The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
An I-95 tunnel? The things you find in blizzard of new laws
HARTFORD — As the General Assembly’s nonpartisan staff continues this weekend to tote up the flood of bills that passed or failed by the midnight Wednesday deadline, taxpayers are mostly aware of only a few that survived the legislative process, out of the thousands introduced in January.
Sure, the minimum wage will gradually rise to $15 an hour from the current $10.10 in about 41⁄2 years. Yes, if Gov. Ned Lamont signs the legislation to create a family and medical leave program, people will notice a small percentage of their pay going into the program, for which they may later exchange up to 12 weeks of benefits.
But do you know that 15 towns and cities without public swimming pools may start so-called dryland swimming lessons, with kids learning to float and dog paddle nowhere near water?
Or how about the bill that would allow children who display arsonist tendencies to avoid juvenile court proceedings if they agree to treatment?
The House of Representatives passed 428 bills in the recently completed legislative session, while the Senate endorsed 380.
They acted in concurrence on 276 of them, according to Timothy B. Kehoe, assistant Senate clerk. While dozens of those pieces of agreed-upon legislation were resolutions on personnel appointments, about 230 are new laws that over the next few weeks, Lamont will review for either support or veto.
On Wednesday alone, under deadline pressure, the House and Senate approved hundreds of pieces of legislation, from changing the length of drivers’ licenses to eight years from the current six, to establishing an apprenticeship program to foster manufacturing careers among high schoolers.
It helped that robust tax revenues resulted in nearly billion-dollar budget increases in each year of the biennium, which begins on July 1. Still, social services providers were disappointed that at a time when lawmakers touted more investments into the state’s emergency reserves, a decade of budget cuts have hurt programs throughout the state.
Newborns checked for genetic disorders
“During the economic recession, community non
profit funding was reduced and mid-year rescissions imposed additional cuts, year after year,” said Gian Carl Casa, president and CEO of CT Community Nonprofit Alliance.
“The state’s coffers are no longer empty and it is time for the legislature to restore funding for the community nonprofits that half-a-million people across the state rely on,” Casa said. “We will continue to ask: if the state cannot restore funds when surplus dollars are available, when can the funds be restored?”
Another bill that passed both chambers include mandatory screening of newborns for a genetic disorder called spinal muscular atrophy.
One awaiting Lamont’s review would increase health insurance coverage for people with hearing aids. It requires insurance policies to cover hearing aids for any enrolled beneficiary, not just for people under age 13, as the law previously said. The bill also says insurance must cover one hearing aid per ear every two years, instead of a limit of $1,000.
On Friday, Lamont signed a bill allowing for the decadelong development of 2,000 megawatts of electric power from offshore wind turbines that would be staged in New
London for delivery and installation in locations as far as 60 miles offshore, with ancillary jobs expected in New Haven and Bridgeport harbors.
“This emerging industry has the potential to create hundreds of good-paying jobs for the residents of our state and drive economic growth in towns along our shoreline,” Lamont said. “And by delivering zero-carbon renewable energy, we can increase our region’s fuel security while also making significant progress toward meeting our climate goals.”
Some disabled veterans and surviving spouses would receive increased the property tax exemptions of $500. The program would costs towns and cities statewide a total of $350,000 a year. It is not known how many additional veterans will qualify for the exemption, according to legislative researchers. The Connecticut Council of Municipalities opposed the bill, which cuts into towns’ property-tax revenue. Veterans asked for the property tax relief to be the same percentage as the individual disability ratings.
Bullying targeted; tunnel to Long Island?
A bill that won final passage in the Senate late Wednesday would change school safe-climate policy requirements, updating the definition of bullying to reflect the fact that it does not need to occur between two students.
Another would allow motor vehicle inspectors for the state Department of Motor Vehicles to use physical force to arrest or to prevent the escape of a suspect, like state and local police, state marshals and other law enforcement officials.
For the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, what wasn’t done is almost as important as some of the bills that passed in a Friday statement, the chief Capitol lobbyist for the 169 towns and cities breathed a sigh of relief over the removal of a requirement that municipalities for the first time pay for a portion of their teacher retirements. It was estimated to cost them $73 million statewide in the first year.
Still, the organization was disappointed that the state’s over-dependence on property taxes for local budgets was not addressed beyond a few encouragements to join together with neighboring towns on purchasing equipment.
Nestled in Section 41 of the annual bill that focuses on the state Department of Transportation, is a deadline extension to next January for the study of a tunnel from Greenwich to Bridgeport, under Interstate 95. The review of the unlikely capital project was originally included in the current budget and the study was due this past January.
State Sen. Carlo Leone, D-Stamford, co-chairman of the legislative Transportation Committee, admitted that the state’s Special Transportation Fund is a long way from have enough revenue to consider the 29-mile tunnel, especially with dozens of highway bridges rated in unsatisfactory repair.
“This was a last-minute request for an extension,” Leone said Friday. “I think we have more pressing projects.”
While that possible project could be an example of legislative over-reach, another common tactic in the waning days of the General Assembly is to literally hijack bills and morph them into something else. Take, for example “An Act Concerning Buildings,” which was supposed to be a technical change on certificates of occupancy.
On Wednesday, in the House and Senate, the bill was stripped and turned into legislation on pharmacies, but it would also exempt an unnamed New Haven County town, with a population between 12,000 and 13,000, from paying construction workers the prevailing wage on a project that includes funding from a private bequest.
The likely beneficiary is Derby, the hometown of House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, where the high school is building a new athletic complex partially funded by Joan Payden, chief executive officer, president and founder of Payden and Rygel, a $110 billion asset management firm. It will be named after her father, a 1915 graduate of the school.