Author: Christopher Keating

As the state legislature was battling over the budget Friday, one of the most controversial issues was the potential loss of the longevity payments that longtime state employees currently receive.

Only those with more than 10 years of service receive the payments, and a Democratic-written budget plan would end those payments for non-union employees.

With that as a backdrop, the Connecticut State Employees Association – SEIU Local 2001 – sent out an e-mail Friday to legislative employees and asked them to join the union. The authorization card states, “I authorize CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 to represent me in collective bargaining on wages, hours and working conditions with my employer.”

The card must include the employee’s name, home address, home phone, and job title, and it must be in the “employee’s own handwriting.”

The e-mailed letter is as follows:

March 26, 2010

In today’s economic climate, employees, like you, continue to struggle to maintain benefits that they have enjoyed for many years. At this time, legislative employees are at risk of losing their longevity and possibly other benefits.
 
Now is the time for legislative employees to come together and protect their longevity. The only way to do this is to organize as a union and secure a legally binding contract with the Connecticut General Assembly.
 
CSEA SEIU L2001 represents more than 22,000 active public sector workers and retirees. We are a Local of the nation’s fastest growing labor union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the largest union in Connecticut.
 
If you are ready to protect your benefits and have a say in your future, fill out the attached representation card for CSEA SEIU L2001 and send back to us. 

The letter continued,

“By signing this card you are expressing your choice to join CSEA SEIU L2001. Once a majority of legislative employees have signed up, CSEA SEIU Local 2001 will demand voluntary recognition of our union from legislative leadership and request to bargain a collective bargaining agreement for you.
 
To join CSEA SEIU L2001, fill in your information on the attached card, sign and date the card. Send back the card as an attachment via email to: [email protected] or mail to: CSEA SEIU L2001, 760 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106.
 
All information is strictly confidential. For more information contact, Stacey Malitz, Organizing Director, CSEA SEIU L2001, at [email protected]. You may also visit our website at www.csea-ct.com.” 

In a surprise move early Saturday morning, state Senate Democrats forced a debate on Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s deficit-mitigation plan.

The move was made, shortly before 1 a.m., in response to Rell’s threat to veto the Democratic-written deficit mitigation package. The Democrats, who hold the majority and control the agenda in the Senate, forced the debate by taking Rell’s plan and making it an amendment to one of their bills.

Sen. Dan Debicella, a Shelton Republican, said the Senate did not need to be debating in the early hours of the morning on a Saturday. The legislature, he said, never adopted meaningful spending cuts that would have prevented the continuing increase in the state budget deficit, which topped $500 million before various changes.

“We didn’t have to be here in the sense of having a deficit today,” Debicella said. “It goes back to the biennium budget that was passed almost six months ago now. … The revenue assumptions were unrealistic, and the spending cuts were phantom. … We have had no spending reductions whatsoever.”

“Deputy commissioners – they’re all valuable employees,” Debicella said. “But can we afford them? What we should do is eliminate those positions.”

The debate was still continuing past 2 a.m. Saturday. 

The state Senate had been expected to vote late Friday night on a Democratic plan that would slash state spending, lay off some high-level state employees, mandate more unpaid furlough days, and close the entire deficit for the current fiscal year.

But a series of delays lasted throughout the day, and the debate had not started on the Senate floor by 12:45 a.m. Saturday.

The plan calls for closing Riverview, the only state-run psychiatric hospital for children in New England. The hospital in Middletown, operated by unionized state employees, costs $862,000 per child per year to run, according to state estimates. Citing those costs, various officials have called for the closure of the facility that treats children with acute psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, psychosis, and bipolar disorder.

The largest item in the $535 million deficit-cutting plan in the current fiscal year is the transfer of $262 million from the state’s “rainy day” fund, which was initially planned to be used in the future. As such, the legislature needed – and did – find other ways to close the budget gap in the future because the immediate cash infusion was needed immediately. The second biggest item is deferring a payment of $100 million into the state employees’ pension fund, which lawmakers argue is simply a deferral of the problem because the level of various pensions will not be reduced.

Even before a single word of debate was uttered on the Senate floor, Rell announced shortly before 11 p.m. Friday that she would veto the bill.

“Unfortunately, I will have no choice but to veto this bill,” Rell said in a statement released by her office. “It is woefully short on real spending cuts and burdensomely high on tax increases. It even increases a tax – the proposed hospital user fee – which has not yet taken effect. The plan, while about $100 million higher than mine, also relies on revenue from a whole host of sources that are unrealistic at best.”

Derek Slap, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams of Brooklyn, said Rell’s veto is related directly to the Democratic plan to delay the reductions in the estate tax that is now paid by individuals who die with more than $3.5 million in their estate. Rell had vetoed a similar provision shortly after Christmas.

“Gov. Rell’s veto threat is unwarranted and irresponsible,” Slap said. “Democrats have a plan to cut the budget by more than $600 million, and it is done without raising taxes on the middle class and without cutting municipal aid. The governor’s veto threat is motivated by one thing and one thing only – protecting a tax break for the wealthy that the Democrats know Connecticut cannot afford.”

Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams of Brooklyn hailed the completion of the package as “terrific news,” saying it represented a substantial amount of work by lawmakers.

“It’s been a struggle to address the recession that’s been hurting Connecticut and our entire country,” Williams said. “Connecticut, like 49 other states, has faced budget shortfalls, and we know that we have to act to correct that.”

In a surprise development, the state House of Representatives was scheduled to convene in a rare Saturday session to vote on the deficit-mitigation package that Democrats are touting as an important compromise.

House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero of Norwalk learned about the short-notice session shortly before 4 p.m. Friday – making it less than 24 hours before the scheduled start of the 12 noon session Saturday.

“This is an Olympic and world record,” Cafero said, adding that it was the shortest notice for any session that he has seen in 18 years at the state Capitol. “It is reprehensible.”

“I have seen nothing – zero,” Cafero said, adding that writing amendments is essentially impossible for Republicans without seeing the final bill. “This is a partisan budget, not even with the pretense of being bipartisan. There’s not even an effort to say, ‘What do you guys think?’ ”

The late-night and Saturday voting is being done because the General Assembly is scrambling to finish its work this weekend before the Passover and Easter holidays. Even after the vote, lawmakers still must vote later on the future deficit for the next fiscal year, which is projected at more than $700 million.

