The state is facing big budget problems and other issues, but Gov. M. Jodi Rell is asking citizens to take time out from their day in order to vote for Middlebury’s Katie Stevens on American Idol. Stevens, a 17-year-old high school student, has been a long-running contestant on the show – surviving multiple rounds to make it this far.
Eric Danton has the details at http://blogs.courant.com/eric_danton_sound_check/2010/04/katie-stevens-jodi-rell-american-idol.html
The following is a detailed timeline in the Juan F. consent decree in the 20-year-old case of Juan F. vs. the state. This is a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of abused and neglected children that dates back to the days of Gov. William A. O’Neill.
The case has continued under Governors Lowell P. Weicker, John G. Rowland, and M. Jodi Rell. On Tuesday, the state filed an unprecedented motion in federal court to end federal oversight, saying that the state has improved the system to the point that federal oversight is no longer needed.
Lasting just as long as another famous court contest, the Juan F. case is the Sheff vs. O’Neill battle of the child welfare system.
The Hartford Courant’s chief researcher, Tina Bachetti, compiled this timeline.
December 1989: Suit filed
The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union’s Children’s Rights Project file a class-action lawsuit against Gov. William O’Neill and the state Department of Children and Youth Services. The suit charges that an overworked and underfunded DCYS fails to provide services including abuse and neglect investigations, adoption, foster care, mental health care, caseloads and staffing.
January 1991: Decree signed
Lawyers for the children and the state sign a formal federal consent decree, known as the “Juan F.” consent decree, after one of the child plaintiffs. Sweeping changes are called for, including the establishment of a training academy for DCYS employees and foster parents; reducing caseloads for workers, who average 34 cases each; uniform standards on how abuse and neglect cases should be handled; and an independent court monitor to assess progress.
March 1993: Out of compliance
Budget cuts of more than $8.7 million at DCYS results in noncompliance with the decree in terms of staffing, payments to foster parents and program improvements.
June 1993: Judge orders staff increase
U.S. District Judge Alan Nevas orders DCF to hire more staff to reduce caseloads and to increase payments to foster parents. (Also that year, the department changes its name to the Department of Children and Families.)
February 1995: Problems reported
Federal monitor reports caseloads continue to be a problem.
March 1995: Investigation ordered
Gov. John G. Rowland demands an investigation of DCF after 9-month-old Emily Hernandez is raped and murdered by her mother’s live-in boyfriend and 16-month-old Candy Fortis is killed by her father. After reviewing thousands of files at DCF, state officials remove more than 100 children from their parents’ custody and put them in foster care.
February 1996: Problems reported
Monitor reports DCF not meeting caseload standards.
November 2000: Failures reported
Monitor finds that workers fail to make required face-to-face visits to children in foster homes 98 percent of the time and fail to make required telephone contacts 96 percent of the time. Also, more than 25 percent of foster homes exceed capacity and nearly 8 percent have expired licenses.
February-June 2001: More workers sought
Monitor finds DCF must hire many additional social workers to reduce overtime and meet caseload and visitation standards.
July 2001-June 2002: Court issues orders
Lawyers for children intermittently accuse the state of noncompliance. DCF officials say they are concerned mandates are too restrictive. Court issues orders holding DCF accountable to visitation, adoption and mental health standards.
November 2001: Smaller caseloads
The state agrees to reduce caseloads to a maximum of 23 per social worker after report finds DCF is not meeting foster child visitation standards.
January 2002: Speeding adoptions
DCF agrees to speed up the adoption process. DCF officials say adoption rates have improved from a low of 146 in 1996, when Connecticut had the worst adoption records of any state in the country, to 603 in 2000.
February 2002: 22-point plan
Court approves a 22-point plan to replace the multi-volume requirements of the consent decree. Goals include avoiding crowding in foster homes, reducing the number of moves children make while in foster care, and reducing the length of time children spend in foster care. DCF must also maintain current levels of staff and spending under the terms. Federal oversight will end if DCF meets performance standards.
November 2002: Incomplete records
Monitor says incomplete DCF records make it difficult to assess DCF’s success in meeting service demands for foster children. Study also shows DCF is doing better in meeting children’s mental health, medical and dental needs, but fails to meet the goal of completing investigations of alleged abuse and neglect within 30 days.
April 2003: Monitor says DCF falls short
Monitor finds DCF is “falling far short of agreed-upon measures” in reducing overcrowded foster homes, overstays in shelters and in recruiting new foster homes.
July 2003: Ordered to reduce caseloads
Court order issued accepting monitor’s findings that DCF is in significant noncompliance with caseload standards and staffing requirements; state ordered to reduce caseloads and hire more staff immediately.
September 2003: Receivership sought
Lawyers for children ask court to place DCF in federal receivership.
