A wish list for the state’s special session
Gov. Ned Lamont has a holiday wish list. He mailed invitations Tuesday hoping to pull together a special gathering of legislators so they could catch up on some chores that just never got done in the spring or summer. There’s still time before winter kicks in Dec. 21, so he’s hoping to have a productive few days leading up to it.
He even wrote out his list: “1. Transportation Infrastructure. 2. Bonding.
3. Hospitals Settlement.
4. Restaurant.”
If it reads like the scrawled notes of a harried shopper, allow us to translate. The first wish is for approval of the latest, more modest, plan to revive tolls in Connecticut; the second is for the annual bond package; the third is to finally settle a lawsuit by hospitals against the state and the fourth is to resolve a showdown between restaurant owners and workers who receive tips over wages.
We routinely hear from both sides of the aisle about Lamont’s likability. He hasn’t been able to translate that to action, though, so it makes sense the governor would make a list that is simple and clear.
But he should have checked it twice.
House Republican leader Themis Klarides deemed Nos. 3 and 4 “nobrainers,” which gives Lamont something to work with. The hospital situation is extremely nuanced, involving Medicaid reimbursements and hospital taxes. The standoff kept getting thornier throughout Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s second term. It needs to be put to rest and would impact many state residents, so there’s more at stake than the governor simply scoring a win.
Meanwhile, the restaurant issue has become politicized while lowwage workers’ livelihoods are on the line. Klarides says the legislation to resolve it has been ready since September. The only thing in the way appears to be the schedule of a parttime legislature.
If the lawmakers can make short work of those two issues, they should devote the remainder of a special session to finalizing the bond package. As mayors and first selectmen in municipalities throughout Connecticut prepare their own budgets, they deserve to know the dollars available to them in the package.
Which, predictably, leaves tolls.
Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano issued a statement Friday “demanding” Lamont call off his latest trucksonly tolls proposal in the wake of a federal appeals court decision supporting truckers’ claim that Rhode Island’s tolls are unconstitutional.
Even without yet another roadblock, Lamont’s plan could likely just serve as a distraction during a special session. Even if it had bipartisan support — which it doesn’t — it deserves scrutiny from taxpayers in the form of public hearings. If Lamont believes any toll legislation will pass in an endofyear special session, he is probably the only one of Connecticut’s 3.5 million residents who does. It’s not going to happen.
As he nears the end of his first year in office, Lamont should have learned by now that even governors don’t always get their wish.
If Lamont believes any toll legislation will pass in an endofyear special session, he is probably the only one of Connecticut’s 3.5 million residents who does.