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Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CT lawmakers OK $3.2 billion annual bond package of school construction, other projects
On the final day of the 2025 regular session, state lawmakers voted Wednesday to fund major construction and renovation projects ranging from colleges to state parks to local schools. The bipartisan bonding package includes $3.2 billion in the first year and $3.4 billion in the second year for projects for more than 30 state agencies, plus public schools across the state. In addition to brick and mortar projects, the legislature decided to allocate bond money to help pay for removing some of the controversial 'public benefits charges' on customers' electric bills. Those costs caused a firestorm of protest starting last July when the increased amounts appeared on electric bills and surprised some customers. Republicans called for switching those costs to the state's general fund, but lawmakers decided to pay for them by borrowing money. The 256-page bond package was approved by the House by 144-4 after less than one hour of debate with four conservative Republicans, Anne Dauphinais of Danielson, Doug Dubitsky of Chaplin, Joe Hoxha of Bristol, and Gale Mastrofrancesco of Wolcott, voting against the measure. The bill was then immediately sent to the Senate, which approved the package before 5:30 p.m. by 35-1. Sen. Rob Sampson, a fiscal conservative from Wolcott, voted against the bill after saying that the state borrows too much money through bonding. The multiple projects range from large to small, for example, including up to $113 million for a new Windham Technical High School to $1 million for renovating a building at Norwalk Community College. Aside from the two-year, $55.8 billion operating budget that is a separate entity, the bond package helps numerous cities and towns, said Senate majority leader Bob Duff of Norwalk. 'This is a crucial piece of the puzzle,' Duff said. 'In this bill, we are under the bond authorization cap in fiscal year 2026 and fiscal year 2027. … At the same time that the federal government is backing out of commitments, we are doubling down. … It is much-needed dollars back to our communities.' Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich, a fiscally conservative Republican, questioned the state's spending on major projects. He said recently on the Senate floor that Gov. Ned Lamont's much-touted 'debt diet' was really like eating a half dozen donuts a day, rather than a full dozen, and feeling like you're still on a diet. Noting that his district is known for sending hundreds of millions of dollars in income taxes annually to the state, Fazio said the package would include money for the historic Old Greenwich School on Sound Beach Avenue and Roxbury Elementary School in the Westover section of Stamford. Traditionally, the bond package often gets approved in the final hours of the session as lawmakers fight to get their special projects into the document. That was the case again Wednesday as both chambers debated on the final day of the regular session. 'The cost of the final version is lower than the committee version,' said Rep. Ron Napoli, a Waterbury Democrat who co-chairs the bonding subcommittee and introduced the bill on the House floor. He added that money set aside in the 'Town Aid Road' category for paving and improving local streets had increased by nearly 33% in a category that he said would make mayors and first selectmen 'very happy.' Rep. John Piscopo, the longest-serving House Republican, noted that the package was crafted on a bipartisan basis. 'The major increases were for energy, getting those public benefits off our bills,' Piscopo said. 'All in all, I could accept this.' Piscopo recalled the early 1990s when an unlikely odd couple of legislators, a blunt, blue-collar Democrat from Enfield and an Ivy League stockbroker from New Canaan, were known for relentlessly traveling around the state and personally looking at leaking roofs and other problems in detailed, on-the-ground inspections. 'We brought back the old tradition of Fred Gelsi and Les Young,' said Piscopo, who has served in the legislature since 1989. 'It means a lot when you can visit the projects and see a day care center that is bursting at the seams … instead of looking at a spreadsheet. We were all over the state. … I'm glad we brought back that Gelsi and Les Young tradition of going out and seeing the projects.' Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat, also mentioned the pair, saying that Gelsi was a 'legendary' lawmaker who knew details down to a particular boiler in a state building. Gelsi died in 2005, long after Young died of cancer in 1996. Looney noted that $550 million will be allocated for school construction, plus $200 million for housing and $10 million in each of the next two years for municipal open space, among others. 'There is a lot to celebrate here,' Looney said. This year, House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford said the number of individual projects was reduced as larger sums of money would be set aside for a broad category of urban projects, for example, that would be named later. 'They've gone away from the line items,' Ritter told reporters. 'You won't see a ton of projects listed.' While lawmakers are highly interested in the bond package, no projects can move forward unless they receive final approval from the 10-member, Democratic-dominated State Bond Commission. Lamont chairs the commission, controls the agenda, and decides which projects get funded. Sen. John Fonfara, a longtime Hartford Democrat, said he wished that legislators had more influence on the final projects that need approval from the bond commission. 'Bonding matters to legislators,' Fonfara said on the Senate floor. 'Parks, recreation, you name it, that are unable to be funded' by local municipalities. The huge, 256-page bill still listed multiple projects, including the maximum amount that could be spent on each one. That includes up to $75 million for the governor's budget office to oversee upgrading computers through an information technology capital investment program, $50 million for designing and planning a replacement for state-owned Whiting Forensic Hospital in Middletown, $40 million for improvements at state parks so that they will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and $15 million for relocating the Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters in Wethersfield, which has been under discussion. 