale gas purchases. This second tax, which increases with the price of gas, is passed along by distributors to motorists.
Suzio and Fox want to cap the latter and have launched a petition drive to convince state lawmakers to get it done in the upcoming 2012 session.
But the gross receipts tax is not the only “hidden tax” on the state’s books. A similar tax is passed along by cable and satellite television services to their customers.
There have been seven efforts to eliminate this tax since 2000 and all have failed. How do I know that? Because the state Office of Legislative Research late last month produced a report on the tax, likely at the request of a lawmaker interested in making an eighth push to kill it.
