In This Issue:
From Paddi's Desk
CT Agency Corner
Municipal Roundup
From Inside The Golden Dome
This Day in CT History
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Public sector versus the Private sector
Last week I participated in an interesting discussion with colleagues at the Public Affairs Council. We talked about the difference between how the business world works and in some circumstances, the nonprofit and education sector as well. We came up with several key differences (it’s important to note at least one third of those in the discussion were formerly appointed or long-time government employees)
Goal objectives in the non-public sectors:
Cutting costs is a prime objective; improving customer services is the life blood of nonpublic entities, breaking down the silos in nonpublic sectors is almost always a goal; and finally the nonpublic sector is all about having to prove results.
When we talked about the public sector, our colleagues with the most experience produced this list: governments don’t make widgets; they don’t exist to make a profit; they don’t have customers; we get penalized a lot for being efficient; most often people don’t ask for what we do (regulation) they just have it; people who pay for our services aren’t the ones receiving the service most often, often technology is at odds with sustaining a level workforce, and it’s hard to see an incentive for improvement.
Then we discussed how government works to improve. They convene blue ribbon commission/task force meetings, they reorganize by order of the legislature or elected officials. Most often there are more managers than worker bees, they really don’t have the ability to move quickly to address immediate threats or change in environment and the CEO has the potential to change every four years or so.
Often taxpayers think of themselves as the customer, but they aren’t. There’s really multiple customers – those that make the policy and can require government to operate a certain way, the chief elected official (aka Governor) who can override those policies through executive orders and by changing the “C-Suite” (aka commissioners) folks as they please. Customer change depends if you are the regulated or the advocate; often times the customers have competing interests, opinions, etc. (aka Democratic customers versus Republican customers), they can be the one who uses the services or the one who transfers the service.
So you can see by now why governments normally are inefficient – they always are under the gun and more than likely have detractors regardless of how hard they try to serve the public. It’s only when there’s a disruptive event that maybe governments can reinvent themselves with an effort to get it right. Take for instance, when former Governor Rowland resigned and Former Governor Rell took office. She had a golden opportunity to redefine a bunch of stuff – but focused on those things that created the disruption - contracting rules, campaign finance, acceptable state employee standards. And when outsider former Governor Weicker took office he took on a fundamental change in how government was funded through a state income tax. Now Governor Lamont has taken on a couple of challenges to bring the technology of government into the 21st century and beyond. He’s looking to leverage the enormous scale of state employee retirements to reorganize and redefine how government works, using improved technology to make things faster, efficient and customer focused. It’s still a work in progress after 2.5 years of effort, but many believe it’s going in the right direction.
Look at Department of Motor Vehicles (license and car registration renewals). Look at the Department of Environment and Energy (the permit process). Both entities have worked hard to streamline processes since Lamont took office. As the Governor and his team look to the next 18 months, featuring the stark reality of April 2022 and the November 2022 elections, one wonders what will the state's customers choose – keep the momentum going? Or will they change their focus onto new priorities such as community safety, parental roles in education, or equity and inclusive culture throughout our state, both in the public and private sectors. It’s really an unknown right now.
As candidates start to focus on if they are running or not, the rest of us will be watching the actions and words of those prominent people considering a run for the top office. Maybe we can all agree on one thing - no matter if you are a Democrat or Republican:
In the words of Albert Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
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Infrastructure Bill Given One Last Push by President Biden - What it means for Connecticut
The infrastructure spending bill, a top priority for congressional Democrats before the midterm election, is rumored to be persistently lobbied by the Commander in Chief himself to his former colleagues. Here is a summary of those priorities based on what is being shared internally with congressional members and staff:
• Universal Preschool for all 3 and 4 year olds: Expand access to free high-quality preschool for more than 6 million children. This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.
• Affordable High Quality Child Care: Limit child care costs for families to no more than 7% of income, for families earning up to 250% of state median income. It enables states to expand access to about 20 million children. Parents must be working, seeking work, in training or taking care of a serious health issue. This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.
• Affordable, High-Quality Care for Hundreds of Thousands of Older Americans and People with Disabilities in Their Homes and Communities: Strengthening an existing program through Medicaid and ending the existing backlog and improving working conditions for home care workers.
