In This Issue:
From Paddi's Desk
CT Agency Corner
Municipal Roundup
Inside Scoop
This Day in CT History
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One if by land, two if by sea and now three if by tweet!
The famous quote from the poem “Paul Reveres Ride” was meant for the patriots to communicate as to the plans of the invading British troops. Revere saw the signal of 2 lanterns so he knew his message to the patriots as he rode to Concord was “the British are coming, the British are coming …by sea!"
This week Governor Lamont – candidate for reelection – relaunched his tweet campaign to “warn” folks about the upcoming elections and his positions on issues of import to him. I’m sure he’s hoping to gather the troops and build momentum as CT catches some R&R over the next several months.
My, how the times have changed!
While I still have much appreciation for those tried and true campaign flyers that should be hitting all our mailboxes (that is if you are a CT registered voter), they have some really good creative messages /graphics and interesting spin on the candidates' messaging. You can tell a lot about a candidate by the tone of their “mailers” as well as their media advertising.
With a tweet, you get only the high points, but you get instant voter (actually anyone’s) reactions or pushback. So for me, I think the Governor gets high marks for transparency and fortitude to respond to all the feedback that’s sure to come over the next several months and to pitch his thoughts/ideas and what makes him love CT to the world!!
Some samples on the twitter stream of consciousness as published by CT News Junkie provide us some insight into the hot topics for the Governor! He confided in his followers that he just got hot news from the Department of Consumer Protection on the status of adult-use of cannabis. It was a short and sweet message from the Governor, though he didn’t actually include what the information was. But, he clearly wanted to test his followers and see how they would respond to such an open ended message. First out of the box was a very specific question of how it will differ from Massachusetts – obviously a person involved in the adult-use business in Mass. Next he tackles local traffic in his neighborhood! Someone then starts their own “pseudo" lobbying campaign by asking the governor if CT will start to produce its own supply of insulin like California to reduce the price of this life saving treatment supply.
Next up car taxes, then it’s all about UCONN sports and finally someone is pointing out to the Governor how counterproductive it is to cut business taxes while CT taxes the elderly’s pensions, retirement annuities, and social security.
WOW that’s a wide range of topics and the governor committed at the beginning to “answer as many as I possibly can!” because he thought it was a good time!
I think I now know how his “free time” is going to be spent over the Summer and into the Fall! Might be fun to stay connected to his twitter to check in on the pulse of the gubernatorial campaign and watch if the tone changes from his normal friendly, information deliverer, and generally nice guy personality when his opponent’s campaign, Bob Stefanowski for Governor, infiltrates the followers and puts the governor’s feet to the fire and challenges his positions.
Interesting to watch if you’re a campaign junkie! Not so sure you’ll have the “free time” to keep it up!
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Important IT Upgrades Launched by the Office of State Ethics (OSE)
Deadlines for filing ethics reports are taken seriously by the Office of State Ethics (OSE) and a newly updated system from the office was announced this week for those filing these reports.
Our office is including this update in our In The Loop since a few clients have reached out about receiving an email from OSE the day after the deadline for filing your financial statements. OSE in the notice expects the proper form to be completed and filed by midnight of the date established as the deadline OR an automatic notification digitally will be sent informing the late filer that they are out of compliance. OSE in the notice also informs recipients that if they do not receive the report by a certain date you will be assigned a hearing date on why you failed to meet the deadline.
The importance of this new mechanism of enforcement is something our office wanted to outline since they can also impose a financial penalty for each day you are out of compliance and with any government compliance agency your reports/filings will be tagged for future tardiness or delinquency.
The OSE works with clients using these filing systems but through this change has sent a strong message that correcting late filings is a top priority. That said, please feel free to call Donna Sass at our office if you are having problems/have questions with your filings and need assistance. She sends to each client a reminder 10 days before the report is due so pay attention to her emails and make sure they don’t get snagged in your spam filters. Her email is dsass@ctlobby.com.
As a former boss once told me – you’re either early or late, there’s no such thing as “on time”. Thanks and happy filing!
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The State Budget by the Numbers
The state began its fiscal year on July 1st with an overwhelmingly large surplus being achieved in the prior year but with expectations that revenue could dramatically slow down if the economy is indeed speeding into a recession.
The news of the past fiscal year was one of the most positive outcomes imaginable: $3.7B in surplus was used to help pay off pension costs and bring the rainy day fund to its highest level in state history. On top of that, the positive revenue estimates have carried into this fiscal year and, for at least the first half of the fiscal year, show no signs of slowing down (yet).
The tricky part of gauging the overall budget still rests on the following factors that will need to be directed by the newly-elected governor and legislature next year:
(1) How to deal with unfunded liability costs
Connecticut still has over $90B in unfunded pension and retirement benefit obligations and remains one of the most indebted states in the nation on a per capita basis. The state directed 14% of the last budget spending package to this problem but more long-term solutions will need to be on the table next session.
(2) ARPA dollars expiring
The state very strategically felt that more federal money should be invested long-term in infrastructure costs for underserved communities in the state. That said, other programmatic changes that utilized Federal funds will soon begin to expire which will create some holes in the budget as they relate to remaining “flat funded”. This is something that was seen after the Obama Administration’s Stimulus bill of which certain levels of spending have still never decreased once fully invested.
