Connecticut’s legislative session ends this week. What are lawmakers rushing to accomplish in the final days?
WSHU’s Ebong Udoma spoke with CT Mirror’s Mark Pazniokas to discuss his article, “CT General Assembly nears adjournment, scores of bills awaiting final vote,” as part of the collaborative podcast Long Story Short. Read Mark’s story here.
WSHU: Thanks, Mark, for joining us. So let's start with the budget. Apparently, some better-than-expected revenue helped Governor Ned Lamont (D) and lawmakers get a deal on midterm budget adjustments to Connecticut's two-year budget, but tax cuts and Lamont's $200 October rebate checks were left out. Talk a little bit about how they crafted this deal and how they were able to get it across the finish line over the weekend.
MP: The press was surprised when the Speaker of the House, Matt Ritter (D-Hartford), said they expected to have this done, and then they would vote on it Saturday, both in the Senate and the House, which seemed to be very aggressive. But, you know, they were able to do it. There were a few factors. One is what you just mentioned, that the revenue numbers came in better than expected. Don't underestimate the fact that it's an election year, and everybody really wants to play nice in election years. The last thing you want to do is leave the session with a sense of chaos or resentment over what did or did not get in the budget.
So the governor's idea for a rebate was tossed aside, but there is more indirect money to help property tax owners and whatnot, who are really much under the gun right now by adding money for education, aid to municipalities and other municipal grants. Some of it is money that will continue going forward. Some of it's one-time spending. It was a surprisingly bipartisan vote, not huge as far as the Republicans in the Senate, although, you know, in both chambers, it was really roughly half of the Republicans voted for the budget, actually slightly more than half in the House. So again, it was an opportunity to move past the budget and not deal with it in the final three days when the dynamics of the Capitol get a little funky.
WSHU: Let's talk a little bit about that, because you've written about that. The General Assembly adjourns in a couple of days, but there are scores of bills awaiting a final vote. Why does that always happen?
MP: The brief answer is, if you look at the calendar of the legislature, picture a big funnel. The beginning of it is the bills that go into this funnel. They are reviewed by committees, there are public hearings, they are vetted, and then they are reported out to the floor. There's always a delay because anything that is going to have a fiscal impact, you really can't act on it until you know what the budget is, and so that always holds things up.
The other aspect is that there are always far more bills that end up on the calendar that have a prayer of getting passed. And that is for many reasons. A big one is a part-time citizen legislature, lawmakers, you know, will begin the session with issues that their constituents have raised. Sometimes there are duplicate bills that are bills that attack the same thing in different directions, and then they are eventually assembled into one bill. But this is the short session. There's a three-month session in even-numbered years, and a five-month session in odd-numbered years. So there's a real crunch to get things through.
The other thing that's fascinating about the Connecticut General Assembly, it gives voice to the minority party in a way that you do not see in other states, and you certainly do not see in the Congress of the United States; the Democrats have super majorities in both chambers, but there's a tradition of unlimited debate, which means the Democrats have got to, kind of bring Republicans along, and that usually results in some compromises, some revisions. It can frustrate some Democrats, particularly Democrats who are more on the political left, and they look at the supermajorities and say, Come on, let's do bigger things quickly. But Connecticut, over time, has really adopted groundbreaking legislation. Take labor issues, for example. You know, the minimum wage pay, mandate on paid sick days, paid family medical leave program, and a whole bunch of other protections in the workforce that you don't see in other states, and sometimes Connecticut has actually inspired other states to look at what they're doing here, particularly on labor law.
WSHU: Now talking about labor law and labor benefits, Senate President Martin Looney (D-New Haven) announced that he will not seek re-election this year. Was that a surprise, considering he's been one of the most liberal members of the legislature for so many years?
MP: It was not a surprise. He did file papers for re-election, but you could tell it was just sort of a placeholder. Two years prior, when he filed for re-election, there was speculation he might retire. His longtime chief of staff had left the Capitol. So that prompted speculation that Marty Looney would be leaving. But two years ago, he said, No, no, no, I'm absolutely running. This time, he was a little coy. He's 77, he turns 78 this summer. He had a kidney transplant a while back, although I'll tell you he is, he is a tough bird. I mean, he's suffered from a lifetime of debilitating arthritis that has slowed his walk and bent his spine, and the drugs he took to fight the arthritis is what eventually destroyed his kidneys. But, man, he just, he just kept, you know, bumping along. But he told me Saturday, it was time. I was surprised he did it Saturday during budget day. I thought it would be something maybe on the last day, but he wanted to get this out on a day in which there was only one agenda item, which was the budget, because even Marty said the last three days are going to be too crazy and too busy to be bothering with news about an old Senate President retiring after setting the record as the longest serving leader of that chamber.
WSHU: What's his legacy?
MP: His legacy is some of that labor stuff we just talked about. He really was a force behind a lot of that stuff. He had partners with unions, certainly other legislators, Governor Lamont has gotten heat for not being as, certainly anywhere near as aggressive as Marty Looney is on these issues. But as Senator Looney has noted, the governor turned out to be a pretty significant partner on a lot of these bills, supporting their passage and signing them.
WSHU: Even though he was sometimes quite reluctant.
MP: Well, and or seeking versions that were not quite what Senator Looney wanted or were all going to take effect. For example, when they did the minimum wage, they did a phase-in. It went from $10.10 an hour to $15 over several years, and then once it hit $15, it became indexed to a consumer price index, and it now goes up automatically every year, which is exactly what Looney wanted, and it's what Lamont agreed to. It took a little bit longer than he would have liked. But you know, the bottom line is the governor was there at the end for it, and they have a decent personal relationship, even though their biggest disagreement has been over a surcharge on the richest taxpayers. Marty Looney and others would like to impose a 1% surcharge that would bring in more money to do property tax relief in a number of ways.
WSHU: Well, he got most of the stuff that he wanted done eventually, which is a mark of a good legislator. Okay, thank you so much, Paz. I really appreciate you doing this.
MP: All right, I'm going to the Capitol.