Cafero charged that the House Democrats had changed their minds about closing the deficit after receiving negative publicity over their plan Thursday to increase spending by $373 million beyond Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s plan. The plan barely passed in the Democratic-controlled appropriations committee, 29 to 25, as conservative Democrats balked at their own party’s plan.

“All of a sudden, in less than 12 hours, they have this miracle mediation and came together on it,” Cafero said Friday. “I have a feeling it has more to do with this morning’s headlines than with any philosophical change of heart.”

When asked why the votes were being made at the last minute on a late Friday night and rare Saturday session, Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams said, “This isn’t last minute. We’ve been working on this for months now, particularly in the last couple of weeks.”

The current Democrat plan calls for eliminating all deputy commissioners as of the next fiscal year in an effort to save an estimated $3 million through the end of the two-year budget on June 30, 2011.

The proposal would also eliminate longevity “bonus” payments for all non-union employees who have more than 10 years of service with the state. The payments have become controversial lately as the state faces tough economic times, and the elimination would save more than $14 million over the next 15 months.

If all of the budget cuts are enacted into law, the “spillover” effect of the continuing cuts would shave about $100 million off the deficit for the next fiscal year.

The finishing touches were still being put on the bill Friday night, but some of the Democratic cuts are the same as those offered previously by Rell and Republican legislators.

“A significant amount overlaps,” said Derek Slap, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats. “The Republicans talked about the suspension of longevity payments. That’s included. There’s tens of millions of dollars of cuts that the governor proposed that are accepted.”

But Senate Republican leader John McKinney labeled the entire Democratic plan as “a mitigation package for show” that would not accomplish fundamental spending cuts. He charged that Democratic leaders have been “completely tone deaf” to the general public in a tough economy.

The behind-the-scenes battle has clearly been heating up in recent days among Democrats. One Democratic insider said that the House Democrats on the tax-writing finance committee had tabled various bills “to kill any vehicle that we would have” to pass the deficit-cutting plan in the Senate on Friday night. Others countered that the House has not been rejecting plans – saying they never even saw the Senate plan until at least 3 p.m. Thursday.

But House Speaker Chris Donovan of Meriden rejected the notion that he has been at odds this week with the Senate.

“I’ve never been on a separate track,” Donovan told reporters Friday as he stood next to Williams at the state Capitol. “Don and I have been on the same track, and we sat down and worked it out. … I think that was speculative rumor.”

The Senate Democratic plan also calls for two additional, unpaid furlough days for non-union employees, including one in the current fiscal year and one next year. That would save an estimated $2.4 million over the 15-month period.

Slap, a spokesman for Williams, said the plan would “fully balance” the budget in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Republicans, Democrats, and Rell have been clashing for the past several days over whether the Senate Democratic plan is “meaningless” and whether the  more-liberal House would approve the cuts.

The House Democrats held a caucus Friday afternoon to plot their next fiscal move, and Donovan said the lawmakers favored the deficit-cutting proposal. State Rep. John Geragosian, a New Britain Democrat who co-chairs the budget-writing appropriations committee, said his caucus wants to cut spending.

When asked why Rell and various Capitol insiders have all believed that the House would do nothing on cutting spending, Geragosian said, “I don’t think anybody ever asked us.”

Rep. Stephen Dargan, a veteran West Haven Democrat, said it is the shortest-notice session that he has seen in two decades at the Capitol. “No doubt – in my 20 years,” he said.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell was in Colorado on Friday, but she received detail information there on the Democrat-written budget plan at the state Capitol.

Shortly before 11 p.m., the Rell administration announced that she would veto the bill. The word spread quickly around the Capitol, and at 11:12 p.m., an announcement was made over the Capitol’s public address system that there would be an immediate caucus for the Senate Democrats.

In a rare move for a governor who has often said that she wants to carefully read the final wording of the bill after it is passed by both chambers, Rell made her announcement even before a single word of debate had been uttered on the Senate floor.

Rell’s full statement is as follows:

“Unfortunately, I will have no choice but to veto this bill. It is woefully short on real spending cuts and burdensomely high on tax increases – it even increases a tax, the proposed hospital user fee, which has not yet taken effect. The plan, while about $100 million higher than mine, also relies on revenue from a whole host of sources that are unrealistic at best.

 “In essence, this Democrat deficit mitigation plan raises taxes by $180 million, cuts spending by a paltry $65 million and relies on $175 million in other revenue, creative accounting and blithe assumptions to make up the difference.

 “My proposal, by contrast, calls for $64.7 million in taxes, $201 million in real spending cuts and $58 million in transfers from other state funds.

 “As usual, the Democrats give short shrift to spending cuts and high priority to increasing taxes and other revenue – just at the time when Connecticut’s families and employers can least afford it. The Democrats’ meager spending cuts will do nothing to solve the long-term structural problems within our budget and the unaffordability of state government. It is time that our elected officials stood up and did what is right for the taxpayer.

 “However, to the extent that the Democrat plan incorporates some of my spending cuts, I am encouraged – and would welcome the opportunity to work together on a mutually acceptable package.”

Derek Slap, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams of Brooklyn, said Rell’s veto is related directly to the Democratic plan to delay the reductions in the estate tax. Rell had vetoed a similar provision shortly after Christmas.

“Gov. Rell’s veto threat is unwarranted and irresponsible,” Slap said. “Democrats have a plan to cut the budget by more than $600 million, and it is done without raising taxes on the middle class and without cutting municipal aid. The governor’s veto threat is motivated by one thing and one thing only – protecting a tax break for the wealthy that the Democrats know Connecticut cannot afford.”

The House is scheduled to debate the bill in a rare Saturday session, but it was possible that the session could be canceled following Rell’s veto threat. Lobbyists and lawmakers were unsure early Saturday if the House would be coming into session – under the view that some Democrats wanted to avoid being forced into difficult votes on budget cuts if Rell was going to veto the bill, anyway.

The Senate still had not started the debate as of 12:45 a.m. Saturday

The state Senate Democrats are talking about passing Democratic budget cuts as early as Friday night – even if the House Democrats fail to agree on the cuts.

