Lawmakers eye penalties for electric companies
Gov. Ned Lamont on Friday called the General Assembly into special session next week to give local election officials extra time to deal with the expected blizzard of absentee ballots on Election Day, as well as hold the state’s electric utilities more accountable for multi-day outages caused by inadequate responses to weather events.
Lawmakers may also make it easier to buy, sell and clean up so-called brownfield properties that have long been contaminated by industrial waste. “It’s about getting our economy moving again,” Lamont said outside the State Capitol shortly before 4 o’clock.
The legislature, which will gavel in on Tuesday to adopt rules but won’t vote until later in the week, will also elevate four judges; and approve half a billion dollars in school construction projects.
But a fight over the extent of the session is likely brewing among Republicans who say the Democratic-controlled legislature is biting off more than it can chew with a wideranging agenda that could amount to electioneering.
“I have significant concerns about some of these bills,” said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, RNorth Haven. “A lot of these bills do not have to be done. They have nothing to do with COVID, nothing to do with the public health emergency. I call these ‘5-by-7 bills,’ which is the size of political postcards sent to voters before the election. This is how legislation gets passed with unintended consequences. Let’s do this right.”
Fasano questioned the logic of calling both chambers into the Capitol for non-emergency bills, while at the same time keeping the building closed for smaller meetings.
The governor said that it was important to not only take up issues that are timely, but also the subjects that can be done without affecting the state budget, which has the school projects builtin.
Lawmakers want to establish penalties against the electric utilities for failing to restore power in a timely way. The bill could force Eversource and United Illuminating, the state’s two chief distributors of electricity, to pay customers for the value of spoiled food and medicines in future storms.
Lamont told reporters that minor adjustments to the absentee-ballot process would give more time for local election officials to prepare mail-in ballots for counting on Election Day, and allow ballot counts to begin earlier than usual. It is certain to be a record number of absentee ballots, following the summer special session in which lawmakers agreed to change state law to allow people to vote by absentee ballots if they have concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
“For me, I thought it was very important, given the fact that we have a very high-profile election coming up in a little over a month, there is going to be 10, 20 times more absentee ballots than we’ve ever had before, and I want to put everybody’s mind at ease, and give the registrars all the flexibility they need to make sure we can count these votes on a timely and accurate basis,” Lamont said. “They can start processing the ‘ABs’ earlier, the Friday before election day, checking signatures, the outside envelops, making sure that they are ready to go, ready to be counted when the time is right.”
The governor said that “an army of volunteers” from state government will be on hand to help local election officials assure an accurate count.
“With November’s election just six weeks away, it’s just as vital to ensure every vote is counted and the outcome cannot be questioned,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, in a joint statement. “We will make sure every absentee ballot mailed will be accepted and counted according to state law.”
Looney and Duff said they are looking forward to making important strides next week, including the so-called Take Back Our Grid Act to “ensure the people of our state receive the services they pay for, ensuring that corporations focus on the people they serve instead of the profits they earn.”
State Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, deputy House leader for the GOP, said Friday that the list of bills is very ambitious and he thinks that changing election procedures could be dangerous. An anticipated one-day special session on major changes to utility accountability seems too ambitious and might be better left to the next General Assembly, which opens its 2021 session on Jan. 6.
“Five weeks before an election we should be as expeditious as possible, and the phrase ‘do no harm’ should be the guide post,” Candelora said in a phone interview. “The energy policy is a very emotional issue and I think it’s dangerous to take up an issue like that, which could be more driven by the politics five weeks from election. I am also concerned about procedural changes to the election five weeks before the election, regardless of the merit. It could create an appearance of impropriety.”
Candelora said that the ambitious agenda could easily surpass the estimated single-day session in the 151-member House of Representatives.
Lamont’s call for the session includes variety of minor issues as well, including the alignment of hemp-growing regulations with federal rules; creating some better protections for highway workers; and to allow condominium owners to join the group of eastern Connecticut homeowners whose building foundations are crumbling away because of a locally mined mineral created flaws in 1980s home construction.
Lawmakers have been asked to leave Wednesday, Sept. 30 open for a House session, and the next day for the Senate to debate and act on bills, but by late-afternoon Friday, a date had not been settled for the Senate to meet.
It is likely to be the swan song for Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, and Fasano, who are retiring from elective office. It will be the final session for House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, who has said that she has goals for more public service, and has not ruled out a 2022 run for governor.