It's midway through the state legislative session, and the end is
nigh on May 7. The "JF
deadlines"
of several General Assembly committees -- the dates by which bills must
get be approved by their initial committees before they die on the
vine -- are arriving this
week. Legislators, the Governor, progressive organizations,
and
nonprofit organizations are scrambling to make sure that their
respective wish list items keep moving along the legislative pipeline.
Below are summaries of
the legislative agendas of a variety of
state leaders and organizations. Their priority
issues span
health, human services, housing, energy, education, smart growth,
taxes, criminal justice, transportation, the environment, civil rights,
worker
rights, and economic security.
Some
proposals common to multiple organizations include: creation
of a
state earned income tax credit, reducing property taxes, progressive
income tax, universal health care, state-sponsored health insurance
pools, smart/responsible growth, farmland preservation, curbing global
warming pollutants, banning the use of toxic chemicals in products for children,
and protecting river front buffers.
What
would make up your ideal state
legislative agenda? How should progressives act to move this
agenda
forward? Are there particular state bills or proposals you
are
promoting and tracking? Key hearings or deadlines coming up?
How can bloggers and other individuals
help? Also see the State
Legislative Advocacy Toolkit. (Summaries below are
abbreviated highlights, wording is
often mine.)
Economic
security: emergency relief - earned income tax credit, enhanced
property tax credits, supplemental energy assistance; environment
&
energy - incentives for purchasing energy-efficient appliances and
plug-in hybrid vehicles, energy audits of commercial and residential
properties at the time of sale
Health and safety: nursing
home quality & financial accountability; increase participation
in
school breakfast programs; give patients access to lab reports; fully
fund tobacco Quitline
Protecting consumers: ban the sale of recalled products,
bill of rights for cell phone users, fair mortgage practices
Transportation: safety measures, limit open containers of
alcohol in vehicles.
Property
tax reduction - expanding regional grant program, create a
Municipal Aid Rainy Day Fund, investigate state assumption of more
local costs such as special education
Health - reduce costs to municipalities through pooling,
equal access to mental health services
Economic
growth - small business tax reduction, build a trained and
educated workforce for "Hollywood East," incentives for nanotechnology
industry
Environment - reduce the state's dependency on oil, tax
incentives to promote energy conservation
Transportation - make roads and bridges
safer, continue to build on mass transit investment
Education
- close the achievement gap, develop classroom assessment tools to
enhance instruction and learning, strengthen parental involvement,
strengthen mentorship programs statewide, strengthen reading programs,
provide incentives to schools to incorporate multicultural education
into curriculum.
Health - support a universal health care plan;
institute cultural competency requirements in health care; support
initiatives for HIV/AIDS prevention, diabetes prevention and care,
cardiovascular disease, stroke prevention
Juvenile
justice - youth employment and mentorship opportunities,
transition 16 and 17 year olds from adult to juvenile courts, eliminate
the disparity between youth of color and whites who are transferred as
juveniles to the adult system
Criminal justice - increase funding for post incarceration
initiatives, employment, housing
Housing
- strengthen anti-predatory lending laws, increase funding for public
housing units, strengthen laws to combat racial discrimination in
housing rentals.
Civil rights - strengthen laws and penalties for hate
crimes, support a resolution apologizing for Connecticut's role in
slavery
Education
- universal pre-school education, multicultural education reform,
increase financial aid, improve truancy reporting & prevent
changes
to the "in-school" suspension law
Economic development - state
Earned Income Credit Tax, reform CT's business entity tax, increase
financial assistance to counter act high energy costs
Health -
universal health care, funds for interpreters under Medicaid and
linguistic access in hospitals, funding for persons with HIV/AIDS,
restore continuous eligibility for HUSKY recipients
Housing - anti-predatory lending law & provide
foreclosure assistance
Judicial
reform - improve legal representation of abused or neglected children,
increase court interpreters in judicial system, diversify court system
by appointing additional Latino judges
Immigration - comprehensive immigration reform at the
federal level, support the in-state tuition bill
Economic
& Financial Security - sustainable family and work policies to
increase economic self-sufficiency, increase basic adult education
programs for low-skill, low-wage workers, and occupational skills
training programs; encourage financial literacy and expand access to
asset-building strategies; define the unique needs of very small
businesses and find solutions that take into consideration their size
or revenues; coordinated approach in addressing programs and services
to prevent homelessness, and increase the number of affordable housing
units and homeownership opportunities; increase eligibility levels for
subsidized housing, healthcare, child care, and financial assistance
programs
Women's health & safety - increase funding and
expand access to early breast, cervical, ovarian, and lung cancer
detection services and treatment; ensure the right to access and
receive comprehensive reproductive health services; ensure that women's
special needs and concerns are addressed in universal health care
proposals; effective data collection on gender, racial, and ethnic
health issues in the state in order to develop appropriate
interventions; increase funding for sexual assault nurse examiners, and
services and shelter staff in domestic violence programs
Responsible growth - adopt the principles and
recommendations of Responsible Growth Task Force
Property
tax reform - shifting reliance from the property tax to a progressive
mix of taxes, including increasing the progressivity of the income tax,
collecting user fee on internet purchases, and systematic review of
corporate taxes. Make commitment to increase aid to municipalities
Comprehensive planning - create a Council on Connecticut's
Future and a comprehensive state planning process
Regionalism
- increasing regional incentive grants, encouraging incentives for
regional revenue sharing, making the regional incentive grant program a
permanent program
Health - create a healthcare purchasing cooperative to
include municipal and non-profit employers
Tax reform - increase upper earner income tax, close
corporate loopholes, lower property taxes.
