CAPITOL WATCH

Gov. Rell Angry About Random Kidnapping and Killing of 62-Year-old Woman

An angry Gov. M. Jodi Rell  called again Monday for the legislature to pass a "three strikes'' law following the random killing of a 62-year-old woman who had been drinking coffee in New Britain at a friend's house.

"Yes, I am feeling furious,'' Rell said after summoning reporters to her Capitol office on short notice. "I am more angry than I can possibly tell you. But I am also governor of this state, and I will not act out of anger. What I will do - what I am doing - is telling you and every decent person in this state that I am also resolved. Connecticut will deal with this evil. And no other word is sufficient because it is evil that is confronting us.''

"The suspect in these slayings was not paroled,'' Rell said. "Let me be very clear about that. He was not paroled. In fact, he was denied parole in 2006. ... If ever, ever there was a time for a three strikes law in Connecticut, I believe the time is now.''

Although the suspect, Leslie Williams, is a convicted felon with a lengthy record, Democratic lawmakers said that he would not have been subjected to the "three strikes'' provision because he had not been convicted of three violent felonies. House Speaker James Amann, Rep. Michael P. Lawlor and Sen. Andrew McDonald all raised questions about Rell's statments because they said the Williams case has nothing to do with three strikes.

Non-profits Still Working Hard at Capitol As The Catfish of the Economy

Clearly unsatisfied with a 1 percent increase, representatives of non-profit agencies descended upon the state Capitol on Friday to talk to as many lawmakers as possible about their plight.

The non-profits originally said they needed a 9 percent increase to provide services for the state, but the legislature voted last year to give them no increase for the fiscal year that starts on July 1. That 0 percent increase has now been changed to 1 percent by the budget-writing appropriations committee.

But the Rocky Hill-based Connecticut Community Providers Association is unhappy with 1 percent.

"It doesn't even cover our healthcare costs,'' said Patrick J. Johnson, Jr., president of Hartford-based Oak Hill, which operates programs for people with disabilities. "Where are we supposed to find the money? We're trying to warn the state we're being pushed against the wall. They seem to be unable to hear the bridge is falling.''

The CCPA recently released a letter from the state's mental health commissioner that stated that the non-profit infrastructure is "crumbling.'' But the governor's budget office disagrees with that characterization.

Johnson was lobbying lawmakers with many others, including Alyssa Goduti, CCPA's public policy manager, and Kimberly L. Beauregard, the president of East Hartford-based InterCommunity Mental Health Group, Inc.

Oak Hill and other agencies, Johnson said, help people with nowhere else to turn, and the problems will only get worse as the economy weakens further.

"We're the catfish of the economy,'' Johnson said. "We're bottom-feeders, and we come here, and they throw us crumbs.''

--Christopher Keating

Amann, Cafero on CPTV This Weekend; Don Williams, Prague, Urban on BTH

House Speaker James Amann and House GOP leader Lawrence Cafero are the two featured guests this weekend on Connecticut Public Television's "On The Record'' program.

The two leaders agreed that they both want to finish all of their legislative work by the time the General Assembly adjourns on May 7, but they disagreed on some aspects of the budget during the taping on Friday morning at the CPTV studios in Hartford.

"We're hoping to get out of Dodge before we're in deficit,'' Amann told the host, Steve Kotchko.

Regarding whether the budget assumptions in the Democratic-approved version are correct, Amann said that Republicans were "wrong about the deficit in 2005 and 2006.'' Of Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Amann said, "She should be the happiest person, clicking her heels, that we're going to get out of here in six weeks.''

When Amann noted that Democrats offered tax cuts - which were never enacted - to a huge percentage of the populace last year, Cafero responded that the tax cuts amounted to merely "a cup of coffee a day.''

"Lord, please,'' responded Amann, who was sitting next to Cafero.

The program airs at 9 p.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m. Sunday, and 11 p.m. Monday, along with being replayed at precisely 10:50 p.m. on Sunday night on CT-N, according to the latest schedule.

Dodd Tires Of Hillary and Barack Show

     Sen. Christopher J. Dodd said today the time is fast approaching to stop the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama slugfest.

      "Obviously, if they keep at it, this nomination won't be worth much, in my opinion," Dodd told reporters after a meeting in Norwich. "This idea of backbiting and sniping on an hourly basis is undermining our ability to win an election."

     Of course, it is unclear who, if anyone, has the juice to bring the combatants together. The Democratic Party does have a former president in its ranks, but he isn't anyone's idea of a honest broker in this fight.

     Dodd, who was general chairman of the Democratic National Committee under President Clinton, said the party needs to step in after the next round of primaries.