As such, Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell says that cuts in the Senate are “knowingly meaningless” if they cannot become law. The two Republican leaders – House GOP chief Larry Cafero of Norwalk and Senate GOP head John McKinney of Fairfield – agreed Thursday with Rell that the cuts will only matter if they are accomplished by both the House and Senate.

“I don’t know if it’s a show or not,” Cafero told reporters Thursday at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

“It is a show,” said McKinney, who was standing next to Cafero. “Anything we do in the Senate is purely for show. It’s a phantom gesture.”

While the exact date for the vote was still unknown, Senate Democrats have guaranteed that there will be a vote to reduce the projected $350 million for the current fiscal year by next Wednesday. The vote could come as early as Friday night or it could come next Wednesday. Senators are still determining the schedule because of the upcoming Passover and Easter holidays.

“We’ve known about this budget since October, and now we’re told the only time we can fix it is Friday after 5 p.m.,” McKinney said.

But Derek Slap, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, questioned where McKinney has been during the long budget battle.

“Speaking of show, we’re waiting for Senator McKinney to show up,” Slap said. “Where is their balanced budget plan? They haven’t shown up in the budget crisis. They never produced a balanced budget. They need to show up. We’re working on a plan, and we plan to vote on it very soon. … They’re doing their impersonation of Republicans in Washington – the party of no.”

Difficult decisions need to be made, Slap said, and the Senate is trying to move as swiftly as possible.

“Senator McKinney doesn’t want to work on Friday night?” Slap asked. “For all the talk of making tough decisions, they’ve been nowhere. They’ve been MIA.”

Democrats have been squabbling behind the scenes over the cuts. Some say this is the first time in 18 months that the Senate and House Democrats have broken apart – with some fiscally conservative Senate Democrats clearly pushing for more cuts.

The Senate never had the votes last year to override Rell on the budget or tax package because five key Democrats – Sen. Robert Duff of Norwalk, Joan Hartley of Waterbury, Gayle Slossberg of Milford, Paul Doyle of Wethersfield, and Ed Meyer of Guilford – all balked at various tax and spending plans.

Sen. Andrew McDonald of Stamford became the 19th senator last June when he agreed to a budget plan that allowed the bill to pass by 19 to 16 with one lawmaker absent. That bill, however, was vetoed by Rell. The final budget was passed in September, and it became law without Rell’s signature.

McDonald told Capitol Watch on Thursday that he had not yet seen the final proposed budget cuts for the deficit-mitigation plan and could not talk about them until seeing further details.

In their first official response to Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s budget, Democratic legislators narrowly voted Thursday for increasing spending by $373 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

The budget, approved by a tight vote of 29 to 25 by the appropriations committee, would increase spending over Rell’s proposal by $331 million for human services – the largest single jump in the proposal. The plan would increase spending in the judicial and corrections departments by $3.3 million over Rell’s plan and by $1.6 million to restore six legislative commissions that Rell had sought to eliminate.

With numerous moderate Democrats voting “no” in an election year, the vote was among the closest in recent years for the committee.

Overall, the bill would increase annual state spending to $19.28 billion – up by 4 percent over the current fiscal year and pushing the budget above the $19 billion level for the first time in state history.

In a surprising move, the bill would eliminate 390 positions out of more than 6,000 permanent, full-time positions to save about $17 million in the state prisons, whose unions did not agree to various concessions last year that other state employees did. The move stunned prison administrators, who had not been consulted on the proposed cuts. Lawmakers said the idea would cause the prisons to release non-violent criminals in a major policy shift, but they said much more discussion is needed because those plans have not yet been established.

Republicans immediately ripped the plan, saying the spending levels are irresponsible at a time when the state is facing projected deficits of more than $350 million in the current fiscal year and an estimated $700 million in the next fiscal year.

“They actually increase spending. It’s mind-boggling,” said Senate GOP leader John McKinney of Fairfield. “This budget is dead on arrival.”

McKinney charged that Democratic legislators are “completely tone deaf” to the economic problems facing the state.

The Democratic plan includes $20 million in new taxes on the insurance industry and a new 5.5 percent tax on hospitals, setting up a system of “winners and losers” among hospitals across the state. 

“One of the biggest losers, in all honesty, is Greenwich Hospital,” said Sen. Toni Harp, a New Haven Democrat, noting that the downstate hospital would lose $3.8 million. “If you look at the biggest winners in this pool … Yale-New Haven Hospital itself and Bridgeport Hospital.”

Overall, the Yale-New Haven Hospital system, which includes Greenwich Hospital, is a winner, she said. She added that many hospitals, even though they are considered non-profit, usually earn 3 percent to 5 percent more than their expenses.

But Sen. L. Scott Frantz, a Greenwich Republican, said that some hospitals across the nearby border in New York State – like United Hospital in Port Chester, N.Y. – have closed in recent years, prompting Greenwich Hospital to be overwhelmed “with a lot of cases that do not pay.”

Another Greenwich Republican, Rep. Fred Camillo, said the hospital suffered a round of layoffs and he knows from personal experience in the emergency room that “there’s a long wait in there.”

“Greenwich Hospital wasn’t targeted. I think they were a loser under every single formula,” said Rep. Patricia Dillon, a New Haven Democrat who is one of the legislature’s leading authorities on hospital issues. “We’re doing about as well as we can.”

House Republican leader Larry Cafero of Norwalk said the state’s fiscal problems have been accumulating rapidly as the legislature has decided to borrow money to cover up holes instead of making fundamental spending cuts.

“We are heading down this road on a train, heading for a brick wall,” Cafero said. “Now, we’re on a suicide mission. … Now, this is dangerous.”

Closed-door caucuses were being held Thursday morning, and the Democratic leaders of the appropriations committee – Harp and Rep. John Geragosian of New Britain – were not scheduled to speak with reporters until after 4 p.m.

A group of 15 moderate Democrats, including Sen. Robert Duff of Norwalk, had sent a letter to their leaders – asking for more cuts in spending. But the appropriations budget with increased spending “will underscore they have zero juice,” Cafero said of the moderates.

As an alternative to the Democratic majority, the Republicans said they favor consolidation of 23 state agencies into six, the sale of state assets, increased privatization, further concessions from the SEBAC unions, an end to the “longevity” bonus payments for state employees with more than 10 years on the job, and an end to public financing of political campaigns.