Support
public services and staffing - increase state aid to municipalities,
require case load standards and provide additional clerical and
professional staff at state agencies, improve inmate to staff ratios in
Connecticut's prisons
Strengthen clean contracting and stop
corrupt privatizations - ceate contract database, require wage
standards, fungerprint and background check school contractor employees
for sex and violence criminal records.
Strengthen workers'
rights and benefits - require neutrality during unionization drives
in organizations that receive state loans/grants, require card
check approval in state contractor organizing drives, ban state grants
or tax breaks to corporations that renege on pension obligations.
Allow cities and towns to tap into state employee health
insurance pool
Enacts
penalties for Insurance companies that provide incentives to deny care
and benefits, requires health insurance carriers to accurately report
what percentage of every dollar received is actually paid out in
medical claims (Medical Loss Ratio), and mandate that they spend no
less than 87.5 % towards claims
Address racial disparities in
health care - fund Office of Minority Health, invest in translator
services and cultural competency training for medical professionals
Ethics
- require registration of municipal lobbyists, forbid those who are
banned from serving on corporate boards from serving on public boards
"Toxic Toy Bill" - ban use of toxic chemicals in products
marketed to children
Protect consumer rights under any "Charter Oak Health Plan"
Fair
lending & foreclosure prevention - regulate mortgage products
that
increase the risk of foreclosure, ban abusive practices, and create
accountability for mortgage brokers, lenders, and assignees
Promote more strategic state planning and fiscal choices
- long term planning, stable and adequate state revenues
Reduce child poverty - measures to reduce by 50%
by 2014, state Earned Income Tax Credit
Assure
timely and affordable health care - restore continuous eligibility for
HUSKY, modify HUSKY B to spend all SCHIP funds, expand legislative
oversight of DSS, maintain HUSKY performance monitoring funds
Improve access to high quality early care and education for
working parents - increase access to Care4Kids subsidies
Improve
outcomes for foster children - school stability, improve legal
representation for children & parents, improve outcomes for
youth
transitioning from foster care
Improve outcomes in K-12
education by enhancing student attendance - improve reporting of
truancy, prevent rollbacks in "In-School Suspension Law"
School
breakfast: universal breakfast grants, require school districts with
high school lunch participation to have school breakfast program,
school breakfast outreach
Summer nutrition: open summer nutrition sites, outreach
Emergency food: increase funds for State Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program, capacity building grants for food sites
Create Face of CT Fund to preserve distinctive landscapes,
historic
villages and urban centers by supporting responsible growth and
safeguarding of natural and manmade landscapes and historic assets
Health - raising income limits for Medicaid, restore
continuous eligibility for HUSKY
Economic
security - maintaining a COLA for TFA recipients, exemption of people
with disabilities from time limits, increased support for Care4Kids,
state earned income tax credit, progressive income tax
Children and youth - improving positive outcomes for young
adults with disabilities
Aging - implementation of the CT Long Term Care Plan
Human rights - gay and lesbian marriage
Guild issue - inclusion of licensed clinical social workers
as eligible providers under Medicaid
Support the Face of Connecticut campaign for farmland
preservation & support
Oppose
use of state funds for economic development through the STEAP program
that will lead to the permanent loss of prime farmland
Supports
incentives to protect farmland - tax credit for donation of land for
conservation purposes, revise Medicaid regulations to exempt the
donation of agricultural conservation easements on farmland from the 5
year look-back period
Ensure the long-term viability of the
state's dairy industry
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