Open Up The Legislative Process

Last summer, the days were long and the nights seemed longer as the General Assembly put the finishing touches on its 90-page budget bill. Much of the wrangling over the provisions in the budget took place behind closed doors, often late at night, and without public scrutiny. Only now is the public learning about some of the dirty details of that budget package. One group –– about 45,000 low-income senior citizens and 6,000 disabled persons who participate in the state’s ConnPACE prescription drug program –– was shocked at what it discovered in the fine print.

State legislators included in the budget bill an “estate recovery” provision that authorizes the state to raise revenues by dipping into the estates of those who have participated in the ConnPACE program and other assistance programs such as Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which used to be called welfare. Summoning up a small measure of compassion, the lawmakers constrained themselves from raiding the meager estates of some of Connecticut’s poorest people until after they and their surviving spouses die.

One health care analyst told the Waterbury Republican-American last week that Connecticut’s decision to recover costs associated with a drug prescription program for low-income seniors in this way was unprecedented. No other state has had the nerve to attempt it. As word has spread about the state’s decision to reimburse itself from the estates of the recipients of this benefit, hundreds of people have dropped out of the ConnPACE program, choosing to do without drug benefits rather than jeopardize the few assets they intend to leave to their children, who are usually as poor and disadvantaged as they are. Clearly, this is a politically unpopular move by the legislature that would never have survived an open and transparent budget process. Lawmakers have been flooded with phone calls and emails in the past week protesting the move, and they are not hastily making plans to repeal the measure when the next legislative session begins in February.

This latest state budget contretemps would never have happened if a series of legislative reforms advocated by the Republican minority in the state House of Representatives had been in place in the past budget cycle. The GOP’s ten-point plan would mandate that the legislature conduct its business, including and especially budget negotiations, out in the open where the media and public can see. The House majority, however, seems intent on blocking any attempt the open up the process.

Speaker of the House Moira Lyons maintains that legislative leaders need to be able to raise potentially controversial proposals for discussion without having to go on the record. “You shouldn’t feel hesitant to offer suggestions for fear there will be big headlines,” she said. In other words, the Democratic leaders in the state House want to keep the protection the capitol’s back rooms provide from the consequences of particularly bad ideas. Unfortunately, the Speaker of the House seems to have forgotten that democratic governments are supposed to serve the interests of the public –– not the interests of a clique of legislators worried about their press clippings.