The budget discussed Thursday focuses only on the next fiscal year and does not solve the deficit problem of about $350 million for the current fiscal year that ends on June 30.

McKinney said Democrats had shown “their hypocrisy” in the funding of the judicial branch, which has been locked in a behind-the-scenes clash with the Rell administration over funding that has spilled out into the public. Based on the money that has been allocated, the judicial branch has said it would close six law libraries and three courthouses. None of those has happened yet, and lawmakers say they are hoping to forestall the closures.

Rell nominated 10 Superior Court judges this week, but some Democrats said they want to block the nominations because the judges are not needed during a fiscal crisis.

Republicans, though, said the judicial branch has 21 vacancies for judges, based on retirements, and the re-fill rate for the judges would be less than 50 percent.

In the appropriations budget, $23 million would be shifted into the judicial branch.

“They shift programs to the judicial branch to protect them from exposure to rescissions” by Rell, McKinney said.

Cafero charged that Democrats had engaged in a shell-game maneuver by moving school-based health clinics and various programs out of the general fund and shifting the duties to the state’s insurance fund, which he said is essentially a $20 million tax increase because the fund is operated through an assessment on the insurance industry.

“If that’s a cut, then I’ve got a full head of hair,” said the increasingly balding Cafero.

Lawmakers debated over the wording on whether it was actually an assessment, a fee, or a tax for Connecticut’s insurance industry, which funds the insurance department and the health care advocate.

“Aren’t we the insurance capital of the world?” asked Sen. Robert Kane, a Republican.

“I’m not sure if we’re the insurance capital of the world, but we used to be,” Geragosian responded. “Asking multi-billion-dollar industries to pay some of the bill would be a responsible ask.”

The committee’s discussion on the overall measure – House bill 5018 – started at about 1:45 p.m. Thursday at the state Capitol complex.

“This budget … actually shows that common sense has just left the state legislature,” said Sen. Dan Debicella, a Shelton Republican who is running for Congress in the 4th District in lower Fairfield County. “All the talk [of budget cuts] has been empty rhetoric. The budget before us today does not contain substantial cuts. … This budget makes a farce out of the issue we are all facing, which is a massive budget deficit.”

Debicella decried “the reversal of all the governor’s cuts in the human services area,” adding “at the end of the day, it lacks common sense” in dealing with the state’s problems.

“This budget doesn’t lack common sense,” Harp responded. “Since we’re not going to be taxing the people of the state, we’ve got to get revenue somewhere. … It is, in fact, common sense. In an era where we don’t want to raise taxes on the average Connecticut citizen,” the budget increases revenue from the federal government in the form of matching grants at the increased, temporary level of 61 percent that will last through the 2011 fiscal year.

The level will then return to the 50 percent match that the state traditionally receives from the federal government.

The budget generates $91 million in extra revenue – beyond the level planned by Rell – through increased federal funds. It also does not include any increase in fares for the Metro-North Commuter Railroad, which largely serves Fairfield County.

“It makes sense. It’s fair. It’s compassionate,” Harp said.

Like other fiscally conservative Republicans, Frantz said he could not support the budget Thursday.

“One of the cruelest things we can do for those in desperate need is to ruin our fiscal house,” Frantz said.

Rep. Craig Miner, the ranking House Republican on the committee, wondered why $570,000 for the Spanish-American Merchants Association – on page 101 of the budget – is being moved out of the general fund and into the state’s banking fund. Harp responded that many of the merchants need funds from the banks.

“Most people at home would adjust their spending, not a [new] tax or a fee,” Miner said later. “This budget is meaningless. … We should not support this budget because it’s not real. It will never see the light of day. It’s never going to happen. … I’m not going to go along with this sham. These numbers do not add up.”

Republicans have pushed hard for the consolidation of state agencies, but Cafero said the Democratic budget has “not one consolidation. Zero. None.”

Sen. John Kissel, an Enfield Republican who represents a district with thousands of prison inmates, said he was surprised by the reduction of 390 positions in the prisons.

“The Democrats have increased state spending by nearly $350 million, while at the same time cut funding for public safety,” Kissel said. “Even more outrageous is the fact that the appropriations committee proposed dramatic changes to our criminal justice system without talking to anyone in the field. Just today, I spoke with DOC acting commissioner Murphy, Deputy Chief Court Administrator Judge Carroll, OPM criminal justice undersecretary Brian Austin, along with a number of other folks, and this news caught everyone off guard. The appropriations committee can’t just mandate that we release non-violent offenders. There is so much groundwork that would need to be laid first, and no assurance that it would produce the desired results. In fact, releasing prisoners before they’ve served their full sentence and reducing staffing levels endangers the health and safety of all people of Connecticut.”

Kissel added, “These cuts will threaten the safety of our communities and our hardworking correctional officers. This proposal is not well thought-out, undermines public safety, ignores realities in the field, and is a slap in the face to everyone who works in the criminal justice system.”

“It’s not like we’re tinkering with the arts budget,” said Rep. Arthur O’Neill, the ranking House Republican on the judiciary committee. “It should have involved the judicial branch, the corrections department, and the judiciary committee.”

Geragosian responded that there could be a joint hearing with the judiciary and appropriations committees to discuss the issue.

“We would not do anything that would affect the safety” of the general public, Geragosian said.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, who has promised a vote in the coming days on a deficit-mitigation plan for the current fiscal year, said the plans for next year still require more work.

“The draft plan approved by the appropriations committee marks the beginning of the budget process for the 2011 fiscal year,” he said. “Legislative leaders will examine the draft budget, suggest changes, and work with Gov. Rell to reach a compromise on a balanced budget. In the meantime, Senate Democrats believe it is critical that we close the current year deficit. That’s why the Senate is preparing to vote on a 2010 deficit mitigation plan as early as Friday that includes significant cuts to state spending.”

Politics makes strange bedfellows.

In the days before she was running as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, wrestling entrepreneur Linda McMahon was trying to convince the Democrat-controlled state legislature to approve her nomination for a seat on the state board of education.

As part of the process, McMahon received written support from longtime Democrat Dannel Malloy, who is now running for the Democratic nomination for governor. At the time, Malloy was serving as the mayor of Stamford, where the World Wrestling Entertainment empire is headquartered off Interstate 95.