October 2003: New agreement
Agreement makes partners of the federal court monitor, the DCF commissioner, and the state Office of Policy and Management secretary, who will work together to control the agency. The agreement removes the threat of federal receivership for DCF; dissolves the terms of the old federal consent decree, and is meant to eliminate some of the legal and political obstacles that have crippled the process in the past.
August 2004: Hires help caseloads
DCF says it has added 94 caseworkers since July 2003 and is now compliance with caseload standards.
March 2007: 80% compliance
DCF agrees to ramp up services in an elaboration of one of the main goals in the 22-point Exit Plan – that DCF must “meet children’s needs” – at least 80 percent of the time
May 2008: Takeover urged
Plaintiff lawyers urge a partial federal takeover of DCF, accusing the state of failing to meet two key parts of the settlement: planning for the needs of children, and providing adequate services. DCF says it has had many successes, including meeting at least 16 of its 22 goals for the past six quarters.
July 2008: Judge approves settlement
A federal judge approves a settlement that orders the state to recruit more foster families and reduce the number of non-family group homes for abused youth.
Seeking to end 20 years of federal court rule, the state has filed a motion to end federal oversight of the Department of Children and Families.
If approved, the end of the oversight of the state’s long-troubled child welfare system would save the state millions of dollars in future lawyers’ fees and federal court monitoring costs. So far, the state has spent more than $10 million on such fees through the years.
The oversight has lasted for four governors in a highly publicized case, known as the Juan F. consent decree, that has led to major changes in the troubled department. The federal court monitoring, which has cost the state millions of dollars, was established following a class-action lawsuit filed against the state in December 1989 that said Connecticut’s child welfare system was in a state of “systemic, ongoing crisis.”
Two decades later, the state now says it has made enough progress that the monitoring can be lifted.
“The system that existed 20 years ago has been dramatically, substantially changed, and federal court oversight is no longer needed,” DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton said. “We’ve been operating this system effectively for years. … In our case, there’s clearly no longer a need for this to continue. There’s no risk of it reverting back to the way it was 20 years ago.”
Hamilton added, “It is time to stop spending millions of taxpayer dollars on lawyers and monitoring in a case that is no longer necessary.”
DCF’s motion was filed one day after the group that filed the original lawsuit, Children’s Rights Inc. of New York City, said that the state has failed to make court-ordered improvements to better care for abused and neglected children. In a letter to the state, the group said it would be forced to go back to the federal court if changes are not made in the coming months.
“Connecticut has continued to backslide on reforms,” said Ira Lustbader, an attorney with Children’s Rights. “These kids simply cannot wait another eight months for a new administration and for state officials to begin to make good on its promises.”
Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who was serving as a young state legislator from Brookfield when the original case was filed, is strongly backing the state’s motion.
“Working together, we have utterly transformed the way the state cares for children and families in crisis,” Rell said in a statement. “These are no cosmetic fixes – they are changes that run through the very bedrock of the agency. We have amply demonstrated Connecticut’s lasting commitment to improved training, care and services. It is now time to end the costly oversight process and return management of DCF to the state.”
Since the lawsuit was filed, the department’s overall budget has more than tripled – from about $250 million per year to the current level of more than $820 million. DCF has been in the headlines through the years following the tragic deaths of children, and the much-criticized department has had multiple commissioners since the federal case began during the administration of Gov. William A. O’Neill.
In addition to a much larger budget, the state says the department has shown improvements with better training, improved record-keeping, and more staff in a huge agency that now has about 3,400 employees. The state also says the number of children in state care has been reduced by 31 percent and caseloads for social workers have dropped by two-thirds since the original case started.
The state and lawyers for Children’s Rights Inc. have been trying to resolve the case for years. In an attempt to resolve the issue, the two sides agreed to an exit plan in 2003. As part of the exit plan, they agreed to an outline of 22 specific goals that needed to be met in order to end the case. DCF says that it is “meeting or nearly meeting” 20 of those 22 goals and has thus shown substantial progress.
The plaintiffs have countered that the state has failed on two key goals in the plan that cover treatment plans and whether children’s needs are met. Each goal can be highly complicated, generating reams of legal briefs through the years.
The case’s court file is among the largest in state history – covering numerous motions and counter-motions over a 20-year period. The court’s docket sheet has more than 480 entries since 1992 alone.
In a case that rivals the Sheff vs. O’Neill education battle for longevity, the Juan F. consent decree covers abused and neglected children who are in such dire circumstances that they need the state’s intervention.
The state’s motion to end the oversight was filed in front of U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Droney in Hartford, who has taken over the case after years of oversight by longtime senior federal judge Alan H. Nevas.
NEW BRITAIN – Speaking Polish and English, more than 1,000 people packed into Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Sunday afternoon to mourn the death of Poland’s president and top government officials in a tragic plane crash.
