Lamont’s transition advisers to unveil agenda
Proposals could usher in sweeping changes
HARTFORD – Transition advisers to Gov.-elect Ned Lamont will lay out a policy agenda for the first 100 days of his administration this week, unveiling a series of recommended proposals that could usher in sweeping changes in a number of key areas.
After the election, Lamont convened panels on everything from education to energy policy to the criminal justice system. The committees were charged with coming up with a series of recommendations that could serve as a template for the newly elected Democratic governor’s first 100 days.
Although he appointed the members of the committees, Lamont is not bound to adopt their policy proposals. He will release his own agenda for the 2019 legislative session, which begins on Jan. 9.
On Monday morning, the committee studying women’s issues became the first to release its recommendations.
“I’m very happy that the women and girls is the first, the best,’’ Lt. Governor-elect Susan Bysiewicz told a crowd of about 75 people who came to a presentation at Grace Academy, a tuition-free school for girls in Hartford. “Women’s issues are family issues and family issues are economic issues and it’s all about the economy.”
Among the changes the panel is recommending:
Apledge to appoint womento at least 50 percent of his commissioners and executive branch jobs. A state council on women and girls would also be created to advise agency and department heads on matters relating to women, The council would be made up of volunteers.
Paid family leave.
Raising the minimum wage.
Revising sexual assault laws.
During the campaign, Lamont expressed support for raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The women’s committee is recommending that be phased in, with the $15 hourly rate attained by 2023. They are also supporting the creation of a new insurance program that would provide workers with paid family and medical leave, something Lamont backed during the campaign.
The statute of limitations for felony sexual assault crimes would be eliminated under the plan from the women’s issues panel. Connecticut’s five year statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of such crimes is one of the shortest in the nation. Advocates, who have been unsuccessful in pushing similar legislation over the past two years, say the change would ensure that perpetrators of past crimes are held accountable. They say old cases such as those brought against Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein could not be prosecuted in Connecticut under current law .
Bysiewicz said the initiatives could be achieved without a significant investment of public money. She framed the proposals are tools that will boost the state’s economy and create jobs.
But at least one member of the audience wanted reassurance.
Will you raise taxes? asked Norina Gakpey-Graham, a 10-year-old Grace Academy student who hopes to become a U.S. senator from Connecticut some day.
“Our charge to the transition policy groups was t ell us t he best [ideas]....without raising taxes,’’ Bysiewicz said. “Tell us how to grow the economy and make Connecticut a better place to start and grow a business.”
Later on Monday, advisers focused on health care, digital strategy, energy and human services released t heir recommendations.
Speaking Monday afternoon at the state Veterans Home and Hospital in Rocky Hill, the Lamont transition team’s human-services committee shared its draft report, with Jeanne Milstein, the former state child advocate, recommending that state facilities that serve children be licensed and regulated, and that accountability be increased.
After a suicide and six suicide attempts at the Solnit South children’s psychiatric center in Middletown, current Child Advocate Sarah Eagan first recommended licensing, regulation and inspections, with regular reports available to the public.
On the intellectual-disability front, Shannon Jacovino, public-policy director for The Arc Connecticut, and Barry Simon, CEO of the largest private group-home company in the state, said the state could serve far more clients, and reduce a queue of more than 2,000 people waiting for help, by cutting “massive” state overtime, bolstering private services, and favoring community-based services over outdated state institutions.
Transition-team members said the the state, among the top 10 in the nation for per capita opioid deaths, should make the antidote Narcan available for home use, increase prison sentences for fentanyl dealers, and create more school programs that build self-esteem in children, as well as an early awareness of the drug menace.
The health care committee is focused on making “Connecticut the healthiest state in the nation” by embracing a number of new initiatives. The group is recommending certification of community health workers, who provide front line medical care in community settings; promoting greater use of electronic medical consultations; address rising prescription drug costs and require Access Health Connecticut to adopt one “standard plan” consistent with value-based insurance design.
The committee charging with devising a digital strategy for the state is calling for a digital economy task force to work with the private sector to identify the skills employers are looking for. It is also proposing a manditory computer science curriculum for middle and high school students, which would aim to make children and teens comfortable with technology and coding.