“Ms. McMahon has expressed a strong interest in improving the lives of young people in our community and as a global leader in media and entertainment, her community-mindedness and business leadership bring keen insights to public policy making and program administration,” Malloy wrote. “It is always critical for the state to tap the business insights and experiences, as well as the professional training and certifications, of our corporate citizens for public service.”

Malloy added, “By enlisting such corporate leadership, government weaves the business community into the everyday rhythm of our state, thereby ensuring long-term, public-private cooperation and success. Ms. McMahon’s background presents just such an opportunity for the state as she is considered by your committee.”

When asked about his support for McMahon, Malloy referred to the letter he had written. 

Others supporting McMahon for her position on the state school board included Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz of Middletown and U.S. Rep. John B. Larson of East Hartford.

 

http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/four-questions-for-connecticut-gubernatorial-candidate-dan-malloy/

Wrestling writer and blogger Irvin Muchnick is scheduled to be in Stamford today, promoting a book dealing with the World Wrestling Entertainment empire, former CEO Linda McMahon, and the death of one-time wrestler Chris Benoit. Benoit killed himself in 2007 after killing his wife and seven-year-old son.

 

Mushnick tangled with the Stamford police in a Freedom of Information case in the strange tale of a 19-year-old University of Connecticut student from Stamford who had changed Benoit’s Wikipedia entry before the bodies of his family members had been found.

 

The Stamford police interviews with the UConn student were videotaped, and Mushnick eventually obtained them. They are available below in three parts. 

 

Part 1 at http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/linda-mcmahon-chronicles-strange-tale-of-the-stamford-police-and-the-%E2%80%98benoit-wikipedia-hacker%E2%80%99-part-1/

 

Part 2 at http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/linda-mcmahon-chronicles-strange-tale-of-the-stamford-police-and-the-%E2%80%98benoit-wikipedia-hacker%E2%80%99-part-2/

Part 3 at http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/linda-mcmahon-chronicles-strange-tale-of-the-stamford-police-and-the-%E2%80%98benoit-wikipedia-hacker%E2%80%99-part-3/

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell has vowed to veto a Democratic plan to tax the huge Wall Street bonuses awarded by firms that received federal bailout money.

The bonuses to high-level executives at AIG and other bailed-out Wall Street companies prompted huge outrage across the country, and state Senate Democrats responded by calling for a special surcharge to tax the bonuses.

The narrowly written provision would apply only to bonuses of $1 million or more in 2010 and 2011 – and would only apply to executives at companies that were bailed out. With concerns about a special tax increase on a relative handful of people, Rell and some attorneys are questioning whether the idea is Constitutional.

“How will the state credibly estimate revenues at the time of the passage of the bill? How will the tax be enforced?” Rell asked in a letter Wednesday to top legislative leaders. “Can and will the tax be avoided by employers restructuring the bonuses, and how will this affect the state’s proposed revenue? Simply put, at this time, there are too many uncertainties surrounding the proposed tax surcharge to make reliance upon it responsible.”

Rell added, “Thus, I would be forced to veto any such proposal or proposals even though most people in the state rightly believe that such executive bonuses were, at a minimum, inappropriate given the use of federal taxpayer funds to bail out their host companies.”

But Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, one of the chief proponents of the tax surcharge, said Rell was siding with Wall Street fat cats instead of with Main Street.

“It’s a smoke screen,” Williams said of Rell’s position. “Folks in Washington have opined that this is Constitutional at a much higher [tax] rate.”

One of the ideas in Congress is to tax the bonuses at 90 percent – thereby almost erasing the entire bonus.

“Ours is a three percent surcharge,” Williams said Wednesday night. “Ours is much different and extremely reasonable.”

The current maximum income tax rate in Connecticut for couples earning more than $1 million per year is 6.5 percent, and the surcharge would add another 2.97 percent to that rate. One bill on the bonuses has been voted out of the Democrat-controlled commerce committee, while another is pending in the tax-writing finance committee.

Rell’s comments came one day after Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said that taxing the bonuses was “likely” constitutional. Rell ripped that ruling, saying it “is hardly a steadfast legal endorsement, and studied opinions to the contrary have already been offered.”

She distributed a legal opinion that was contrary to Blumenthal’s view, adding, “The final determination about the legality of such a proposal will undoubtedly be determined by a court of law at some future date.”

Williams countered that the idea is essentially a self-contained proposal that can pay for itself and can allow the suspension of the $250 annual fee that is paid by 46,000 small businesses across the state. The so-called “business entity tax” would be suspended for two years for small businesses only, even though some large corporations are registered as limited liability companies in essentially the same way as small businesses.

Longtime banking reporter Kenneth Gosselin’s story on Blumenthal’s ruling is at http://www.courant.com/business/hc-tarp-bonustax-blumenthal.artmar24,0,602937.story
 

The state Senate could vote as early as Friday night on a plan to cut the state’s growing budget deficit, but Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell is warning that the vote will be meaningless without a vote by the House of Representatives.

Insiders say that the House and Senate Democrats are sharply divided over the level of potential cuts – with the Senate Democrats pushing for more cuts and the more-liberal House Democrats refusing to make the cuts. Throughout the past year, some fiscally conservative Senate Democrats refused to vote on various tax increases – and no state income tax increases were approved until they reached the $1 million level for couples.

While no votes have been cast, some say this vote would mark the biggest break between the House and Senate Democrats over the past 18 months.

Senate Democrats are guaranteeing a vote on the deficit by the end of the month, but the date is not yet certain. With the Passover and Easter holidays coming up, lawmakers have been trying to work out the schedules. The state Capitol is closed next week on Good Friday.

In a letter to the top six legislative leaders, Rell talked about a plan circulating throughout the Capitol that “relies heavily on spending cuts” to reduce the deficit that has been projected as high as $500 million in the current fiscal year that ends on June 30. With some adjustments this week, Rell’s administration is projecting the deficit at about $350 million. 

“While I very much appreciate and welcome the long-awaited attention to spending cuts, I am disheartened by the likelihood that the package will not, it is suggested, be taken up by the House,” Rell wrote. “It is being posited that the Senate will take up this package knowing that the House is not going to act on it and that a second, less cut-oriented consensus package will be then offered.”