The standing-room-only crowd sang hymns in Polish and prayed for those who died at a fog-covered airport in western Russia as they were returning to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of more than 20,000 Polish prisoners during World War II. The plane crash killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others in a disaster that left no survivors.
Msgr. Daniel J. Plocharczyk spoke during the Mass about the crash in the context of the recent commemorations of Good Friday and Easter Sunday only one week ago.
“Another tragedy took place over 2,000 years ago,” Plocharczyk said during the homily. “An innocent, holy person was nailed to a cross and put to death for each one of us. … Yesterday, once again, we see that a tragedy has taken place.”
But he told the parishioners that he knew that they would remain strong in the face of tragedy because they would rely on the “faith that so many of you received in Poland and that you continue to live out here in America. … That’s why we have come together today because we can truly say from the bottom of our heart: ‘My lord, and my God, it is you who will bring us through all these tragedies in life because our faith is strong, and we do believe.’ ”
Plocharczyk told the crowd that he had received a telephone call at the parish rectory from Archbishop Henry Mansell of the Archdiocese of Hartford. He said that Mansell had told him that “the Polish people are strong and vibrant people … and he knows that our faith will bring us through this.”
As the sun shined brightly outside on a crisp, spring day, dozens of parishioners stood in the back of the church and others stood on either side of the church. The crowd included Polish war veterans who walked from the veterans hall adjacent to the church – all wearing gray pants and blue blazers. About 25 members of the ladies auxiliary – all wearing white dresses and blue capes – marched to the church in a quiet procession.
The news of two Masses at 3 p.m. in New Britain and another at 4 p.m. in Hartford spread quickly among the close-knit Polish community. On short notice, there was no time to announce the Masses in church bulletins, which had already been printed. Still, the crowds were huge on Sunday afternoon.
“This is all word of mouth – no preparation,” said state Rep. Peter Tercyak, a New Britain Democrat. “There’s no phone tree in these churches. Pretty impressive.”
The impact on the Polish people, he said, is profound. Among those killed were the deputy foreign minister, the deputy speaker of the parliament, the chief of staff for the Army, the civil rights commissioner, and the head of the national security bureau.
“It’s not just the president dying. It’s a whole swatch of the government gone,” Tercyak said. “The layers of tragedy here go on and on. … This is losing the whole family at the wedding celebration. The context is so much bigger than a plane crash with almost 100 lives lost.”
He added, “It’s as if we lost 80 politicians in America. … It’s the biggest deal since our Pope died.”
New Britain is the epicenter of the Polish community in Connecticut. At least 20 percent of the residents in the city are of Polish descent, he said. Some said the number is likely closer to 30 to 40 percent. When Poles were thinking of coming to the United States, Tercyak said, they knew three places: Chicago, New York, and New Britain.
“My whole life I’ve gone done Broad Street, and it’s never seemed unusual to see signs in the stores that don’t have a word of English,” said Tercyak, whose late father was also a legislator from the city.
Another legislator from New Britain, Democrat John Geragosian, said the Broad Street area is well known for its concentration of Polish people.
“The area has Polish restaurants and delis and markets and social clubs. It’s like Little Poland,” said Geragosian, who is of Greek and Armenian descent. “If you walk into those delis, they talk to you in Polish.”
Some of those attending the Mass said that they could not find any historical comparison to compare the depth of loss to a country of such high-ranking officials in a single event.
“Never. This is the first time it’s happened, and I hope it’s the last,” said Jane Prokop, president of the ladies auxiliary at the Polish veterans hall that is adjacent to Sacred Heart Church on Broad Street. “We were all born and raised there, and we all feel the same pain.”
Chester Plawski, 85, talked to his brother, who still lives in Poland, to learn about the crash. The travelers had been heading to the site of the massacre in Katyn, where Polish prisoners had been killed 70 years ago. The trip was marking a breakthrough in relations between two countries that have clashed sharply through the years.
“This is the first time that Putin said something about Stalin about killing his own people,” Plawski said. “The Russians said the Germans killed them. But Putin admitted that Stalin killed all these people.”
At the age of 17, Plawski said he battled in World War II. His future wife, he said, was only four years old when she was sent to Siberia and placed in a labor camp.
“I was in the underground army in Poland, and I fought against Germany and Russia,” he said. “It was a top-secret organization.”
On Saturday, the plane tried to land multiple times before crashing about a half mile from the airport.
“They still don’t know exactly what happened,” he said. “It’s very hard to say because they told them it was very dangerous.”
Gov. M. Jodi Rell issued condolences Sunday in both English and Polish following the deaths of the Polish president, his wife, and 95 others in a crash in heavy fog in Russia.
