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- Published on Thursday, 02 February 2012 15:12
- Written by Paula Pierce
Despite Bismark's aphorism that “politics is like sausages, it's better not to see how it's made,” Sen. John Kissel (R-CT 7th Dist.) presided over a very civil meeting Tuesday, at the Windsor Locks town hall, where he and the municipal leaders of his district gathered to talk about their goals for the 2012 legislative session that is now starting.
According to participants, however, as far as the State legislature is concerned, the German chancellor was not entirely wrong. Mayor, after mayor, after first selectman everyone in the group had a horror story to talk about.
One of them was Section 1-217 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under the statute, towns are obliged to reduct from public documents the address of certain public officials – police officers, fire fighters, judges. Sounds reasonable. Not for the towns, though, that suddenly found out they may be liable if they don't comply with a law everyone in the room condemned as half-baked.
“The legislation,... requires the town [to be responsible] and not the police officer to walk up to the town clerk and say 'I am a police officer, here is my documentation, reduct my name or my address from that particular record,'” explained Enfield Mayor Scott Kaupin. “They are making us figure out who is a cop who isn't.”
An impossible job, as the state's Town Clerks Association recently observed, asking for the law to be clarified or changed.
Then, there are the infamous “unfunded mandates,” laws that the legislature adopts, without deciding how their costs will be covered – meaning that the burden will ultimately be shouldered by the towns. They are prone to multiply this year, Kissel noted, as gov. Danna Malloy has dedicated this year to education, and state finances are not exactly rosy.
“One of the concerns I have is that for any far-reaching education reform, this will cost dollars,” Kissel pointed out. “At the same time I look where we are as a state, and despite the largest tax increase in our history, depending on whose figures you take, we are either 95 million dollars in the hole, or something more than 100 million dollars, and it's close to 200 million dollars for the next fiscal year.”
Since Malloy has pledged not to impose new taxes, new revenue sources must be found, he said. Personally, he acknowledged, he does not favor tolls, and is concerned about Internet gambling -two of the ideas that are being discussed. On the other hand, a tweak of the liquor laws would find support in the legislature, Kissel believes.
His major concern, Kissel told the group, is that there is a possibility for a change in the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula, under which educational funds are distributed to municipalities since 2004, and some of the area communities are in danger of being shortchanged.
“I don't want any of my communities to be net losers,” Kissel said. “So, I believe that the first order of business is to ensure that we don't have that.”
His audience expressed with even more concerns.
According to the law, the minimum budget requirement (MBR) of the ECS funding means that towns must every year budget the same amount for education they did over the previous year, if not more.
“We start with a floor of what we have now, and then there is no way to get away from it,” Suffield First Selectman Edward McAnaney said. “... It also pitches the education part of the budget against the town side of the budget, because unless we simply want to raise taxes, as a substantial amount, we got to find savings somewhere, and typically they come out of the town side of the budget.”
Windsor Locks First Selectman Steven Wawruck agreed . He pointed out that roads in town are designed to last 25 years, and yet they remain unrepaired for far longer. And even that 25 year calculation may be too optimistic, he noted.
“Spring Street was done 20 years ago,” he said. “It's a heavily traveled street and we have to do it again.”
For a typical example of an unfunded mandate, Wawruck recalled the audits for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) the town underwent recently.
“We have to make the school accessible, and everybody has to have access,” he stressed, “But for the interpretation of that access, it seems that you have to go through hurdles to accommodate to what the rules are. The audits for ADA cost Windsor Locks a quarter of a million dollars.”
Another topic of discussion was the towns' relationship with the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA,) the semi-public entity that handles a lot of the waste management for Central Connecticut towns.
“The doors have kind off opened up with the contracts coming up for renegotiation at the end of the year,” Wawruck observed.
A number of communities around the area like Suffield and East Granby are switching part of their operations to Covanta Corporation, of Agawam, Mass. The Windsor Locks board of selectmen is considering the same.
“I know that other towns around the border are looking into similar ideas,” Wawruck said. “I have a feeling that CRRA may self implode and we don't have anything under state auspices to look on solid waste.”
And that may lead to problems down the road, he predicted.
“I don't know what other states are thinking, but if I was in Massachusetts Legislature and saw 4-5 towns peeling off to go to Springfield, I'd say 'Well, maybe we should put a little surcharge.”
Windsor Mayor Donald Trinks brought up again another annual irritation: the timing of the legislative session. By the time the legislature decides on the state budget – and the funds that will go to the towns – it's almost too late to put the budget to Windsor voters, as the town council is obliged to do every year, he said.
An interesting aspect of the meeting was that all present seemed to be in agreement on almost every topic – a nice show of bi-partisanship that many would wish it became more prevalent around the state and the country.
Sen. Kissel is not among them, however. When Governor and legislative majority are from the same party, he said, it may be less than a blessing than a bane.
“I am always concerned, every year, of the timing of getting all of this stuff solved,” he said responding to mayor Trinks. “And it always seems like it is the last hour of the session, all the numbers are put up, and by then we have had to figure out what we will vote. In the old days, it used to be easy. We used to sit on opposite sides of the political aisle, and it is always so fun, we had a democratic legislation and a republican governor and somewhere we would be able to figure it out. Now, it is all over the place, and the governor said it had all been resolved but there were huge pieces of the puzzle hadn't been figured out yet.”
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