• Expanded Child Tax Credit: Extend for one year the current expanded Child Tax Credit for more than 35 million American households, with monthly payments for households earning up to $150,000 per year. Make refundability of the Child Tax Credit permanent.
Investments in Clean Energy and Combating Climate Change
• Clean Energy Tax Credits ($320 billion): Ten-year expanded tax credits for utility-scale and residential clean energy, transmission and storage, clean passenger and commercial vehicles, and clean energy manufacturing.
• Resilience Investments ($105 billion): Investments and incentives to address extreme weather (wildfires, droughts, and hurricanes, including in forestry, wetlands, and agriculture), legacy pollution in communities, and a Civilian Climate Corps.
• Investments and Incentives for Clean Energy Technology, Manufacturing, and Supply Chains ($110 billion): Targeted incentives to spur new domestic supply chains and technologies, like solar, batteries, and advanced materials, while boosting the competitiveness of existing industries, like steel, cement, and aluminum.
• Clean Energy procurement ($20 billion): Provide incentives for government to be a purchaser of next gen technologies, including long-duration storage, small modular reactors, and clean construction materials.
Affordable Care for Millions of Hardworking Americans
• Affordable Care Act Premium Tax Credits: Extend the expanded Affordable Care Act premium tax credits through 2025. Experts predict that more than 3 million people who would otherwise be uninsured will gain health insurance. Also make Affordable Care Act premium tax credits available through 2025 to 4 million uninsured people in uncovered states.
• Allow Medicare to cover the cost of hearing care. Establish a hearing benefit in Medicare, a crucial benefit to our seniors, for a reasonable cost.
Bringing Down Costs, Reducing Inflationary Pressures, and Strengthening the Middle Class
• Housing: $150 billion investment in housing affordability and reducing price pressures, including in rural areas. Funds go towards building more than 1 million new affordable rental and single-family homes, rental and down payment assistance, and public housing.
• Education Beyond High School and Workforce Development: Reduce costs and expand access to education beyond high school by raising the maximum Pell grant, providing support to Historically Black Colleges & Universities (“HBCUs”), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Minority Serving Institutions (“MSIs”), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (“TCUs”), and investing in workforce development, including community college workforce programs, sector- based training, and apprenticeships.
• Earned Income Tax Credit for 17 Million Low-Wage Workers: Extend for one year the current expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers.
• Equity and Other Investments: Other targeted investments including maternal health, community violence initiatives, Native communities, disadvantaged farmers, nutrition, pandemic preparedness, supply chain resilience, and other areas.
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Municipal Elections
Municipal elections are Tuesday November 2nd and this edition will focus on the many exciting races that we’ll be watching next Tuesday. We’ve covered some of the larger cities like Stamford, New Britain and Danbury, which we’ll be paying close attention to, but there are many open seats available and up for grabs that will be interesting to watch as well. Open seats that are contested will be in Bethlehem, Chaplin, East Granby, East Haddam, East Hartford, East Lyme, Goshen, Granby, Killingworth, North Stonington, Plymouth, Portland, Roxbury, Salem, Simsbury, Somers, Stafford, Westbrook and Westport. In Westport, State Representative Jonathan Steinberg will be the Democrat running for office against Republican TJ Elgin.
There are also 48 towns where the top spot isn’t contested at all, which appears to be one of the larger uncontested numbers in recent history. It’s been difficult to field candidates in a politically polarized society where social media can scare many good candidates away from the call to public service.
Another interesting race that we’re watching is in Newtown, where incumbent First Selectman Dan Rosenthal decided to strip his Democrat label and run as a third party nonpartisan “Serve America Movement” (SAM). This movement's tenets revolve around inclusive leadership, and keep away from partisan politics. First Selectman Rosenthal was also cross endorsed by both the Republican and Democrat town committees. It may also be one of the first occasions in CT history where something like this has happened and could be a model for future town leaders to follow as partisan politics has distracted towns from concentrating on the task at hand.
Lastly, speaking about partisan politics within local government, there has been a lot of attention paid in Guilford to the Board of Education race. National interest groups have swarmed the town, which has become ground zero for the ‘Critical Race Theory’ debate in Connecticut. The Republican incumbent board of education members were overtaken by anti CRT candidates and it is now dominating the debate there.
