Latest news with #Osten
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State leaders look to triple Connecticut's tourism marketing budget
Mystic — State officials and tourism leaders gathered Thursday at one of Connecticut's top attractions, Mystic Aquarium, to tout a bill that would triple the state's tourism marketing budget. The state spent $4.5 million on tourism marketing last fiscal year, about half of what was spent by New Hampshire, a state with about half of Connecticut's population. The bill aims to raise the marketing budget to more than $12 million with the whole package funded by the state's 1% extra tax on food and beverage sales, officials said. State Comptroller Sean Scanlon said the money is part of a proposed $55 million package to boost the state's tourism and hospitality industry. State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said investing in marketing is vital to Connecticut's economic health, as she promoted the bill during the meeting here of the Connecticut Tourism Coalition, Scanlon and other officials. This is a major investment," Scanlon said after the meeting. "The bill is all about investing in the tourism industry." Frank Burns, the coalition's executive director, said the 1% tax generates more than $100 million annually. Burns said the bill also aims to invest $5 million in arts and $5 million for culture. Koray Gurz, the aquarium chief financial officer and chief operating officer, said tourism spending yields $4 for every $1 invested. He pointed out that the aquarium attracts 800,000 visitors annually, more than half of those coming from out of state who spend money here. Scanlon's press release announcing the event said he would address the economic consequences of President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs, though he did not in his speech to the coalition. He said anything that makes goods and services more expensive is problematic. "It does have an impact on people's ability to spend money and support industries like tourism," Scanlon said of the tariffs. Scanlon told the coalition that with a budget surplus, a $4 billion rainy day fund and $10 billion less in pension debt than seven years ago, the state is positioned to invest for the first time in years. "Connecticut is now at an inflection point," Scanlon said, and the state needs to decide how it wants to navigate its "next chapter." "Some people don't consider tourism as important as it is," Osten said. "But it's a multibillion-dollar industry in the State of Connecticut." Osten said the state has "missed the mark" by not investing in tourism. She said the state has put aside little to no money to market how it will celebrate the country's upcoming 250th anniversary. Burns said the proposed bill puts $5 million to funding America 250 marketing. "We're a great state that has assets that need to be shown to people, and the only way to show them is we need to have marketing dollars, Osten said. According to the coalition, Connecticut's tourism industry generates $2.6 billion in annual tax revenue and employs 120,000 people while travelers spend $17 billion.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Resolution calls for Connecticut to condemn a genocide within its borders
Aa stone relief on the Capitol depicting the attack John Mason led on a fortified Pequot village in 1637. (Photo by mark Pazniokas/ Connecticut commemorates the Holocaust every May with a solemn ceremony at the state Capitol building, a Victorian landmark that features an overlooked stone relief depicting a 1637 attack on a Pequot village that preceded what historians now view as a genocide. There remains some debate over whether the attack led by John Mason, a Connecticut Colony founder honored with a statue in a niche on the Capitol, can be celebrated as Pequot War victory or a criminal massacre of women and children. Most accounts lean to the latter. But there is no question that the document drafted by the victorious colonists to formally end the war, the Treaty of Hartford of 1638, directed that surviving Pequots be sold into slavery and stripped of their lands, history and tribal name. The text of the treaty speaks for itself. And that meets the definition of genocide, David Simon, the director of the Yale Genocide Studies Program, said in written testimony submitted for a hearing Friday by the General Assembly's Government Administration and Elections Committee. The testimony was submitted in support of a resolution proposed by Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, that would condemn the Treaty of Hartford. 'This resolution is so meaningful for our tribe in so many ways, and we believe that this is long overdue — the condemnation of the genocidal provision of the 1638 Treaty of Hartford, an agreement that sought to erase the very existence of our people,' said LaToya Cluff, vice chair of the Mashantucket Pequots. Osten, whose district includes the tribal lands of the Pequots and the Mohegans who warred with them as allies of the colonists, said she abandoned a similar effort last year, fearing it would be subsumed in the present-day debate over whether the Israel war on Gaza was an act of genocide. The time seemed right to try again, she said. 'It is, in my opinion, of utmost importance that we, as a state and a governmental institution, recognize and condemn the actions induced by the language of this treaty, which was repeated over and over again across the United States as we populated this country, and our treatment of indigenous people, which I think cannot be minimized,' Osten told the committee. Simon testified that his predecessor at the Yale program, the historian Ben Kiernan, included the Pequot War as an episode of genocide in his book, 'Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur.' It would be another 310 years before the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide would convene in 1948 to define genocide as a crime. 'It's central definition matches closely to what the Treaty of Hartford commanded,' Simon wrote. Addressing such a past is always relevant, he wrote. 'I believe that we have a responsibility to acknowledge the complicated past in our own history and that we can only be faithfully educating the next generation to confront the challenges they may face if we do so in the awareness that we are not covering up historical wrongs,' Simon wrote. Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, told Cluff, the tribal vice chair, he disagreed with such sentiments. 'The problem with these types of issues is that there are multiple sides of these stories, and I'm not taking a side by any stretch of the imagination,' Sampson said. 