(3) The local budget impact from the recession
As analysts are predicting the national economy is all but certainly in or soon heading into a recession, it’s expected that major gains reached from Wall Street trading and sales tax revenue could see a big slow down this fiscal year. As we approach the best quarter, this will be something to keep in mind since the budget is very dependent on the viability of the stock market.
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The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) today released CCM’s first-ever checklist guidebook designed to help municipal leaders across the state better respond to racial tension in their community. The booklet is designed to present Connecticut municipal leaders with guidance recommended by U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service and the National League of Cities. Local government and school districts typically impact daily life in multiple ways: police and fire protection, education, parks and playgrounds and recreation, zoning, housing code enforcement, trash pick-up, street maintenance, economic/job development and more.
One of these initiatives have been CCM’s CARES in Action (Communities Advancing Racial Equity) program, which has provided a guided process to support municipal leaders working toward real progress on racial equity in their cities and towns. This has included a series of workshops, roundtables, technical assistance and sharing best practices, all designed to help municipalities implement seven action items that can lead to more equity in their local governments.
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Connecticut House Races to Watch
Last week, this blog discussed the broad outlook of the 151 State Representative elections and the history of leadership and party control associated with the Connecticut House of Representatives. With more than 25 sitting legislators retiring or choosing not to run for re-election, this November will bring us many new faces! Combine the new blood with redistricting changes since the census and we are in for a very eventful election season. Today’s focus will bring us on another summer vacation drive through the state as we dive right into three shoreline House races that could bring us fireworks.
Beginning down in the Milford area, we race for Milford’s 119th State House seat that has new Democrat candidate, son of former State Rep Pete Smith and former lobbyist, Mike Smith facing off against Republican incumbent Kathy Kennedy. Rep. Kennedy has been in that seat for a few years now and is seriously involved in public education as a member of various Parent-Teacher Association committees, including the head of the Connecticut PTA from 2015 to 2017. Smith is no newcomer this cycle. He has been involved in policy with his role at CT Realtors. This race is particularly interesting for the area as Milford is represented by a Democratic Mayor in Ben Blake and these races can be tight down in that area. In 2020, Kathy Kennedy beat Bryan Anderson by just over 100 votes.
Moving down I-95 we find ourselves in beautiful Guilford and Branford with the 96th State Rep seat, currently held by Comptroller Candidate Sean Scanlon. Moira Rader is the endorsed Democrat for the seat as petitioning candidate and Andy Gottlieb looks to challenge her. This seat is interesting because of Scanlon’s popularity in the area (ran unopposed last cycle, check out the crazy recent electoral history here) , and a combative board of education race last year has drawn this seat to be of note for many across the state.
In the Groton area, home to Electric Boat, we have “dusted off and repositioned” Aundré Bumgardner who is running for retiring Rep. Joe De La Cruz’s seat in the 41st district. Bumgardner is a Groton Town Councilor and former (Republican) State Representative, and received unanimous support from his Democratic Town Committee for the seat. Because of redistricting, this district will now cover both parts of Groton and Stonington. Bumgardner faces off against Robert Boris who is the Republican candidate that serves on Groton's Economic Development Commission, Groton’s P&Z and various Chambers of Commerce. Why is this race so interesting? In 2016, Bumgardner lost to De La Cruz for this seat. Now? De La Cruz has endorsed Bumgardner for the spot. It’s never boring on the campaign trail!!
As we kick off these briefings on some interesting house races, we know that these shoreline seats won’t necessarily decide the outcome of the balance of power, but they do show that newcomers are here and ready to run in races that could be tight. On the other hand, it’s interesting to note that in over a third of the races, there is no challenger for the seat – lucky candidates!
Next week, tune in for more contested races as we continue our summer road trip of Connecticut election season!
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July 15th: Constructing Connecticut's Larges Lake
With an area of 8.4 square miles and over 60 miles of coastline, Candlewood Lake is the largest lake in the state of Connecticut. Located in five towns and straddling both Litchfield and Fairfield counties, its shores are also home to some of the state’s highest-priced real estate. The lake has served as a recreational haven for both wealthy city-dwellers and the families of western Connecticut for decades.
A century ago, however, there was no sprawling Candlewood Lake for Connecticans to enjoy. It was created in the 1920s — not as a tourist attraction or a real estate stimulus — but as part of an ambitious project proposed by Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P), then the state’s largest electric utility. CL&P’s goal was to provide a constant source of hydroelectric power for the region using an innovative, reversible turbine to precisely control the water level of the lake.
On July 15, 1926, CL&P’s board of directors approved the master plan to create the lake, and the utility company’s agents immediately sprang into action. They organized buyouts of over 5,000 acres of land from 35 families and property owners in the area. Even though the utility was given the ability to utilize eminent domain to acquire land for the project, they did not use it against a few landowners who simply refused to sell their about-to-be-inundated properties. This produced a curious scenario where, even today, certain patches of the lake floor still remain under private ownership.
Over the next two years, 5,400 acres of forest were hand cleared, and over 100 buildings and homesteads that made up the tiny village of Jerusalem were either moved or destroyed to prepare the valley for flooding. After months of slowly diverting water from the nearby Housatonic River, the new reservoir — soon christened Candlewood Lake after a nearby mountain — was deemed complete in September 1928. Today, Candlewood Lake remains one of Connecticut’s most popular recreational areas and continues to serve as an important source of hydroelectric power for the state.
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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