Rell added, “I encourage and will work with you on the adoption of a meaningful deficit mitigation plan, such as the one I presented on March 1, 2010.  Action that is knowingly meaningless serves no one. The Senate, the House and my administration must make real cuts and take real action to deal with the state deficit. Separate efforts, while cosmetically or politically pleasing, do not address but simply mask substantive failure.  My administration continues to stand ready to work in a substantive, meaningful way, and I suggest that we begin with my March 1 deficit mitigation plan as a base.”

Read Gov. Rell’s full letter to legislative leaders here.

Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat, told Capitol Watch in an interview Wednesday that the Senate could convene after 5 p.m. Friday – after various committees meet their mandatory deadlines for votes.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams of Brooklyn said, “The General Assembly and Gov. Rell have an obligation to balance the budget. Gov. Rell is either unwilling or unable to convince legislators – even members of her own party – to support her budget mitigation plan. Republican legislators are focused exclusively on criticizing proposals from others, not offering solutions of their own.”

Williams added, “The current stalemate is unacceptable. Democrats must present an alternative and break the log jam. Gov. Rell could help. Unfortunately her letter to legislative leaders – delivered to the press first – is unproductive. Senate Democrats are working hard on finding solutions to the current budget crisis and will vote on a deficit mitigation plan that fully balances the current year deficit by the end of this month.”

House Speaker Christopher Donovan of Meriden said through a spokesman that the House leadership shared a working draft of a deficit-cutting plan with the Senate leadership during a meeting Wednesday. The two sides agreed to work further on the budget plan Thursday. Donovan had nothing further to say about Rell’s letter.

Williams rejected statements by insiders that Donovan had refused to sign an emergency certified bill, forcing the Senate Democrats to pull a bill off their calendar as the “vehicle” that would allow them to pass the deficit mitigation.

“No, we didn’t ask for an e-cert,” Williams told Capitol Watch.

Vice President Joe Biden has made headlines once again.

This time, his comments were caught on camera after he introduced President Barack Obama concerning the passage of the much-debated healthcare reform bill. Biden embraces Obama at the podium and then tells the president that the bill’s passage is a really big deal.

Many television networks have bleeped out Biden’s actual remark.

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/sns-ap-us-health-care-bidens-profanity,0,5955113.story

A former attorney for the Bush administration, John Michael Farren of New Canaan, has pleaded the Fifth Amendment in a civil lawsuit filed by his wife.

Farren is still being held on $2 million bond after being charged with the attempted murder of his 43-year-old wife after she had filed divorce papers.

http://www.courant.com/community/stamford/hc-ap-ct-bushattorney-attemar23,0,6487408.story

State Rep. Jamie Spallone of Essex has dropped out of the Secretary of the State’s race and has thrown his support to House Majority Leader Denise Merrill.

Spallone, a veteran Democrat who has served in the legislature since 2001, will be running for re-election in a district that includes Chester, Deep River, and Haddam.

 “Last January, I started exploring a run for secretary of the state because I felt I had the experience, knowledge of the subject matter and judgment to be Connecticut’s chief elections official and manager of corporate filings,” said Spallone, who co-chairs the Government Administration and Elections Committee.

He added, “Over the the past 14 months, I’ve visited dozens of Democratic town committees and attended events all over the state. The response has been positive. However, I have concluded that I cannot devote the time needed to wage a succesful campaign. I need to devote my full attention to repairing our campaign finance law in the face of an adverse court decision, my other duties as GAE chair and representing my district town of Chester, Deep River, Essex and Haddam during difficult times. I also have a law practice and, most importantly, two very young children at home. This is simply not the right time for me to wage a statewide campaign.”

Spallone gave a strong endorsement to Merrill, a veteran Democrat who is his friend and mentor.

“Denise’s commitment to good government and expanding our democracy predates her service in the legislature,” Spallone said. “She has been a stalwart supporter of campaign finance reform and other critical measures. Denise has helped me countless times with my work on government and electoral reform, and she is committed to restoring civility to our political discourse and engaging the next generation of voters. Denise also understands that in these times of economic challenge, our next secretary of the state needs to be an effective advocate for Connecticut businesses.”

“Jamie Spallone has been a gracious and worthy adversary on the campaign trail, and I respect his record in public office and his passion for the issues,” Merrill said in a statement. “I am extremely grateful for his support for my candidacy and for the enthusiasm of his endorsement. I look forward to campaigning with Jamie in the coming months.”

The Courant’s Arielle Levin Becker reports:

When Massachusetts voters elected Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate in January, cutting the Democratic majority to 59, conventional wisdom pegged the health reform effort as doomed.

But U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd says that may have actually helped get reform passed.

“I always thought the number 60 was a problematic number,” Dodd said Tuesday during a conference call with reporters, shortly after President Obama signed the health reform bill into law.

Having 60 Democrats in the Senate, Dodd explained, meant that every Republican would vote no and every Democrat had to vote yes. Losing a Democratic seat meant those pushing health reform had to work differently, Dodd said, and it reinvigorated Democrats to get the job done.

As for Republicans, who did not support the bill, Dodd said he believes the health reform experience might lead some of his colleagues across the aisle to reconsider their approach. A number of Republican colleagues were not happy with their party’s strategy of “just saying no to everything,” he said.

“They want to be part of the solutions,” he said. “They didn’t run for the United States Senate to say no to everything.”

Dodd touted the new health reform law and the benefits he said it would bring to Connecticut residents. Provisions that take effect immediately will begin to close the Medicare “doughnut hole,” eliminate coverage limits, and allow young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies until age 26.

Another piece of the reform package, a $100 million hospital grant, could help Connecticut fund a renovation and construction project at the UConn Health Center in Farmington. Dodd, who got the grant inserted in the health reform bill, noted that at least 12 or 13 other states could qualify for the money. The grant can be used to fund hospital construction, but requires the state that receives it to come up with another $150 million or more for the project, which Dodd said could limit the amount of interest in other states.

One of the most controversial aspects of health reform, the pubic option, did not make it into the final bill, something Dodd said he regretted. He suggested that a public option could one day re-emerge, particularly if the health insurance exchange that the health reform legislation established is well received.

