The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
GOP effort to force vote on contracts fails
HARTFORD >> An attempt by Republicans to flex their muscles by pushing for an amendment to the House rules that would force members to vote on labor contracts for state workers failed this week.
State Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, introduced an amendment that, in his words, would have given the House the authority “to vote on contracts put forth by the executive branch and state unions.”
Candelora’s amendment failed on a 76-72 party-line vote.
Candelora said he put the legislation forward because it is clear that “30 years of spiraling pension obligations” are hindering
the state — and the state legislature’s ability to control overall expenditures.
He said legislators deserve to have a “greater say” in the contract negotiations.
But Democrats defeated the amendment, in part because they haven’t been given enough time to digest the language, according to House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford.
Ritter said legislators had only seen the amendment “30 minutes” before they were asked to vote on it. That wasn’t enough time, said Ritter.
Lori Pelletier, president of the Connecticut AFLCIO, said the vote on the rule was really “a second vote on the speaker.”
Last week, the Office of State Ethics found there was nothing that would bar House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, who works as an education coordinator for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, from serving as speaker while being employed by the union.
House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, declined to second Aresimowicz’s election as speaker earlier in the day.
In her speech on the House floor, Klarides said this is the “smallest margin” between the minority and the majority in recent history. Republicans gained eight seats in the November election.
She said that, in a parttime legislature, where lawmakers hold outside jobs, it’s not always about “what’s right and wrong. It’s about what the perception is because oftentimes perception becomes reality.”
She said there’s nothing wrong with what Aresimowicz is doing and he followed all the rules in asking for an opinion.
She tried to strike a more bipartisan tone toward the end of her remarks, calling Aresimowicz an “honest broker.”