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In the Dark of the Night

by: Aldon Hynes

Tue Nov 25, 2008 at 09:25:47 AM EST

In 2002, President Bush sought the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution. We were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and that if Congress did not act quickly, something horrible would happen. Well, Congress did act quickly, and something horrible did happen.

With the recent financial crisis, we were told that if Congress did not act quickly on a $700 billion bailout bill, something horrible would happen. Well, again, Congress did act quickly, and we are yet again, trying to clean up the mess afterwards.

One would think that we, as a nation, would learn that when legislative branches act quickly, without proper deliberation or feedback from citizens, we get stuck with a mess.

Politicians, on the other hand, don't like it if people stop and think about whatever bill they are pushing. People might organize and the politicians might not get their pet project.

Last night, we saw this played out in Connecticut. Yesterday, Rep. Amann and Sen. Williams introduced Bill No. 7601- An Act Concerning Deficit Mitigation, and in the dark of the night, it passed both chambers, with little or no public input.

We can argue about whether the cuts were too big, too little, cutting in the right places, or the wrong places, and what role the rainy day fund should have in this. As a matter of fact we should argue about this. We should encourage everyone to join in a spirited discussion of how the State Government should best spend its money during these difficult times.

Unfortunately, the General Assembly did not chose to give the citizens that opportunity. I hope you let your State Legislators know your opinion about budgets passed in the dark of the night.

Aldon Hynes :: In the Dark of the Night

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In the Dark of the Night | 5 comments

Reprehensible (0.00 / 0)

It is unconscionable that the legislators voted to raid $5 million from the Citizens Election Program - which was created to make these same elected officials accountable to the people and not special interests.

The people now need to hold them accountable.

by: Kim Hynes @ Tue Nov 25, 2008 at 14:42:17 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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1.5 MILLION OF SOTS MONEY REALLOCATED (0.00 / 0)

Even in good times SOTS complains it can't hire and doesn't have the money to do things -- I'd like to know what the removal of 1.5 mil from their budget impacts.

Is there somebody MLN knows who is familiar with the states budget and this action - who could actually answer questions and walk us through what has happened?

I think we need to focus on understanding not only the state's fiscal condition, but how the perception (and perhaps reality) of urgency allows the potential for a radical re-stacking of priorities under the cover of necessity.

As goes the money, so go the programs, priorities, and protections. We need to focus on the implications sooner, not later.

Thanks, Kim and Aldon for pointing out this situation.

IMHO it is always worth looking at the details of the programs and the authority of the legislature to see if any part of it has been done improperly. I know we reputedly have a good legislative research office, but have located errors in legislation in the past and see no harm in reviewing if anyone has thetime/temperament/inclination. the purpose is not gotcha -- it seems like it could afford the opportunity to re-look at what was done.

by: greenpeas @ Tue Nov 25, 2008 at 17:30:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

no secret (0.00 / 0)

Aldon, you bring up exactly the reason we didn't do anything beyond the governor's plan to both cut and add revenue, which has been public for at least a month. We would have been criticized if we did not address the plan at all (we made $276 million in changes of the $302 million she proposed). Most of it she could have done without our approval. I felt we couldn't simply ignore the mounting deficit entirely.

Your point is well-taken that everything is not in front of us during a special session - only the plan she had offered. Doing anything in a vacuum of information is when we make big mistakes, and I stated on the floor several times that we need to wait for our public hearing process and regular session to make any more changes. We will.

True, we did NOT cut the program to clean up the diesel-fume ridden old school buses and took several million dollars from the CEF to cover it. But I would argue (and have) that clean air for children is a higher priority than a huge surplus bank account for the CEF.

I strongly support the very successful Clean Elections program. But we don't really need such a big surplus in the fund. We didn't really know how much the Clean Elections program would cost this year, and it proves to be less costly than we anticipated.

And by the way, Larry Cafero didn't HAVE to take the $7500 for unopposed candidates. I didn't. You can simply opt out when it becomes apparent that you are unopposed. That excuse for opposing the program doesn't wash.

by: quiet corner @ Wed Nov 26, 2008 at 13:30:40 PM UTC

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I really appreciate your support of the CEP program. (0.00 / 0)

The reason why we need a cushion in there is twofold. First, we are next facing a gubernatorial election, which will be quite costly. There may be multiple primary candidates, which will ramp up costs. As well, there may be a millionaire candidate who opts out, potentially requiring matching funds for the other candidate(s). Secondly, we have no way of knowing how many independent expenditures will need to be matched next time around.

I would argue that a bottle bill is a far better way to add additional funds to the state's coffers than taking from the Citizens Election Fund.

Thank you so much for your support of the program!

by: Kim Hynes @ Mon Dec 01, 2008 at 17:16:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Cuts from the old school buses. (0.00 / 0)

My understanding, reading the bill is that the DEP's Clean Diesel Buses, (Sec 1 a. T55 and Sec 1 e. ) was cut from 10 million to 8 million. Correct me if I'm reading the bill incorrectly.

If it was cut the way I am reading it, I think this was a very unwise cut.

by: Aldon Hynes @ Mon Dec 01, 2008 at 19:17:25 PM UTC

[ Parent ]