“The unspeakable loss for the people of Poland resonates with us all,” Rell said in a statement. “On behalf of Connecticut, I extend our deepest sympathies and prayers. Our state is very fortunate to have a vibrant Polish-American community, one that greatly contributes to the rich fabric of Connecticut and one that is in deep mourning today. We share in their profound grief.”
“Nasze mysli i modlitwy sa z calym Polskim narodem i Polonia w USA podczas tego smutnego i ciezkiego czasu. (Our thoughts and prayers are with the Polish community in Poland and the U.S. at this sad and difficult time).”
The state House of Representatives could vote as early as Tuesday on a tentative deal to close the state’s estimated $350 million budget deficit for the current fiscal year.
“There’s a tentative deal in place,” said Douglas Whiting, a spokesman for House Speaker Christopher Donovan of Meriden. “There’s still conversations taking place and likely will throughout the weekend.”
Some details of the deal are still being finalized, and the package is expected to be presented to the House Democratic caucus at 2 p.m. Tuesday. If the House passes the bill on Tuesday, the state Senate would then vote on Wednesday.
Despite any votes next week for the current fiscal year, the state is still facing a projected deficit of more than $700 million in the 2011 fiscal year and as much as $3.8 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.
The deal started coming together this week after Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell revealed a new plan Monday to the top legislative leaders in her office. The leaders met again on Friday, and a tentative deal was reached.
Rell’s plan does not include any taxes of any sort, but Democrats have been pushing to increase the estate tax on Connecticut’s wealthiest residents. Some Democrats still feel burned that the estate tax was reduced in a deal last year as part of an overall package that included increasing the state income tax to 6.5 percent, up from 5 percent, for the amount of money that couples earn above $1 million.
But Rell never agreed to the final version and allowed the bill to become law without her signature. Now, Democrats have been trying to change the estate tax, which they view as essentially a tax break of about $75 million for wealthy families. The latest version calls for increasing the estate tax to a maximum of 20 percent on the amount of the estate above $10 million – a jump from the current maximum rate of 12 percent.
Some Capitol insiders wondered why the Democrats recently included the estate tax changes in a deficit-cutting bill, which Rell immediately vowed to veto. Now, some believe that the Democrats will craft a budget-cutting bill that Rell could sign and then a separate tax bill that she would veto. As such, the deficit would still be decreased.
Based on changes that became effective January 1, only those who die with an estate of more than $3.5 million are required to pay any estate tax. Previously, the threshold was $2 million.
Republican Justin Bernier, who is running for Congress in the 5th District that touches the New York and Massachusetts borders, is ripping the state Capitol Police for blocking the flying of the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag in Hartford.
“The authorities are dead wrong to bow to political pressure from members of the legislature and deny a legitimate request to fly the Gadsden flag over the Capitol,” said Bernier, who served in the war in Afghanistan. “Connecticut citizens have good reason to be upset when the flags of foreign countries are allowed to fly over the statehouse, but not a flag associated with our nation’s founding and with the United States Marine Corps. This is more proof that the political class in Hartford is completely out of touch with the rest of us.”
Bernier is seeking the Republican nomination at the party’s convention on May 21 in Hartford for the right to battle against incumbent Democrat Chris Murphy in November.
Democrat Ned Lamont is finally going up on the air with his first television commercial – which will start airing around the state on Friday.
The commercial begins by reminding voters that Lamont battled U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman in the 2006 primary and then segues into Lamont’s business career that began with his founding of a company called Lamont Television Systems. The operation has changed names through the years and is now known as Lamont Digital.
“I’m a business guy,” Lamont says in the 60-second commercial. “I know that it’s business people that create jobs.”
The ad is at http://www.nedlamont.com/media?id=9
Lamont has been leading former Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy in the past three Quinnipiac University polls in the Democratic race for governor. Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman, Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi, and former state Rep. Juan Figueroa of Meriden are trailing the two front-runners in the poll.
Commentator Jim Vicevich opines on the plans to fly the Gadsden Flag over the state Capitol.
In the hours since Vicevich’s comments on the morning news on Fox 61 television, the state Capitol police have decided that the flag cannot fly because the matter had changed from a flag-raising event to a political event.
http://www.courant.com/videobeta/?watchId=e1fc54f5-96e0-4d7c-85e6-dceeb66c0267
Greenwich cable television entrepreneur Ned Lamont has won the endorsement of one of the state’s largest unions – the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 371.
Four years ago, the union endorsed New Haven Mayor John DeStefano over Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy in the final week before the August 2006 primary that DeStefano won. But this year’s endorsement comes far earlier than the one four years ago.
The 70-year-old union has about 10,000 members in Connecticut and about 12,000 overall in Connecticut, Vermont, and western Massachusetts. The union is the largest in Fairfield County and the fourth largest in the state AFL-CIO.
