By State Senator Toni Boucher
Our local municipal leaders and boards must be commended
for their extraordinary work in closing deep financial
holes our towns have found themselves in. They have
all been successful in passing balanced town budgets
during this extreme economic downturn. They rolled up
their sleeves and faced the terrible hand they were
dealt.
I wish I could report the same for our state government.
Like her fellow chief executives at the local level,
Governor Rell also faced the state fiscal crisis head
on by making several rounds of spending rescissions,
proposing five deficit mitigation plans to address the
current year’s billion dollar shortfall, and putting
on the table two difficult budget proposals to close
the projected $8.7 billion deficit over the next two
years without raising taxes.
In contrast, the legislature’s veto-proof majority
put forth a budget rife with $3.3 billion in new taxes.
But when forced to vote on it in the senate, not a single
legislator voted yes, not even those senators who had
written the budget and spoken so highly of it in the
press.
The people I meet in the day-to-day course of life
are rightly dismayed that the General Assembly had five
months to come up with a plan to eliminate the existing
state budget deficit and pass a new two-year state budget,
yet did neither.
The majority party in the legislature would be well
served to adopt the same sense of urgency and stewardship
displayed by our local leaders. Their inability to make
tough decisions leaves the Governor with very little
choice but to govern by executive order on a month-by-month
basis, only spending on the most essential of services.
Beyond the budget, the General Assembly held countless
committee meetings, public hearings and legislative
sessions. Approximately 3,000 proposals were debated
and over 250 bills made it through the approval process.
There was legislation passed that I believe will benefit
the state, and other bills that I could not support.
The General Assembly passed legislation to abolish the
death penalty. Governor Rell vetoed this bill because
she believes, as do I, that Connecticut carries out
this ultimate penalty for only the most heinous of crimes
-- and even then, only rarely.
Some other bills that passed included banning a food
additive, apologizing for slavery, prohibiting kids
from shooting machine guns, outlawing select primates
as pets, a pet “lemon law” and pet trusts.
Legislation was also passed that takes away the Governor’s
authority to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat; mandates
that each school have an automatic external defibrillator,
and staff trained in its use; establishes a “silver
alert” system to notify the public when their
assistance is needed to locate a missing senior citizen
or mentally impaired adult; and requiring the state
to notify schools superintendents when a released sex
offender lives, or plans to live, in the community.
Major health-care reforms were passed but with no way
to pay for them.
Many bills died with the end of the session, such as
proposals prohibiting smoking at the casinos, imposing
a nickel tax on plastic grocery bags, allowing people
to register to vote on Election Day, decriminalization
of marijuana (which I had a major role in stopping),
and a bill that would have made Connecticut the only
state to impose state regulations on hedge funds.
As a member of the General Assembly’s Finance,
Revenue and Bonding Committee, my focus during the summer
special session will be on helping to adopt a responsible
state budget that provides government services at a
cost the taxpayers can afford. We must take a lesson
from our local leaders if we are going to pass a budget
before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1st.
As always, please feel free to contact me with your
ideas, questions and concerns at my legislative office
in Hartford at 1-800-842-1421, or via e-mail to Toni.Boucher@cga.ct.gov.
I enjoy hearing from you.
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