     "Then, I think, at that point, national leadership has to stand up and say, 'Enough is enough.' We need to get behind a candidate," Dodd said.

     Dodd has endorsed Obama, who could be the beneficiary of such an intervention as the leader in the delegate race. But he says he is interested in the good of the party, not Obama.

     "I was hopeful that others might have stepped up here," Dodd said. "But if they don't, I will."

     -- Mark Pazniokas

Battle Over Nursing Home Numbers Between OFA and OPM

While they normally get along quite well, there has been a battle over the numbers through the years between OFA and OPM.

Lawmakers use those initials to refer to the legislature's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis and the governor's Office of Policy and Management. But this week, an important dispute over the numbers could have important ramifications on whether the state budget balances or not in the next fiscal year.

Democratic legislators, supported by OFA, say they can increase staffing in the cash-strapped nursing homes for $10 million starting on March 1, 2009. That would begin near the end of the second year of the state's two-year budget and would last until the end of that fiscal year on June 30, 2009. On an annualized basis, that would cost about $24.1 million, according to OFA.

But Republicans and Rell's budget director, Robert Genuario, were flabbergasted by those numbers.

Conveyance Tax Extended For Two Years By Finance Committee; Battle Continues

In a continuance of a long-running saga, the legislature's finance committee voted Thursday to extend the highly controversial real estate conveyance tax for another two years.

In a relatively close 29 to 21 vote that included six Democrats breaking from their party, the committee decided to extend the tax - rather than making it permanent or allowing it to sunset. The measure now goes to the House of Representatives, and the final votes are expected to be held before the legislature adjourns on May 7.

Realtors, who had gathered at the Capitol complex on Wednesday for Realtors Day, have been battling against the increased tax for years and have ratcheted up the issue this year with a series of radio ads. The real estate agents have been battling hard against the lobbyists for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, who have supported the increased tax since it was enacted in 2003 to close a budget gap during the tenure of then-Gov. John G. Rowland.

"CCM is pleased,'' said Gian-Carl Casa, one of the organization's lobbyists. "This helps protect about $40 million in non-property tax revenue for municipalities. This has been a five-year battle. We hope to continue to fight to make it permanent.''

But Ken DelVecchio, president of the Connecticut Association of Realtors, said the vote was "very bad news'' because home sellers could have had $40 million in tax relief.

"In these difficult economic times, with home sales slowing, how can legislators dismiss the needs of families across the state, who are struggling to make ends meet?'' DelVecchio asked. "We continue to hear from municipal officials that they cannot get by without the extra revenue. But the tax increases were meant to be temporary, and it is past time to give homeowners of Connecticut a break.''

Q Poll Suggests Dodd's Got Some Work To Do Before 2010

     Sen. Chris Dodd's approval numbers are at an all-time low in a new Quinnipiac Poll, no doubt reflecting lingering unhappiness over the year Dodd spent running for president.

     Fifty-one percent of voters appove of the job Dodd is doing, while 28 percent disapprove. His approval numbers were 60 percent last May, then dropped to 55 percent in November. His all-time high was 71 percent in April 2001.

     "Sen. Dodd's approval declined steadily as he ran for president. Perhaps his numbers will come back up again, nowthat he is home from the campaign trail," said Douglas Schwartz, the poll's director.

     And home he is.

     Dodd has public events today in Bridgeport and New Britain to discuss the foreclosure crisis. On Friday, he is in Norwich at a wastewater treatment plant, talking about federal dollars he secured for local transportation and the money he hopes to land for sewer upgrades. Then he will be in East Hartford to talk about No Child Left Behind.

     Joe Lieberman's job approval numbers dipped, then rebounded after his presidential run in 2004, Schwartz said. Lieberman's approval rating is now at 52 percent, while 35 percent of voters say they disapprove of his performance.

     Republicans love Lieberman (77 percent). Democrats, no so much (39 percent).

     Dodd, who intends to seek re-election in 2010, remains solid with his Democratic base: 65 percent approve, while only 15 percent say they are unhappy with him. Unlike Lieberman, whose vulnerability in 2006 came from Democrats, Dodd has no worries in his own party.

     Gov. M. Jodi Rell's job approval dipped one point since November to a still enviable 76 percent. President Bush is her unhappy mirror image, registering a disapproval rating of 76 percent.

     -- Mark Pazniokas

Don Williams Makes It An Even Dozen

     The Connecticut Democratic superdelegate ranks are complete with the selection of State Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams, D-Brooklyn.