“We need Ned as the next governor of Connecticut to stand up for us, and so today we’re standing up for him,” said Brian Petronella, the union’s well-known president. “Ned’s spent his whole life creating jobs. He built a business from the ground up, and he’s not afraid to make tough choices in order to protect Connecticut’s working families.”
Petronella added, “Ned has shown us that he has the courage to tackle the problems facing our state head on, with a fresh perspective and the kind of clear vision that Hartford has been lacking for two decades. The members of UFCW Local 371 are proud to support him.”
In a statement, Lamont said, “My top priority as governor will be to create good jobs, like the ones the folks at the UFCW have fought for over the years. Jobs that pay a fair wage, provide safe working conditions and offer fair benefits.”
While neither Lamont nor Malloy has broadcast television commercials yet, Malloy has started a paid online campaign that will be seen on “hundreds of Connecticut news and information websites, including key political blogs,” the campaign said.
The ads show Malloy talking about his life, his 14 years as Stamford’s mayor, and his plans for the future.
“We’re running a smart, disciplined, and targeted campaign that reaches out to the right voters at the right time. This online advertising is another component of that effort,” campaign manager Dan Kelly said in a statement. “We see advertising as one more tool to engage voters, and to let them learn more about Dan Malloy, his record of accomplishment in Stamford, and his plan for getting Connecticut back on track.”
A new poll by Rasmussen Reports shows that Greenwich Republican Tom Foley would defeat either Ned Lamont or Dannel Malloy in the November gubernatorial election.
The telephone poll of 500 residents showed that Foley would beat Lamont, a fellow Greenwich resident, by 44 percent to 37 percent. Another 13 percent of those polled said that they were not sure, and 7 percent picked another candidate.
Foley would also defeat Malloy, the former mayor of Stamford, by 44 percent to 35 percent. In that potential contest, 14 percent were unsure and 8 percent chose another candidate.
The Republican and Democratic primaries are slated for Tuesday, August 10, and the general election is in November.
Both Lamont and Malloy would defeat Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele by three percentage points each in potential match-ups for November, according to the poll.
Foley has been on television far more than any other candidate in the race. Neither Lamont nor Malloy has broadcast TV commercials yet, and Fedele is running an ad primarily on the Fox News Channel to target conservative Republicans who are either delegates to the May convention or likely voters in the August primary.
In a continuing political battle, the State Bond Commission approved a new, $70 million public health laboratory that has drawn sharp opposition from the surrounding Rocky Hill neighbors.
The 7 to 3 vote Wednesday came after a similar vote last month had failed on a 5 – 5 tie as all five Democrats on the commission banded together after saying that the neighbors had not had enough time to analyze the plans.
The state-of-the-art facility would allow for testing for anthrax and other biohazardous materials, which has raised fears among the neighbors. The lab will be a replacement for the deteriorating, 45-year-old lab in Hartford, which is within walking distance of the state Capitol, the Bushnell theatre, the state office building on Capitol Avenue, and Bushnell Park. Thousands of people walk and work near the currrent laboratory on a daily basis, and many are not aware of its location in a non-descript building near the state DEP headquarters.
Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell said previously that many of the concerns about the facility were actually related to a union battle over whether non-union contractors would be building the $70 million complex. One of the chief opponents of the laboratory is Shaun Cashman, a high-ranking union official who once served as the state labor commissioner under then-Gov. John G. Rowland.
State officials were surprised when Cashman recently showed up at a private meeting about the laboratory plans with two Democrats – Sen. Paul Doyle of Wethersfield and Rep. Tony Guerrera of Rocky Hill. Cashman attended the bond commission meeting Wednesday and often looked back at Doyle and Guerrera, who were standing in the back of the room.
When asked after the vote whether the dispute is over union issues, Cashman said, “I’m just looking for safety. I have no other issue beyond that.”
He then walked away from a reporter.
More than 30 different contractors are recommended to work on the project, including about a dozen with contracts for at least $1 million. Some of the biggest contractors on the list are Tucker Mechanical, Pioneer Valley Concrete, United Steel, S. G. Milazzo & Co., Ductco Inc., Gibson Associates, Electrical Contractors Inc., and Simscroft-Echo Farms, Inc. of Simsbury. Other contractors are Century Drywall Inc., WDJ Construction, CT Mason Contractors Inc., Gold Seal Roofing & Sheetmetal Inc., and Suntech of CT, Inc.
The three Democrats who voted against the laboratory were Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, state Comptroller Nancy Wyman and state Rep. David McCluskey of West Hartford. Sen. Eileen Daily, a moderate Democrat and key swing voter on the bond commission, changed her vote from last month and supported the laboratory on Wednesday. She told Capitol Watch that her concerns had been answered.
After the original vote last month, Rell told reporters that she was angry and frustrated by the process. She said the plans had been in the works for five years and were well known to town officials in Rocky Hill.
