Short Session: Progress or Setback?
by Christine Stuart and Hugh McQuaid | May 10, 2012 1:12am
(11) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: State Capitol
For years, the General Assembly has been trying to abolish the death penalty, legalize medical marijuana, and allow both Sunday liquor sales and same day voter registration. This year they did all of that in addition to an omnibus education reform bill.
And all in a short session.
At the urging of an impatient and ambitious governor, Connecticut’s Democratically-controlled legislature celebrated their accomplishments Wednesday as they prepared to retire or run for re-election.
“Over the course of the last 16 months we have pushed more change through these two chambers than has occurred in Connecticut in a long, long time,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in his midnight address to the General Assembly.
Malloy described the change as “positive” and “meaningful,” but there are those who would disagree.
House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero and Sen. Minority Leader John McKinney sat stone-faced and tired in the House chamber as the rest of their colleagues went home or to the after-session party.
“Disappointment” would be the one word Cafero said he would use to sum up the session.
“It was a setback for fiscal responsibility,” McKinney said. “He said we wouldn’t engage in the shell games and fiscal gimmicks of the past and he’s stealing money and sweeping money from funds to cover operating deficits.”
Malloy used his 10-minute post-session speech to highlight what he felt were the accomplishments of the legislative session from closing the deficit to “putting more education dollars into our lowest performing districts.”
The governor may have gotten what he wanted out of the session, but legislative leaders in both chambers saw their signature bills die on the other chamber’s calendar.
Before the session began, Senate Democrats made a package expanding programs passed during last year’s special session on jobs their top priority. The bill, designated Senate Bill 1, passed the chamber with broad bipartisan support and has been awaiting action in the House. It died at midnight.
House Speaker Chris Donovan had been holding the bill in hopes the Senate would pass his legislation to raise the state’s minimum wage by 50 cents over the next two years. Williams has maintained that the bill did not have enough support among Senate Democrats, who were wary of the bill’s timing.
“We only pass bills when we have the votes to pass bills,” Williams said early Thursday morning.
The jobs package, on the other hand, was expected to easily pass the House. Asked why the bill was never given final passage, Williams said, “That’s a really good question.”
“I think folks are going to have a hard time understanding how a bill that was so popular — with such bipartisan support, that helps our economy when we need it most — did not make it out of the House,” he said.
Williams said he and Donovan worked well together throughout the session but said constituents would be scratching their heads over the inaction. Williams said he hopes to have the language inserted into a budget implementer during the upcoming special session.
Neither the Democrats, Republicans, nor Malloy declared victory. Instead of sticking around for the end of session party, many left to go home to their families, which may have been a sign of just how exhausted they were.
But Roy Occhiogrosso, Malloy’s senior communications adviser, said the session was a productive one.
“In a few months, you’ve had education reform, far-reaching, meaningful, the biggest education package that’s ever been done in Connecticut, which most people didn’t think was going to happen in a short session,” he said.
Occhiogrosso said the session saw the passage of legislation allowing for design-build projects, enabling public entities to enter into project labor agreements, an expansion of voting rights, all in a very short period of time.
Sen. Len Fasano, R-North Haven, said Democrats tried to do too much in a short session, forcing lawmakers to rush on important issues. He said it started with the governor’s education package being drafted behind closed doors.
“I think that made it a very difficult and contentious session right off the bat. Teachers upset, legislators not agreeing, suburbs versus cities. It was awful from my point of view,” he said.
Lawmakers are supposed to address big issues during long session years and stick to adjusting the budget during short session, he said. That’s not how it worked out this year.
“We did death penalty, we did education, we did liquor laws, we had to obviously do the budget. We did huge bills,” he said. “That doesn’t help the state of Connecticut.”
Connecticut has a part-time legislature and many lawmakers have other jobs to work, he said. Attempting to address far-reaching and controversial issues over a period of three months isn’t right, he said.
“I find it somewhat offensive that you have a majority party with a governor of the same party who just pushed through an agenda that they wanted to push through,” Fasano said.
Malloy acknowledged the hard work of the legislature Thursday morning when he told them “being a legislator is supposed to be a part-time job, but it’s turned into a full-time commitment.”
The House chamber started laughing as soon as he uttered the word “part-time.”
And while the session is adjourned the General Assembly will return sometime at the end of May or June to pass what has been described as two bills to implement the $20.5 billion budget.
Tags: legislative session, Dannel Malloy, Larry Cafero, Don Williams, Chris Donovan, John McKinney, dh
(11) Comments
posted by: William Wallace | May 10, 2012 8:09am
Connecticut has become a monumental disgrace - and LABOR is front and center in delivering this all knowing egomaniac to sit in the Governors seat.
This state cannot sustain the tax and spend agenda that is in vogue here - it is that simple. Malloy is determined to make his way to Washington working for his idol Obama while Connecticut sorts through the financial mess he has created.
Remember all of this come election time.
posted by: DrHunterSThompson | May 10, 2012 8:21am
Well, like it or not they finally made some progress on the ridiculously stupid weed issue and the death penalty. But in a session full of education reform talk they failed to adequately address pre-school education which is the key to student performance. And notably, they failed to cut spending at the time it’s needed the most.