      Under the arcane Democratic rules, Connecticut had 11 superdelegates -- people whose status was determined by their political offices or positions in the Democratic Party -- plus an add-on to be chosen by the other delegates this week. That was Williams.

     Williams is technically unpledged, as are all superdelegates, but he is a leader of the Obama campaign in Connecticut. With the selection of Williams, Connecticut now has eight supers publicly committed to Obama, one for Hillary Clinton and three uncommitted.

     A Quinnipiac Poll out today shows Obama leading Republican John McCain, 52-35, in Connecticut, while a McCain-Clinton matchup would put the state in play. Clinton leads McCain, 45-42. 

     -- Mark Pazniokas

Approps Approves Budget; Rell Slams Plan As "Make Believe'' And A "Fiscal Shell Game''

After a day-long back and forth Wednesday about whether it was a great budget or one filled with phantom cuts, the appropriations committee approved a Democratic-written budget by a vote of 38 to 16.

Democrats hailed the plan as a major achievement and the first time in anyone's memory that the appropriations committee had passed a spending plan that was lower than the Republican governor's proposal.

But Gov. M. Jodi Rell's budget director, Robert Genuario, ripped the plan in his low-key method that involves never raising his voice.

"Our view is this is not a conservative budget,'' Genuario said in the Capitol press room. "The reductions [in spending] are not accurate projections.''

Genuario outlined a series of "unsubstantiated Medicaid re-estimates,'' which some others in the legislature might call phantom cuts. He says those estimates are off by $116.5 million, combined with other problems and an additional $189 million in proposed new spending.

But Democrats had a totally different view, particularly when it came to increased funding for nursing homes and a plan for increasing staffing levels in the homes.

"Every once in a while up here, a dream comes true - and this has been a dream of mine for years and years,'' said Sen. Edith Prague, a Columbia Democrat who has worked since 1999 to increase staffing levels.

Surrounded by union workers from District 1199 at a crowded press conference in the Legislative Office Building, Prague was talking about her dream when someone shouted out, "We love you!''

The amount of spending is highly important because state tax collections have been plummeting recently. Rell has described the plummet as "frightening,'' and state officials have become concerned about the collapse of the Bear Stearns investment bank that has sent shock waves through the scotch-and-sirloin power dens of Fairfield County. Lawmakers cautioned that the legislature should not make any final budget decisions until making a complete analysis of the April 15 tax collections so that they have a clear picture of the state's economic outlook.

Approps Committee Debating Budget on Wednesday; No Tax Increase Needed; GOP's Larry Cafero Is Grinning From Ear To Ear

The wait is over.

The legislature's appropriations committee will be voting Wednesday on an $18.4 billion budget that Democrats say will be $110 million lower than the fiscal plan proposed by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell for the fiscal year that starts in July. The budget, which will be subject to a final agreement with Rell and Republican lawmakers in early May, will be about $20 million less than the fiscal '09 budget that was approved last year and about $100 million under the state-mandated spending cap, according to Democrats.

The additional funding, above Rell's proposal, will include $30 million for cities and towns for PILOT, Pequot, and early reading success programs. It will also include $13 million for cost-of-living increases for cash-strapped nursing homes, $10 million to increase staffing at the nursing homes, and $13 million for the non-profit providers who have complained constantly at the Capitol that they are being underfunded. Terry Edelstein and Ron Cretaro - two longtime leaders of the non-profits - have become a constant presence at the Capitol in recent weeks as the legislative session heads toward its crescendo.

The budget is normally kept under extremely tight wraps until the familiar black, three-ring binders are distributed by the appropriations staff on the morning of the vote. But Larry Perosino and Derek Slap, two Democratic spokesmen, came to the Capitol press room late Tuesday to offer some details.

"There seems to be no need for a tax increase,'' said Perosino, a spokesman for House Speaker James Amann. "The budget reflects the declining revenues and some of the uncertainty in the economy.''

Slap, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, said that both Williams and Amann "feel this is a responsible budget and will prevent the need for tax increases in the future.'' Slap added that it "looks pretty doubtful'' that the legislature will be passing a stimulus package in the short term because the state's budget surplus has been dwindling as the economy weakens.

Upon hearing the news about the budget, House GOP leader Larry Cafero of Norwalk burst into a smile, saying that the Democrats were clearly following the lead of the fiscally conservative Republicans.

"I am grinning from ear to ear,'' Cafero said Tuesday night. "It is the highest form of flattery to my caucus that you could pay. I'm really flattered. I say that on behalf of my caucus. ... If their numbers pan out, let's vote on it ASAP. It sounds like we're getting out of here on time and on budget. We're thrilled. Let's vote on it.''

--Christopher Keating