'I don't know enough about Pequot history or what happened in 1638.' Osten's resolution asks the General Assembly to 'make a very powerful statement about something that I don't think that the majority of our membership has any real knowledge,' Sampson said. The text of the treaty is online and a quick read. Cluff invited Sampson to visit her tribe's museum and research center if he wanted to learn more. Sampson said the treaty was struck by English colonists, more than a century before the colonies became a nation. 'I'm curious why you feel it's necessary for an entirely different country, the United States of America, to address this issue. Have you brought this concern across the pond, you know, to England?' Sampson said. 'And I'm just curious why it's important for Connecticut to address it.' Cluff replied that it is part of Connecticut's history. An effort four years ago to remove Mason's statue failed. Cluff said the tribe still would like to see it removed and placed on display at the Old State House in a historical exhibit providing context. 'I think we should learn from history, and I think that's important,' said Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, R-Wolcott. 'Removing them actually takes them out of history.' Cluff disagreed, saying erasing Mason from history is the last thing the tribe wants. It just doesn't want him celebrated in a niche high in the Capitol overlooking Bushnell Park. This article first appeared on CT Mirror and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Osten backing economic study of area served by Mohegan-Pequot Bridge
State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, has said she will continue to advocate for a bill calling for an economic study of the area surrounding the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge despite the public-hearing testimony of two state commissioners who suggested last week that a pending transportation study should come first. Daniel O'Keefe and Garrett Eucalitto, commissioners of the Departments of Economic and Community Development and Transportation, respectively, told the legislature's Transportation Committee that the DOT is embarking on a 'transportation corridor study' in the same geographic region described in Senate Bill 1081. 'DECD would encourage the committee to await the results of that (DOT) study to inform decision making around the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge capacity,' O'Keefe wrote in testimony filed in connection with the Feb. 10 public hearing. 'I'm not willing to stop the bill from moving forward,' Osten, a Transportation Committee member, said Monday. 'They're hiring consultants to look at economics and traffic projects. My intent is to still have that bill come out of committee to make sure it (an economic study) happens. ... Let's make sure it happens.' The bill's 10 co-sponsors include Osten and eight other members of the southeastern Connecticut delegation. It would require O'Keefe and Eucalitto to jointly conduct or commission an economic study of areas in Montville and Preston to determine whether the capacity of the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge adequately serves them. The proposed study would assess whether the bridge 'permits the convenient, safe and expeditious flow of traffic' to the areas and the extent to which the bridge's capacity will be affected by developments on the Mashantucket Pequot reservation and elsewhere. Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket, a $300 million indoor waterpark resort set to open in May adjacent to Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Tribe's proposed Preston Riverwalk project are among those developments, as is an expansion of the Preston incinerator site. 'The area is a true asset, and it is imperative that we ensure that our infrastructure is sufficiently up to the task of dealing with the various projects and developments in the area,' Osten said in her public hearing testimony. Senate Bill 1081 also seeks an evaluation of the impact on the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge of oversized loads that could be prohibited from traversing the Gold Star Memorial Bridge between Groton and New London. Traffic could be similarly diverted in the event of a public safety incident that caused the DOT to shut down the Gold Star, according to the bill. Meanwhile, the DOT is planning to undertake a $32.8 million renovation of the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge. Local officials and residents have expressed opinions about the plan, with some saying the improvements to the bridge should include widening it from two to four lanes. Such an undertaking would be six to seven times costlier than repairs, according to estimates.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Connecticut lawmakers consider bill to lower legal alcohol limit for drivers
HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — A group of lawmakers are renewing their push to lower Connecticut's legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit in this year's legislative session. Previous attempts to lower the limit have failed, but some lawmakers argue that a year of exceptionally high deaths on state roadways should move their colleagues to act. Connecticut could lower legal alcohol driving unit to one of lowest in nation 'I really feel like we're gaining momentum now,' State Sen. Christine Cohen said. 'It's becoming more and more common, unfortunately, to see crashes on the side of the road. We're losing a lot of people to preventable deaths.' Cohen, a Democrat from Guilford, is the co-chair of the legislature's Transportation Committee. She has previously led unsuccessful efforts to lower the BAC from the state's current level of .08% to .05%. The debate over the BAC doesn't break down easily along party lines. Some Democrats like Cohen support the change. Others, like the influential State Sen. Cathy Osten, have expressed concerns. 'Please don't misconstrue what I am saying as disagreeing with your philosophy on this or your philosophy on what you're trying to do,' Osten said. 'But I think that we over-legislate some activities.' Similarly, Republicans do not seem unified on the issue either. State Sen. Tony Hwang, the top Republican senator on the Transportation Committee, expressed support — adding that he also wants to address drivers impaired by marijuana use. 'So, it's not just BAC. It's about impairment and a culture of permissiveness in my mind that is really increasing danger on our roadways,' Hwang said. Other Republicans like State Rep. Seth Bronko share the same concerns as Osten, a Democrat. 'At what point are we over-legislating? Are we going too far?' Bronko asked. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