'We are currently looking for a new location in the area that can accommodate our branch and back-office staff with sufficient space,' said state motor vehicles commissioner Tony Guerrera, a well-known former legislator who headed the transportation committee. 'We are collaborating with the Department of Administrative Services to facilitate this process, carefully considering factors such as parking, ADA accessibility and access to public transportation.' The bill also includes up to $40 million for installing solar systems on state properties, $30 million for deferred maintenance at the state's 12 community colleges, $28 million for the UConn Health center in Farmington for equipment, library collections, and telecommunications infrastructure upgrades, $17 million for renovations and improvements at Rentschler Field in East Hartford and the convention center in Hartford, and $30 million for deferred maintenance at the four regional public universities in Danbury, New Britain, New Haven, and Willimantic. Despite plaudits from colleagues about the depth and breadth of the proposals, Sampson said the package was too big. 'Overall, the state of Connecticut bonds too much and probably always has,' Sampson said, adding the bill is 'more giant that it has to be.' But House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford, who voted for the bill, said the package was affordable. 'The bonding is still under the debt cap,' Candelora told reporters outside the Hall of the House. 'So I think the bonding levels have stayed appropriate. But when you continue to give state employees raises, it puts pressure on the pension fund. So now that you're slowing down the amount of money you're going to put into the pensions, we are going to see our unfunded liabilities potentially now increase. They're no longer going to decrease.' The bond bill also included various 'fixes' from multiple pieces of legislation that had already passed, including mistakes and errors that could be corrected before the legislative session's adjournment at midnight Wednesday. 'I know it's a shock to people that we make mistakes in bills that we have to fix, but that's what happens,' Ritter told reporters Wednesday. A key aspect concerns the future of the State Elections Enforcement Commission, which oversees the elections of the state legislators and others. Both the House and the Senate had passed a controversial bill that would have allowed the legislature to approve the commission's executive director. But Lamont had been lobbied on the issue to veto the bill in order to preserve the commission's independence, and his administration requested the change. Groups like the League of Women Voters, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, and Common Cause had opposed the controversial bill, but the measure had moved quickly through both chambers. While the bipartisan measure passed by 34-1 in the state Senate, numerous House Democrats voted against the measure that still passed in the chamber by 92-46. But the resolution is that the legislature will not have veto power over the choice of the executive director. 'There will be a public hearing before the exec noms committee, but not a vote of the exec noms committee,' Ritter said, referring the executive and legislative nominations committee. 'That is something the governor did ask us to look at. That's a big one. He didn't like the appointment by the legislature.' So the tradition will continue in which the five-member, bipartisan commission will still hire its own executive director. 'That provision was a double-edged sword,' Candelora said. 'At the same time, it doesn't need a full vote of the legislature. … That is a provision that impacts democracy. Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CT lawmakers push forward changes on artificial intelligence, smoking pot while driving
After numerous stops and starts, a key legislative committee voted Monday to regulate the controversial 'deep fake' images that are created by artificial intelligence. As the bill has been crafted over the past two years with the help of a task force, one of the highest-profile issues has been to make it a crime to spread pornographic material that was generated by artificial intelligence. After a relatively brief debate, the Democratic-controlled judiciary committee voted unanimously for the measure that still requires approval by the full Senate and House of Representatives. Known as 'deep fakes,' the images are generated by AI through videos and other means that can take a person's image and distort it in a negative way. False images were spread on the internet of famed singer Taylor Swift, which gained widespread attention. The same methods, however, can be used against average citizens and spread publicly as 'revenge porn.' The deep fake issue was broken off into a separate bill because lawmakers could not agree on all the aspects of a much larger, all-encompassing bill that would regulate the fast-developing world of artificial intelligence. Lawmakers are still struggling in a delicate balancing act to try to foster regulation at the same time as some officials are concerned about restricting the growth of artificial intelligence that can be used in a wide variety of fields, including health care. State Rep. Doug Dubitsky, a Republican attorney, said the bill only affects images of a real person and not fictional characters. The bill's language states that it covers 'a photograph, film, videotape or image of a person.' Rep. Craig Fishbein, the committee's ranking House Republican, said the measure's purpose is to 'reduce the amount of ridicule' that some have faced, including teenagers who have committed suicide. The measure was placed on the consent calendar for non-controversial items that have unanimous support. Opposition Despite the unanimous support of the committee members, some attorneys and First Amendment advocates testified that the underlying bill was far too vague and subject to wide interpretations. 