Dodd said he worries that the passage of health reform is discussed in language he likened conversations about March Madness, with focus on which side won or lost.

“The team that won doesn’t serve in Congress,” he said. The winners, he said, are families who hope for a time when getting sick won’t mean going bankrupt.

“This is a real victory in my view for generations to come in America,” he said.

And the insurance industry?

“They’re a highly flexible, creative industry,” Dodd said, predicting that insurers would do well.

He singled out Aetna Chairman and CEO Ronald Williams for praise.

“They’re a smart company,” he said. “They’ll figure out ways to compete, to be involved in this marketplace, so I have no concerns about them going out of business as a result of this health care bill.”

In a strongly worded letter, the state employee unions are rejecting Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s requests for more labor concessions in order to balance the state budget as “cynical scapegoating,” pandering, and “completely unacceptable.”

Rell submitted the requests to the unions in a proposal labeled “confidential document concerning collective bargaining strategy and negotiations” that requested concessions on pensions, health insurance for state employees and retirees, sick leave payments, and eliminating disability retirement for any employees hired after July 1.

In an idea suggested by several Republican candidates for governor, Rell wanted to end the state pension plan for any new employees hired after July 1. Those employees would be placed into a 401 (k) – type plan with the employee contributing 5 percent and the state matching it at 5 percent – in a plan similar to the private sector. Rell also wanted to increase the health insurance contributions by state employees by 10 percent on July 1.

Rell also wanted to increase the prescription drug co-pays to $10 for generic, $25 for brand-name drugs on the preferred list, and $40 for non-formulary drugs in a manner similar to the rates in the private sector. Some private companies start the generic co-pays at $20 per prescription for a 30-day supply.

The response, signed by 14 union leaders, slams Rell personally for seeking the concessions.

“Today, you are pandering to the partisan politics of the gubernatorial campaign in making proposals that show a cynical disrespect not just for Connecticut’s 45,000 public service workers but for all of Connecticut’s struggling working families,” the letter states. “While we will not dignify your letter and proposals with a point-by-point reply, we will point out some of the highlights.”

The letter stated later that “Wall Street bankers and other millionaires” had not been asked to pay their fair share of state tax revenues. The state legislature raised the state income tax last year to 6.5 percent on couples earning more than $1 million per year, but some lawmakers and union members had wanted bigger tax hikes.

“And in a cynical effort to distract the public from your constant choice of the 5 percent who are super rich over the 95 percent who are suffering,” the unions stated, “you make proposals to us which you know perfectly well are insulting and completely unacceptable, no doubt just so you can try to scapegoat public service workers for refusing them.”

The unions added, “Cynical scapegoating which masquerades for leadership is exactly what the people of Connecticut don’t need in the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression.”

But state Republican chairman Chris Healy said the union leadership is completely out of touch with the current economic downturn, including the complaints about Wall Street bankers.

“This is just classic, ignorant class warfare. This is like the 1940s, and they think John L. Lewis is in charge of the union,” Healy said, referring to the famous president of the United Mine Workers of America who led the union from 1920 through 1960.

Healy said the union leaders do not understand that the state is facing massive deficits of more than $3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year – when the legislature will have spent all of the rainy day fund and federal stimulus money that helped close the gap over the current biennium.

“Either the state employees are going to get with the program now or a lot of them are going to get unemployment later – no matter who the governor is,” Healy said. “The party’s over. I think most state employees understand that, but the leadership doesn’t because they don’t work for a living. The governor is a very reasonable person, and they spit on her publicly. What makes the state employees so special?”

Among the various proposals was a request by Rell for a wage freeze and furlough days for the prison guards and the correctional supervisors – two unions that declined to make the same concessions as those made by multiple other unions in the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition, known as SEBAC.

Regarding pensions, Rell wanted to use only base wages in calculating all pensions after the SEBAC agreement expires in 2017. Currently, the controversial longevity payments, as well as overtime, count toward the pension calculations.

Since the state economy is still weak, the state’s tax collections in virtually every category are far below the expected levels.

“The taxpayers are tapped out,” Healy said. “Eventually, there’s just no money. If there’s no money, they don’t get paid. But a lot of these radical leaders don’t care about the newer employees.”

Since the Democrats hold two-thirds of the seats in the legislature, Healy says the union leaders believe that jobs can be saved. 

“They think the Democrats in the legislature will do their bidding – as they have for the last 10 or 15 years,” Healy said. “The Democratic legislature is owned lock, stock and barrel by the public-sector unions. There is no secret about that.”

Sen. Dan Debicella, the ranking Senate Republican on the budget-writing appropriations committee, agreed with Healy, saying that the unions cannot maintain their stance.

“I think they’re in for a rude awakening,” said Debicella, a Shelton Republican who is now running for Congress. “Even if there is a Democratic governor [in January], the state employees have to be part of the solution. … The unions are playing politics. This isn’t Wall Street bankers versus union members. You can play politics with it and everyone can call each other names or we can sit down and actually come to solutions.”

When portions of the letter were read to him, Debicella responded, “Wow! That’s over the top. … That kind of tone of saying the governor is being cavalier is not credible.”

Even with the concessions in the 2009 SEBAC agreement that was approved by Rell and the legislature, Debicella said that state employees still have a package of benefits that is far superior to similar workers in the private sector.

“They went from a $5 to a $10 co-pay on their prescription drugs, which is well under what most people pay,” Debicella said. “Show me a private company where you can get brand-name drugs for $10. It doesn’t exist.”

Despite the unions’ strong response, Rell’s budget director, Robert Genuario, said Tuesday afternoon that he believes there is still a chance for dialogue with the state employees.

Stating that he is “disappointed in the tone” of the letter, Genuario said he is not giving up because the state faces a budget deficit of more than $3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.

The unions “certainly did not embrace the proposals,” Genuario told Capitol Watch. “Sometimes that’s how these things start out.”

When asked if he believes the Rell administration can strike another deal with the unions, as it did last year, Genuario said, “I don’t think I would handicap the outcome.”

Greenwich cable television entrepreneur Ned Lamont, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, said he would be reaching out to the unions if he is elected in November.

