Lawmakers Wrap Up Special Session With Transportation Plan, Education Lawsuit

By Susan Haigh

Associated Press

HARTFORD — The General Assembly ended a special session last week as state legislators approved a ten-year, $1.3 billion plan to combat gridlock on Connecticut’s roads, endorsed hundreds of millions of dollars in bonding for public works and other projects, and authorized a legal challenge to federal education policy.

Lawmakers could be called back to the state Capitol in the coming months. A group of legislators plans to meet soon to determine if a compromise is possible on a campaign finance reform bill that includes a public financing system.

Some Republicans have called for another special session to consider new protections for homeowners following last week’s US Supreme Court decision broadening government’s power to take private property.

The next regular session does not begin until February 2006.

The final day of this latest special session, which stretched from Tuesday into nearly 3 am, Wednesday, was marked by a combination of political cooperation and discord.

The Democratic-controlled legislature overwhelmingly approved Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell’s transportation initiative. The $1.3 billion proposal includes funding for 340 new Metro-North commuter rail cars and hundreds of millions of dollars in highway and bridge improvements.

“This was a problem 30 years in the making. It was a problem of benign neglect,” said Senator Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford. “We are here today to turn that around.”

The bill, which passed the House of Representatives on a 124-7 vote and the Senate unanimously, will be financed by special tax obligation bonds, a $1 surcharge on the New Haven line from January 1, 2008, through June 2015, and an increased gross receipts tax on petroleum products.

Senator William Nickerson, R-Greenwich, said the bill was the most important piece of legislation since 1983, when the Mianus River Bridge in Greenwich collapsed, leading to the creation of the state’s special transportation fund for highway projects.

“Truly, this is an epic bill,” Nickerson said.

Legislators were at odds over a bill that endorses Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s planned lawsuit against the federal government over the No Child Left Behind Act.

They also clashed over an amendment to a budget bill that would limit the governor’s authority to privatize state services over the next two years.

The Senate approved the measure along mostly partly lines, 24-10. The House passed it 83-49.

Democrats said the new language clarifies what is considered a “privatized contract” in a new law that prohibits state agencies from entering contracts with private agencies and companies until June 30, 2007.

Senator Donald DeFronzo, D-New Britain, co-chairman of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, said the temporary prohibition will provide state officials time to develop standards for contracting out certain state services, such as care for the mentally ill, mentally retarded, and the elderly.

“There are no standards. They sort of eyeball a situation and make a determination,” DeFronzo said.

The move comes in the wake of the corruption scandal that ultimately led former Republican governor John G. Rowland to resign. Proponents claim privatization contracts require greater oversight.

But Republican senators and Rell’s office said the revised language took them by surprise. The original language defined a privatization contract as an agreement that results in the “layoff, transfer or reassignment of any state employee.” The proposed amendment deletes that definition, essentially broadening the planned prohibition to include additional contracts.

Republicans say the bill would ultimately cost taxpayers more money and is an attempt by Democrats to appease state labor unions.

“It is organized labor’s provision. It says, ‘you ain’t gonna touch our jobs, period,’” said Representative Lawrence Cafero Jr, R-Norwalk. “I don’t blame them for advocating for that, but I do blame us for going along with it.”

The underlying budget bill includes 115 sections, many of which spell out details of the two-year, $31.2 billion budget plan that lawmakers passed earlier this month. It outlines, for example, changes to formulas for state grants to municipalities and new benefits for state veterans and their families.

Also Tuesday, the Senate voted 26-7 to approve a so-called “energy independence bill” that passed the state House of Representatives last week. The complicated legislation is intended to help encourage more electricity generation in Connecticut and blunt the impact of some looming federal charges.

In addition, the Senate and House passed several bond bills. One earmarks $150 million for urban redevelopment projects, $60 million for local capital improvements, $40 million to help small towns, $18 million to preserve farmland, and $100 million for clean water projects. Another bill included tens of millions in bonding for public schools.

Lawmakers passed a larger bond bill that authorizes $380 million in new bonds in the first year of the budget and $423.6 million in the second. Republicans criticized the plan for including last-minute items suggested by lawmakers.

The bill includes numerous items, ranging from $10 million to upgrade the Department of Motor Vehicles drivers license system to $75,000 to purchase electronic signs for the Rocky Hill Volunteer Fire Department.

“Thank God that the governor and the Bond Commission can stop some of these and not release them if they didn’t get vetted,” said Senator David Cappiello, R-Danbury.