In my mind the last 2 sessions have be failures - its about the economy stupid.
posted by: hartfordresident | May 10, 2012 11:43am
It’s too bad that liquor sales took preference over red light cameras, a deeply understood piece of legislation (see http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/05/05/opinion/doc4fa5b899a9afd389049276.prt). The legislation sailed through three committees—but now literally hundreds more Connecticut residents will be injured and killed because of a handful of local politicians who felt like stopping the bill.
posted by: Westville Mom | May 10, 2012 12:33pm
“The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship, and Thumbtack.com have released a study ranking the ‘least’ and ‘most’ business-friendly states in the U.S.”
So reads the first line of YET ANOTHER article (below) citing Connecticut as rating a “D” for its business friendliness.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/these-are-the-least-most-business-friendly-states-in-the-u-s/
This is not really news to independent-minded citizens of this state. Throwing more money at (already well-funded) schools and jobs programs is not the answer, since we are seeing proof of that failed strategy on the national level every single day. The Democrats in this state and in this country have somehow lost the ability to read and interpret empirical and/or statistical data. When you do something that doesn’t work, you are supposed to try something different—unless a paralyzing ideology precludes such flexibility. And such is the case with Far-Leftist (i.e. “mainstream”) Democrats today.
Malloy’s timid attempt at improving schools is dwarfed by Bobby Jindal’s initiatives in LA, a right-to-work state.
Actually, the most productive thing Malloy could do would be to institute right-to-work laws in CT, but that would require Dems to jettison their union campaign funds—an unlikely scenario.
Therefore, the long-suffering citizens of CT need to begin the tough, soul-searching process of evaluating their local politicians based not on party affiliation, but on principle—and ruthlessly vote out anyone who mindlessly supports more spending. If that means voting for a Republican, then so be it.
Demonization of the Republican Party (which is a common practice in this state) is a sign of bigotry and is anti-democratic. It’s about time somewhat starts to call it what it is.
One Party Rule is tyranny!
posted by: Shawnzo | May 10, 2012 1:21pm
Every session is a mixed bag, but in the past two years, we’ve seen monumental successes of legislation passed that simply languished on the shelves for decades under the Rell/Moody reign. So, kudos on that.
posted by: AndersonScooper | May 10, 2012 2:11pm
SET-BACK: Connecticut will now go at least 4 years without an upwards adjustment of the minimum wage, with the next possible increase being January 1, 2014 at best.
Too bad the working poor weren’t a priority for Dan Malloy. And Williams? Is he still a Democrat?
Honestly Don, there were that many Dems willing to vote against keeping up with inflation? The least you could have done was hold the damn vote so grassroots Dem could know who to vote out.
For shame!
posted by: CONconn | May 10, 2012 6:14pm
Westville Mom, I don’t know what you’re talking about. We have a Republican for a governor.
posted by: Westville Mom | May 10, 2012 9:04pm
CONconn—
Agreed that he is more “republican” than RINO Jodi Rell was. Still, a far, far, far cry from a Jindal or a Christie. Not even close.
When I say “Republican”, I mean authentic Republican, but I’m not even sure we have one in this state—possibly Len Fasano would be one.
But I get your point and I think you’ve just made MY point—CT has gone so far Left, that anything short of that looks conservative by comparison.
This faux conservative, however, will neither save the state nor create jobs.
posted by: ALD | May 11, 2012 9:03am
Westville Mom: You say:
“Democrats in this state and in this country have somehow lost the ability to read and interpret empirical and/or statistical data. When you do something that doesn’t work, you are supposed to try something different.”
Why would you for a second think there is any need for Democrats in CT to try anything different?
The head in the sand voters of this state just rubber stamp back to Hartford and Washington most anyone who calls themselves a Democrat. That’s the only empirical data that matters.
Until the day comes that the majority of voters in this state actually involve themselves with demanding real positive results from those we blindly vote for there is no reason for Democrats to change what clearly works.
posted by: jiddum | May 15, 2012 5:44pm
Once again health care is swept under the rug by reporters and legislators alike. Shameful! There were some crucial reforms on the table that needed to be voted on this session in order to roll our federal reform and make sure we got the most people covered in the most cost-effective way possible. And we completely dropped the ball. It’s a real blow to consumers, small businesses, and working people who can’t afford health coverage that The state’s Basic Health plan, the bill to fix the Exchange (HB 5013) and Donovan’s small business health care bill went down. Allowing crucial, commonsense health care reforms to die is simply irresponsible. I’m sick and tired of the politicking and excuses. People are sick and dying for lack of care and we’re all footing the bill when they land in the emergency room. And here and we have a Democrat in office (who campaigned on health reform) and yet he’s unwilling to do anything about it -even when we hand him solid, extensively researched proposal after proposal on a silver platter. He showers CIGNA in $50 million of OUR money while 400,000 people have no health care. It’s unconscionable!