Rell’s aides distributed a timeline and lengthy details about the plan to show that Rocky Hill officials had been aware of the proposal for years.
The lab is a critical component of the state’s public health mission. Scientists at the current lab test for West Nile virus, childhood lead poisoning, rabies, and drinking water contamination, among other public health concerns.
The issue over the Rocky Hill location flared up when a group known as Construction Workers For A Safe Environment started distributing fliers to Rocky Hill residents with the statement that the materials at the new lab “may cause serious or potentially lethal disease as a result of exposure by the inhalation route.”
Stanley Einhorn, a Rocky Hill resident who found a flier on his doorstep last week, said last month that everyone on his street got the flier, which says the Rocky Hill laboratory would be at the same level as the notorious laboratory at Plum Island, N.Y., in Long Island Sound. But Rocky Hill’s, like the lab it would replace, would be a Level 3 laboratory, while Plum Island is a Level 4 facility.
“It’s not as bad as Plum Island, but there are contagious things there,” Einhorn said. “I definitely think it’s a bad idea. … There’s a lot of potential problems.”
Doyle, the state senator who sought a postponement of the bond commission vote, said last month that the brochure was “inflammatory” and “dead wrong” in certain aspects regarding the state’s plans.
“This facility has no live animals. It’s not like they’re testing live animals like at Plum Island,” Doyle said. “There’s a lot of misstatements in here. You can’t get near Plum Island. There’s 100 percent security.”
Doyle rejected the notion that the dispute was about union construction jobs, saying that the issue never came up during the one-hour meeting with public health commissioner Robert Galvin and other state health department officials at the state Capitol complex.
“I don’t know any of those [union] issues because Cashman didn’t tell me any of that,” Doyle said last month. “The motives of Cashman are irrelevant. … In the meeting, there was nothing about unions. It was all science.”
The new laboratory, which is scheduled to be built on 22 acres near the State Veterans Home and across the street from Dinosaur State Park, would replace the current lab at 10 Clinton St. in a densely packed, congested area of downtown Hartford.
Because of the weak economy and the heavy competition among contractors for construction jobs, the state had received a bid that was $12 million less than expected.
Galvin, the public health commissioner, has described the current lab in Hartford as antiquated and said its plumbing, heating and air-conditioning systems are deficient. On hot days in the summer, staff members must put containers of ice on top of specimen coolers to ensure that the samples are kept cold enough, he said.
Galvin told the bond commission last month that the lab has no experimental animals and that it’s never had trouble containing organisms it is testing.
A construction contractor has offered a price that would cut $12 million off the overall cost, and that offer expires April 15, Galvin said.
Longtime Greenwich journalist Bernie Yudain, who was known as “Mr. Greenwich,” has died at the age of 91.
A former managing editor of the Greenwich Time newspaper, Yudain seemed to know more about the town than anyone.
He also seemed to defy age – and was still telling stories and spinning political tales at the age of 90. He remained sharp through the years and could tell a story with the best of them.
He was an institution in Greenwich and co-founded The Harpoon Club in which a public figure was roasted every year.
Two of the most powerful political leaders in the state – Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and House Speaker Chris Donovan – squared off Tuesday over the state budget and the Democratic-controlled finance committee’s votes to close Connecticut’s huge budget deficit.
They specifically clashed over the complicated borrowing process known as “securitization,” which is mandated in the state budget to fill a hole of $1.3 billion in the 2011 fiscal year.
Rell wanted to securitize the proceeds from legalizing the keno electronic gambling game, but the committee instead decided to borrow against a surcharge on electric bills.
Rell said the “proposal to securitize revenue from charges on consumers’ electric bills is not the solution I would pursue. Ratepayers, who have paid these charges for the last 10 years, have rightfully been expecting the charges to soon be expiring – by the end of this year for Connecticut Light & Power customers and in 2013 for United Illuminating customers.”
Rell added, “Some sort of securitization is necessary. This option, however, is the least desirable for Connecticut’s beleaguered families.”
But Donovan took issue with those statements, saying Rell was the one who wanted to securitize in her own budget proposal.
“It was the governor’s proposal to securitize $1.3 billion,” Donovan told Capitol Watch. “I think she’s being less than truthful with the public. … For her to criticize it is disingenuous.”
He added, “I’m disappointed in her rhetoric. Her rhetoric is less than truthful.”
In the crafting of the budget last fall for the second year of the two-year plan, a request for securitization was used as a placeholder to fill the $1.3 billion hole. The exact way of how the money would be borrowed would be determined later – which is now.
“The Republicans and the governor wanted to borrow,” Donovan said. “We went along with the governor. … We did a variation of what she proposed – a slight variation of what she proposed.”
Democrats said several times Tuesday that the move was not a rate increase for electric customers.
