My first session of the Connecticut General Assembly as your State Senator is complete, and it was an interesting one.  We accomplished a number of things that will benefit families in Stratford and Shelton, but left a large number of important issues unaddressed (most notably the budget, which we are still completing).

In this column, I wanted to detail the good things that we have accomplished for Connecticut and our towns.  I’ll spend my next two columns detailing the budget agreement and the issues where I think we failed—but I am a big believer in starting with the positive.

Creating Jobs in Connecticut

The General Assembly unanimously passed my proposal for creating jobs in Connecticut.  In April, I introduced an amendment to offer a tax credit to businesses that create new jobs.  Making Connecticut more pro-business and pro-job growth is a significant accomplishment that will aide all our families.

My proposal, which received bipartisan support, provides tax credits to corporations that create ten new jobs in a year. These businesses will receive a tax credit equal to 60% of each new worker’s state withholding tax. This jobs tax expands an existing program that, until we passed this legislation, applied only to companies moving into the state that create more than 50 jobs. I believe this new law will help create hundreds of new jobs for our area, and hopefully thousands state-wide.

Protecting Our Children

Among the most important accomplishments of this session is the passage of Connecticut’s version of Jessica’s Law, which is designed to keep child sexual predators off the streets for a very long time.

I co-sponsored this bill which, among other things, creates a new crime of aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 13-years old. Conviction of a first offense calls for imposing a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 25 years, while conviction of a second offense imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of 50 years. The legislation is modeled after laws passed in Florida and 38 other states.

Ensuring Stratford’s Involvement In Sikorsky Memorial Airport

In the final hours of the session, we passed legislation to give Stratford the final say around any proposal to do with Sikorsky Memorial Airport. Under this bill, which I co-sponsored with other members of Stratford’s delegation, the state cannot take any action regarding the airport without the town’s permission until April 15, 2008. If the town needs more time, I will work with fellow legislators to extend this moratorium.

Reforming Eminent Domain Law

I believe taking a family’s home by eminent domain for economic development is morally wrong, and the General Assembly has passed legislation to protect homeowners from what happened to the families in New London who had their homes taken away.

While not perfect, the new law provides the state’s property owners with significantly more protection than they previously had.  The new legislation prohibits the taking of private property for the primary purpose of increasing tax revenues.  It requires a two-thirds vote of town councils to approve the taking of private property through eminent domain, lays out a clear economic formula for independent appraisals of property values, and establishes an appeals process for affected property owners.

Of course, I would have preferred that we pass stronger legislation that bans all eminent domain for economic development – but this bill is a good first step toward providing Connecticut’s property owners with the protection that they need and deserve.

Protecting the Housatonic River

Earlier this year we were able to reverse a decision by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to dump contaminated soil in the Housatonic River.  Working with a broad coalition of people, we were able to get the DEP to move the contaminated dredged material from Coswell Cove in Milford to the well-established Central Long Island Sound Disposal Site.

This was government at its best—a broad coalition of public and private folks solving a real problem.  Public officials like Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti and DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy were deeply involved in finding an alternative to polluting the Housatonic, and private groups like Friends of the Housatonic provided much of the scientific data showing how harmful the contaminated soil would be to the river (and how it would not be harmful in the existing disposal site).

We continue to work with the DEP to make sure that no future dumping will take place in the Housatonic, and that they will proactively work with local officials to protect the river in the future.

Defeating In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants

As I write this, I am hopeful that Governor M. Jodi Rell has vetoed the legislation passed by the General Assembly to allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at UConn and other state colleges.  I led the fight against this special benefit for people who break the law.  Although the radical Democratic leadership pushed it through the General Assembly, I believe we have won the public debate on this and that the Governor will veto the legislation.

Giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants is unfair when there are so many legal residents in need.  We do not fully fund financial aid for middle class residents, and many poor legal immigrants are not able to afford college.  We should be helping those who follow the law before those who break the law.