State House
Nobody Home
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 5/11/10
An old political adage warns: “No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” Well, take heart Connecticut; the 2010 General Assembly adjourned its annual session midnight May 5th as required by the state constitution. Now it is quiet time in the House and Senate, as evidenced by the photos accompanying this news piece.
The end was the usual mad dash to midnight. The major bill of the session, a state budget adjustment deal to erase an approximately $700 million dollar deficit forecast for the new state budget that takes effect July 1st, was debated and voted on in the Senate and House in the closing hours.
The House wrapped up business at midnight, with the Speaker and House Clerk calling out bill titles, votes, and numbers with the virtually unintelligible speed of a tobacco auctioneer.
The Senate played things fast and loose, claiming that is closed shop at midnight per the state constitution. However, the State Capitol pressroom was monitoring the official U.S. Time via computer, a service supplied jointly by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the U.S. Naval Observatory, and that reading told a different story.
Dozens of bills, agreed to by both parties, and placed on a last-minute “consent calendar” were voted on without debate minutes after midnight, and the Senate final adjournment, known as “sine die”, didn’t occur until 12:06 a.m. Thursday. Since both parties were in on the arrangement, without complaint, the list’s passage was deemed official. Reporters were given a print-out of the “consent calendar”, with the time mark blacked out. A later version claimed the list was approved at “11:59 p.m.”
Legislative leaders from both parties and Republican Gov. Jodi Rell held “day after” press conferences to offer their “spin” on the 2010 session. As usual, those reviews were sharply different in content.
The Democrats who control the General Assembly saw the session as chock full of achievements including two deficit-mitigation packages, a jobs creation bill, a measure to rescue the University of Connecticut Health Center, and a bill that could reduce electric rates by up to 15%.
Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams (D-Brooklyn) said several times that much of this was due to cooperation between Democrats and “our good friend Republican Gov. Jodi Rell.” Democrats haven’t always been palsy-walsy with Rell, but there were negotiations to reach the budget deal, and the “good friend” comment was Williams’ way of sticking it to legislative Republicans who chose to drop out of talks on the budget, claiming their input wasn’t being considered.
Williams claimed the Democrats cooperation with Rell proves that the charge of some Republican gubernatorial hopefuls that “Hartford is broke, and broken” is bogus. “The expectation was gridlock,” said Williams, “that in an election year, partisanship would trump working together on behalf of the people.” Williams added: “That did not happen. We are standing here, having completed our work, wiped out the deficits for 2010 and 2011, and pointing a way to the future.”
House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero (R-Norwalk), speaking for GOP lawmakers, offered a very different view of the session. He called it “a huge disappointment” claiming that “we kicked the can down the road” in coping with Connecticut’s structural and long-term fiscal problems. “We borrowed money to get out of debt, and that’s like having the bills come at the end of the month and saying: ‘Let’s just put it on the credit card.’”
In Cafero’s view, Republicans had better ideas to save money—merging state agencies, privatizing many state services, selling off some state properties (including airports), and seeking more concessions from state employees.
The Republican “walkout” from budget negotiations vividly illustrated GOP lawmaker’s frustrations with their own GOP governor for cutting a deal with the Democrats that they view as imprudent. “I was very disappointed in the Governor’s action, there’s no doubt about that,” said Cafero. “I think she could have done more to drive this debate.”
The GOP House leader believes that “the ship (of state) is sinking.” He warned: “It is like a time bomb, and when it hits, there’s no more gimmicks, no way to mask it, no way to borrow, and it’s going to blow up.”
As for Rell, she lined up in a more optimistic stance, a la the Democrats. “We do have a budget (adjustment) on time, and that’s good news for the people of Connecticut,” she said. Rell also pointed to passage of a jobs bill, and a bill reforming state permitting to help economic development, as great achievements for the 2010 session.
Rell doesn’t think she gave up on her principles to reach a deal with the Democrats. “I said no (new) taxes, no significant cuts to municipal aid, and get (the borrowing) under a billion dollars,” she said. “We accomplished all those things and that’s what the public has asked for.”
The governor took a pragmatic view of her negotiations with the Democratic majority. “This budget reflects the politics of what’s possible, you have a super majority (of Democrats) and you have to be cognizant of that all along,” she explained.