“It’s funds that the ratepayers are paying,” Donovan said. “It’s a phase-out, but we’re grabbing some of it.”
Overall, the plan calls for using 56 percent of the current surcharge, which was supposed to be phased out to zero.
Donovan was surprised at Rell’s comments, which were issued by her press office.
“Her staff was happy with our proposal for securitization,” Donovan said.
It wasn’t easy, but the University of Connecticut Lady Huskies have won their seventh national basketball championship.
After a very ugly first half that ended with Stanford ahead of the Huskies by eight points, superstar Maya Moore stepped up and proved to be the difference in the second half.
The team will be coming to the state Capitol in the coming weeks for the annual Huskies Day, but House Speaker Chris Donovan told Capitol Watch that no date has been set yet.
Jury selection is scheduled to start next week in the bribery and extortion trial of Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez.
A judge rejected Perez’s request Tuesday for a change of venue – dismissing the notion that Perez could not get a fair trial in Hartford.
Change of venue requests are made frequently, but they are very rarely granted.
http://blogs.courant.com/cityline/2010/04/judge-perez-trial-to-stay-in-h.html
Faced with billions in projected state budget deficits, the Democratic-controlled finance committee voted Tuesday to hike taxes sharply – creating a new hospital tax and increasing the estate tax for Connecticut’s wealthiest residents to the highest level in the nation.
The committee – on its final day to act under the legislature’s committee rules – also rejected Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s plans to legalize the Keno electronic gambling game. The money from keno was going to be used as the basis to borrow money under a complicated “securitization” process, but the committee decided to avoid keno completely.
Rather than using keno for securitization, the committee instead will use money collected every month in electric bills. That idea prompted a strong response from the state’s largest electric utility.
“With this bill, the legislature is effectively imposing a hidden tax on only a portion of Connecticut taxpayers – our Connecticut Light and Power customers,” said Jeff Butler, the president and chief operating officer of CL& P. “It is a blatant gimmick. It slips additional taxes into electric bills to temporarily plug a massive budget hole. This is not simply bad budgeting, it is bad public policy that singles out our customers to bear an unfair burden.”
The tax bill would also create a new hospital gross receipts tax of 5.5 percent as of May 1, but the tax would “sunset” in 2014.
Under the complicated tax, all hospitals would be charged the tax, but they would receive money back for “uncompensated care.” As such, hospitals in the cities with high amounts of non-paying customers would receive more money back than suburban hospitals that have larger amounts of patients who are covered by insurance. In turn, places like Greenwich Hospital would be net losers under the scenario.
The bill calls for setting aside an extra $20 million in revenue to help the hospitals that would lose under the formula. The budget-writing appropriations committee would establish exactly how the money would be allocated.
“The goal is to reduce the impact on the losers,” said Rep. Cameron Staples, a New Haven Democrat who co-chairs the tax-writing finance committee.
But Sen. Andrew Roraback, who represents 15 towns in northwestern Connecticut, said the new tax would harm the small, local hospitals in his district in rural Litchfield County.
“This tax is going to do irreparable harm for community hospitals,” Roraback said. “I think we’re engaged in a very dangerous game. … We should think twice before we put a dagger in the heart of those with jobs we represent.”
Staples, though, countered that tiny Sharon Hospital in Roraback’s district would be a net winner. Greenwich Hospital, for example, could lose from $5 million to $8 million, officials said. Danbury Hospital, on the state border, is talking about a merger with New Milford Hospital – and they are both currently on the “loser” list under the Democratic proposal.
“The hospital tax can hardly be considered fair by any stretch of the imagination,” said Sen. Michael McLachlan of Danbury, who opposed the tax.
Some lawmakers noted that the state had a similar tax in the 1990s, which was controversial before it was disbanded.
Republicans were also highly concerned about proposed increases in the estate tax, which would last for two years.
“We’ve seen quite a bit of back and forth on the gift and estate tax issue,” said Rep. Vincent J. Candelora, the ranking House Republican on the committee. “We sort of had this trade-off for the elimination of the cliff in the gift and estate tax.”
“We’re looking at almost doubling the estate tax for individuals in Connecticut,” he said. “I’m concerned about what impact this will have on small business. … We would see a sell-off of those companies.”
Rep. Lile Gibbons, an Old Greenwich Republican who represents the Greenwich waterfront, said increasing the estate tax is “absolutely going down the wrong path.” She added, “People just aren’t going to stay” in Connecticut.
“In my region, farmers are telling me the estate tax will hurt them,” said Rep. Christopher Coutu, a Norwich Republican. “They are land rich and cash poor.”
“It’s my personal iteration of a reality show called The Biggest Loser,” said Rep. Livvy Floren, a Greenwich Republican who represents the famed “backcountry” district in the area north of the Merritt Parkway that includes multi-millionaires and some of the richest people in the nation.