“In my business life, I’ve found that I get some of my best ideas from listening to the workers on the front line,” Lamont said. “As governor, I’m going to have to make some tough choices to get us out of this budget crisis, but I will not balance the budget on the backs of our state employees. I’m going to start at the top, with my own salary, the commissioners, the middle management. And I will make sure that our state employees are at the table before we start talking about cuts.”

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-unions-reject-rell-0324.artmar24,0,3058593.story

http://scullycommunications.com/scullyblog/

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal issued a legal opinion Tuesday that taxing Wall Street bonuses in excess of $1 million is “likely constitutional.”

The Senate Democrats have been seeking an income tax surcharge on bonuses that were awarded by companies that receive federal TARP bailout money.

“In my opinion, a court would likely find the proposed tax on TARP bonuses to be a constitutional exercise of the state’s taxing power,” Blumenthal said in the opinion that was sought by Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams of Killingly.

The Courant’s longtime banking reporter, Kenneth Gosselin, has the details at http://www.courant.com/business/hc-bailout-money-taxes-0323,0,2042180.story

The two leading candidates in the polls for the Democratic nomination for governor – Greenwich cable television entrepreneur Ned Lamont and former Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy – are in favor of the Connecticut Supreme Court’s ruling in the long-running funding battle by the Connecticut Coalition For Justice in Education Funding, known as CCJEF.

Some insiders believe the case won’t be resolved for years because the split decision has been sent back to the lower court for a trial.

“I learned the value of a good education from my grandmother, who was a teacher in Puerto Rico,” Lamont said in a statement. “Her dedication to her students inspired me to teach at Harding High, at CCSU, and it will inform my work as governor to revamp Connecticut’s education pipeline from cradle to career.  One of Connecticut’s greatest assets is our highly educated workforce, but our advantage is slipping.  I applaud the Supreme Court for taking a stand today for all of Connecticut’s kids.”

Lamont added, “Under my leadership, the state will live up to its obligation to provide not just an adequate education for our kids, but a world-class education that prepares them to compete in the 21st century marketplace. Our kids’ future is Connecticut’s future.   As governor, I will track the reforms Mayor DeStefano and the AFT have implemented in New Haven and make sure Connecticut gets our fair share of the Race to the Top funds down in Washington.” 

The Courant’s Arielle Levin Becker reports that Malloy believes the ruling could ultimately help the state recover its edge in education.

“I think in the long run it is very important to the state of Connecticut,” said Malloy, who was among the group that launched the coalition that brought the lawsuit. “I began these efforts years ago because I firmly believed that the state was not honoring its constitutional requirement and the funding formula for education in poor and urban communities was not fair to those communities.”

Malloy would not say whether he favors shifting the cost to income, sales, utility, hotel or other types of taxes, but added, “In every other state in the nation, some revenue source other than this reliance on property taxes is being used.”

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said, “Lacking a majority for a clear result, this ruling will require the legislature and the executive branch to closely consider the meaning of ‘minimally adequate education.’ The lower court judge who hears the case enabled by this decision faces a similar challenge.”

Blumenthal, who is running for the U.S. Senate, has pledged to continuing defending the case at the Superior Court level.

Our colleague, Rick Green, weighs in at http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/2010/03/real-education-reform-in-ct-wi.html

Hartford Courant cartoonist Bob Englehart weighs in on the battle between Greenwich wrestling entrepreneur Linda McMahon and former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons of Stonington in the race for the U.S. Senate.

http://blogs.courant.com/bob_englehart/2010/03/march-21-2010.html

Regardless of the question Monday, the answer was virtually always the same: we must work with labor.

Six gubernatorial candidates who spoke in front of the state AFL-CIO’s top leaders Monday in Hartford repeatedly said they would seek labor’s help to solve the state’s fiscal problems.

The AFL-CIO has not made any endorsements in the governor’s race, but some of the candidates were clearly seeking the support of the union members. While the union federation does not endorse candidates in every race, the group endorsed New Haven Mayor John DeStefano over Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy in the August 2006 gubernatorial primary.

Four years later, Malloy is running again and he told the group at the Hartford Hilton that there would be a new tone if he reaches the governor’s office.

“We have had governors in this state who have attacked you,” Malloy said to about 250 union leaders. “That is going to change. … Together, with the people in this room, we’re going to build a new Connecticut.”

 The Democratic frontrunner – Greenwich cable television entrepreneur Ned Lamont – said he does not tailor his responses to labor audiences, but instead says the same thing to both business and labor groups.

“I may not be the best business candidate. I may not be the best labor candidate,” Lamont said in an interview. “But I think I can bring them together.”

When he ran in 2006 for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Joe Lieberman, Lamont said, “I didn’t get invited to one chamber [of commerce] four years ago,” Lamont said.

The only Republican who addressed the group was Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, a former schoolteacher and union member who is the son of a Teamster. When Boughton answered a question on whether he supports raising the minimum wage, he did not get a positive response.

“Right now, as we speak, no, not right now,” Boughton said on the minimum wage hike.

“Boo!” someone shouted from the back of the room.

“I know that’s not something you want to hear, but it’s something you need to hear,” Boughton said.

Later in the forum, Boughton said, “Today, you’ve heard about how terrible Republican governors have been.”

Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman and Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi both said they support raising the minimum wage. Several speakers criticized the high-ranking executives at Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., who said recently in New York City that anywhere is less expensive for them to operate than in Connecticut.

Former state Rep. Juan Figueroa of Meriden said the state cannot have a situation where a top executive at UTC goes to New York City “and disrespects the taxpayers of this state.”

While politics was clearly on the minds of those present, longtime state AFL-CIO president John Olsen – a former state Democratic chairman and former Greenwich Democrat Town Committee chairman – said his union is diverse. He noted that 50 to 55 percent of AFL-CIO members are Democrats, 12 percent are Republicans, and the rest are unaffiliated.

Olsen, who noted that state Democratic chairwoman Nancy DiNardo was in the back of the ballroom, said he had reached out to state Republican chairman Chris Healy.

“We’ve always welcomed everyone to this table,” Olsen said.

The state Office of Policy and Management is concerned about a potential case of identity theft for citizens who applied to the furnace rebate program.

Potentially, the names, addresses, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and dates of birth could be at risk. The Hartford Police Department is investigating.

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-social-security-numbers-stolen-0322,0,6689546.story