Inside the Capitol: Dress Down Day at the Legislature
by Christine Stuart | May 5, 2008 5:04 PM
Posted to State Capitol
It’s dress down day at the legislature.
Lawmakers and staff are allowed to dress down if they make a donation to charity, but the casual attire isn’t making the debate go any faster. Since Democratic leaders and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell agreed last week to stick with the 2009 fiscal year budget, dozens of bills have had to be rewritten or amended.
“These are the consequences of the Democratic party deciding to do nothing,” Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, said outside the House chamber Monday. Cafero held out hope there’s still time to do something. Up in the Senate that something might just be the revised pension and ethics reform package the House changed last week.
The Senate is still in recess so it’s uncertain if it will definitely take up bill, which says state employees would not be subject to pension revocation. Instead, any state or municipal employee that commits a felony against the state may have a judge reduce their pension through fines, penalties, and the cost of incarceration.
The Senate may also take up an increase in the minimum wage from $7.65 to $8.00.
All told both chambers expect to be finished with their business at 10 p.m. tonight.
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