Sen. Toni Boucher, a Wilton Republican, said the legislature had been considering eliminating the estate tax at one point and is now calling for pushing the highest tax rate to 20 percent for the portion of the estate above $10 million. She said that many Connecticut residents have changed their domicile to Florida, where there is no estate tax.
Rep. Themis Klarides, a deputy House Republican leader, said the reason for the tax increases Tuesday stems directly from the refusal of the Democratic majority to cut spending in the $18.91 billion state budget.
“We don’t want to make the serious cuts,” Klarides said.
Rep. John Piscopo, a veteran Republican in Litchfield County, said there is a direct cause-and-effect between changes in the Connecticut estate tax and various cars showing up in the state.
“Every time we tweak the estate tax, there’s more Florida plates in your district,” Piscopo said. “I compare the General Assembly to the British Empire where the sun never sets on the legislature.”
Sen. Andrea Stillman, a Democrat, said the state is facing budget deficits of more than $3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year, and the legislature must make tough choices to close the budget gaps both this year and in the coming years.
“We know the decisions we have to make are difficult,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything today that we’re voting on that puts a smile on anybody’s face. … Today is not a pleasant day.”
Rep. Mary Mushinsky reminded her colleagues that some hospitals will receive more money than ever under the reshuffling of the money being funneled back to them, giving them “a new lease on life” that will help the hospitals.
After passing the hospital and estate tax changes, the committee debated another bill on a complicated plan for securitization to plug a hole of $1.3 billion in the second year of the two-year budget. There will be an estimated 4 percent interest rate on the 10-year, special tax-obligation bonds. The state has not been forced into securitization since the state’s last major fiscal downturn in the 2002-2003 cycle when Republican John G. Rowland was governor.
The Democratic-controlled committee rejected Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposal to take money generated by legalizing the Keno electronic gambling game. Keno was expected to generate $60 million per year, and that revenue stream would have been securitized to pay off the bonds.
“Securitization is not an option we embrace lightly,” Staples told his colleagues. “It does not touch the energy funds that were originally proposed … for a source of revenue for this. … We feel this is the most responsible way to do it.”
The bill would increase electric rates by $1.8 billion over 10 years for residential and commercial ratepayers in order to pay off the bonds in the complicated securitization process. That revenue stream would be securitized, thus generating the money to plug the budget hole. Republicans described it as an unfair tax on electric customers.
The bill would apply only to CL&P and United Illuminating customers and not those who have municipal operations like Norwich and Wallingford.
“I feel this committee is enabling the appropriations committee to continue to spend,” Candelora said. “This is not a good decision for job creation in Connecticut.”
In a third controversial bill, the legislature tackled the difficult issue of “combined reporting” that has been strongly opposed by major corporations and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association – the state’s largest business lobby. Known as Senate Bill 485, it is titled “An Act Concerning Tax Fairness.”
The bill would apply to companies like Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., General Electric, and GE Capital.
For 2007, there were 105 companies in Connecticut that elected to file a unitary return, according to the legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal office. Any company that opts into the system currently must do it for five years.
“We are completely restructuring the corporate tax code with this particular piece of legislation,” Candelora said. “It may not result in any revenue gain at all. … It has a feel-good title of tax fairness. It probably should read: tax arbitrariness.”
While some of the data is unavailable, the legislature’s fiscal office is estimating that the bill would generate an estimated $15 million to $35 million per year.
The bill has strong support from the New Haven-based Connecticut Voices For Children, a think tank that closely analyzes state spending and taxes. Voices said that the bill “would close corporate tax loopholes by preventing multi-state corporations from avoiding state taxes by artificially shifting their profits to subsidiaries in other states” around the country.
“The problem is sometimes we don’t know the abuse until it occurs,” Staples said. “This just creates a system where there are very few opportunities for companies to take assets out of state. All those intra-corporation transfers would not make any tax advantages.”
Students at the University of Connecticut are protesting the tuition increase that will take effect in September and the extensive renovations to the office of university president Michael Hogan.
Hogan was not there at the time as he was at the women’s Final Four in San Antonio.
The Hartford Courant’s Kathleen Megan has details at http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-uconn-protest-tuition-hikes,0,5555020.story
Hartford Courant cartoonist Bob Englehart weighs in on the upcoming bribery and extortion trial of Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez.
http://blogs.courant.com/bob_englehart/2010/04/april-6-2010.html
The two defense attorneys for accused murderer Steven Hayes say they could pull out of the case over his request to switch his plea.
Hayes has told Superior Court Judge Jon Blue that he wants to switch his not-guilty plea to guilty in the deaths of three members of the Petit family in Cheshire in July 2007.
Veteran Courant court reporter Alaine Griffin has the details at http://www.courant.com/community/cheshire/hc-web-hayes-0406apr06,0,7155167.story