'The ultimate result of this bill is the potential for criminalizing conduct that is not a crime, as well as creating a variety of First Amendment challenges, vagueness challenges, and uneven application of the law in terms of who gets prosecuted and for what – especially children/juveniles, college students, and young adults,' John R. DelBarba, assistant legal counsel for the chief public defender's office, said in written testimony. 'It is clear that these laws are creating a fundamentally new category of criminal behavior. The real concern here is that this office believes that this legislation will have unintended consequences.' He added, 'Given our current technology used by children/juveniles, high school and college students such as Apple AirDrop, Instagram, Snapchat, and similar technologies and/or apps, which have the ability to transfer an unlimited number of images to an unlimited number of people with the press of a button on your phone, this statute can turn an entire high school into felons within one school day. All with a single image or two as these images are passed around and around — disseminated across the school at the high rate of speed of the Internet.' But the House Republican caucus, which pushed for the measure, said that it is necessary. 'It is not difficult to acknowledge that our current law falls far short of where it should be,' the caucus said in a statement. 'There are numerous stories of public figures victimized through digital pornographic images and videos created with artificial intelligence. Further, instances of a scorned lover using artificial intelligence to create 'revenge porn' are similarly and disturbingly common. The reality is that each of us is a potential victim — children, young professionals, marginalized individuals, public figures, neighbors, and families.' While artificial intelligence has positive aspects, the caucus said 'in the context of the dissemination of digitally altered intimate images, its use is much more sinister and disturbing.' Both Democrats and Republicans held lengthy caucuses on the bills Monday because they are in the final week before a key deadline on Friday as the committee is scrambling to get its work done. Guns Lawmakers passed a bill that would allow civil lawsuits to be filed by victims of gun violence against 'irresponsible firearm industry members,' said Rep. Steven Stafstrom of Bridgeport, the committee's co-chairman. Fishbein thanked Stafstrom for working together on the language of the measure as lawyers from opposing political parties. 'It's important that those who sell products nationwide understand that Connecticut is very different from the rest of the country,' Dubitsky said, noting that bear hunting and 'constitutional carry' that allow firearm possession without a permit are allowed in multiple states but not Connecticut. 'I think it is directed at stifling the constitutional rights of the people of this state, and I cannot support it,' Dubitsky said. A second gun bill focused on laws that disqualify residents from obtaining a carry permit. 'Generally speaking, if you're convicted of a felony, that is an automatic disqualifier' to obtain a gun, Stafstrom said. 'Unfortunately, there's a loophole in our law. … In essence, we are treating our own residents more harshly' than others who have been convicted of misdemeanor disqualifiers in other states. The Democrats defeated a separate bill on guns, House Bill 7070, that would have treated churches similar to a home regarding a duty to retreat. 'An individual in their home does not have a duty to retreat,' Fishbein said. 'Approximately three years ago, we had issues around the country and in other countries as well, people were targeting houses of worship and people inside were not allowed to defend themselves.' But top Democrat voted against the bill as Stafstrom said, 'I worry where it ends.' 'Does that extend to the movie theater, the grocery store, the Little League field?' Stafstrom asked. 'I'm worried about where this goes.' Smoking pot while driving The issue of smoking marijuana while driving has been controversial for years, and the committee hatched a bipartisan compromise Monday by combining two bills together, House bills 7132 and 7258. 'It prevents an officer from pulling over a driver who has dangling dice in the windshield,' Stafstrom said, adding that it 'expressly empowers law enforcement to pull over' a driver for smoking marijuana. 'We tried to merge those two concepts together'.' Kissel voted against the bill, saying, 'If it was a standalone on the cannabis issue, I would not be hesitant to support the bill. … You hear tales of people flaunting that they're smoking a joint while driving.' The Connecticut Police Chiefs Association lobbied for years against the legalization of recreational marijuana because police said officers lacked a roadside test to prove that a driver has been smoking marijuana. By contrast, police are able to administer a simple blood alcohol test to know precisely how much alcohol a person has consumed when pulled over for drunken driving. Rep. Thomas O'Dea, a New Canaan Republican who voted for the compromise bill, has cited a provision that was passed as part of the recreational marijuana law in 2021 that says that 'the odor of cannabis or burnt cannabis' cannot be used as the sole reason for probable cause for an officer to pull over a driver. 'I've been very vocal in my frustration,' O'Dea said Monday. 'I found out a new term that I never knew — showing my age — termed the hot box. I said, what the heck's a hot box? It's people are smoking marijuana in a confined space and everyone gets high. … When in history has a driver gotten impaired by a passenger drinking a beer or an alcoholic beverage?' State Rep. Greg Howard, a Republican who also works as a police detective in Stonington, seconded the bill, saying he favors the compromise measure because it makes progress on the issue. 'It alleviates a significant public safety concern,' Howard said, 'and for that, I am grateful.' Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@