With all of that being said, we want to congratulate all of those people who have stepped up to serve their communities and put themselves out there to run for office. Most of these positions are volunteer and in some cases require time consuming work. It’s not easy, but its needed ,and we want to thank all of those who are on the ballot next Tuesday for their service, regardless of the outcome. It is now our duty as citizens to go to the polls November 2nd and cast our ballots. As Tip O’Neil famously said, “All politics is local." This is where the literal rubber meets the road.
For a map of local races to watch, click here.
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Governor Lamont Hones in on Juvenile Justice
This column has recently featured stories surrounding the conversation on juvenile justice in Connecticut, and the issues that communities have been facing with an increase in juvenile crime. Most calls for juvenile justice reform have come from Republicans in recent months. However, this week, democratic Governor Ned Lamont has chimed in on the issue following the shooting death of a Waterbury 14 year old. The 14 year old had many run-ins with the law over recent years, and Lamont argued that if the courts had been a little stricter with tougher probation requirements, "that probably would have given this kid a better chance to be alive today." The youth had been placed on house arrest, and was given an ankle bracelet after a recent arrest. However the court ordered it to be taken off after September.
Governor Lamont said that the judicial system must use the tools that it already has - the ability to detain suspects longer, more restrictive probation, and speeding up court cases. Lamont also signaled his intent to nominate more judges, filling the 43 vacancies for judges in the Superior Court, and expediting cases. The Governor, joined by the mayor of Waterbury and the Commissioner of DESPP, indicated that their focus is on the ten percent of young offenders that are committing most of the juvenile crimes in the state. DESPP Commissioner James Rovella stated that there are between 100 and 200 juveniles that need to be in custody, that are out on the streets.
Despite Lamont's increased attention to the issue, and much to Republicans' dismay, the Governor's office has no intent of calling a special session on the issue in the months leading up to session. Both House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, and Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, issued statements acknowledging the Governor's heightened attention to the issue. However, both leaders encouraged the Governor to seriously consider a special session.
To view historical data on juvenile detentions in Connecticut, click here.
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October 29, 1764: The Nation's "Oldest" Newspaper's Very First Issue
In October of 1764, 29-year-old Thomas Green, a fourth-generation printer, suddenly found himself out of a job working at the Connecticut Gazette print shop in New Haven.
The Gazette, Connecticut’s very first newspaper, had been established several years earlier by the enterprising Benjamin Franklin, who had just sacked Green in order to install his nephew as head of the print shop. Undeterred, Green headed north to Hartford — then a prosperous river town of 4,000 people — and set up a new printing press on what is now Main Street with the help of his journeyman, Ebenezer Watson.
On October 29 of that same year, Green published the first issue of the Connecticut Courant, a weekly newspaper that promised readers it would be “useful, and entertaining, not only as a Channel for News, but assisting to all Those who may have Occasion to make use of it as an Advertiser.” Unbeknownst to Green at the time, his modest newspaper venture would continue publication, uninterrupted, for over 250 years, becoming one of the longest-lasting businesses in American history.
For over two and a half centuries, the Courant has reported on every single major American historical event since the mid-eighteenth century, surviving ownership turnovers, economic panics and depressions, paper shortages, and even a libel lawsuit from Thomas Jefferson. The publication has also undergone a number of name changes, although the word “Courant” has always been a prominent part of the newspaper’s masthead. The paper started producing daily editions in 1837, and first began publishing Sunday editions in 1913. The Courant celebrated its sestercentennial (i.e., its 250th anniversary) in 2014 with a year-long retrospective on its coverage of major events in Connecticut, national, and world history, proudly sporting the motto “Older than the nation.”
In its first issue, Green told his readers that the value of a paper such as his was that “It is the channel which conveys the history of the present times to all parts of the world.” Centuries later, as the Hartford Courant, Green’s newspaper enjoys a daily statewide circulation and is still published in the heart of Connecticut’s capital city. A humble, four-page periodical, first published today in Connecticut history, was destined to become the longest-running continuously published newspaper in American history — a very special first issue, indeed!
The original article from the CT Humanities Council can be found here.
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Sullivan & LeShane, Inc.
www.ctlobby.com | (860) 560-0000
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