Bridgeport mayor wants reporters to empathize with him

January 5th, 2009 | Posted in news | No Comments »

Bridgeport Mayor and former state Sen. Bill Finch was among the local elected officials to hold a press conference at the capitol today urging state lawmakers help cities and towns address their budget problems.

The press conference, hosted by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, attracted several newspaper and television reporters, who are no strangers to budget pressures in the workplace.

Perhaps fearing journalists have grown numb to pleas for financial assistance by CCM and other groups that frequent the capitol, Finch, who has laid-off or left unfilled 222 jobs, sought to personalize the issue.

“Every media outlet in this room is in jeopardy or has had lay offs,” he told reporters.

How much can you really cut from the New Haven Rail Yard?

January 5th, 2009 | Posted in news | No Comments »

Last April, when legislators first learned the cost to upgrade the New Haven Rail Yard had quadrupled from $300 million to over $1 billion, a Department of Transportation staffer defended the price increase using a car analogy.

This staffer - Scott Hill of the DOT facilities design office - told legislators much of the increase was due to inflation and the agency had been working hard to ensure no part of the project was a wasteful luxury.

“It’s not a Cadillac,” Hill said at the time. “It’s a Chevy.”

Which kind of leads me to wonder… If frugal lawmakers implement the recommendations of an audit released last week and lop off $500 million worth of work on the rail yard, what kind of car it can be compared to now?

Is DOT unhappy with the results of the rail yard audit?

January 2nd, 2009 | Posted in news | No Comments »

This afternoon Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s office released the highly-anticipated results of the audit of the New Haven Rail Yard project.

First proposed in 2005 to properly maintain the new Metro North rail cars arriving later this year, the rail yard’s price tag has ballooned from $300 million to around $1.3 billion.

Rell in June hired Hill International to seek cost-savings through an audit.

Bottom-line: Hill, according to the audit, consulted WITH the state Department of Transportation and Metro North and shaved the cost down to just over $1 billion.

But then, at least as I read it, the company went ahead and looked for other areas which could be eliminated or delayed, concluding at minimum the state needed to spend $849.3 million on the project.

As is the custom, I sought a comment from DOT and here’s the e-mail I got from spokesman Kevin Nursick.

“We welcome this independent analysis and will be working closely with the Governor’s Office and the General Assembly on the report’s recommendations. It is too early to say exactly how the recommendations will be addressed,” Nursick wrote.

That TOO EARLY TO SAY part sounds like perhaps DOT is not completely on board with some of Hill’s suggestions, just as the agency disagreed with the findings of an earlier rail yard audit.

In 2007 DOT hired Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. of Middletown to “value engineer” the project. VHB returned with $63 million worth of suggestions which were shaved down to $11 million after talks with DOT and Metro North.

UPDATE: Jim Cameron, chairman of the Metro-North Commuter Rail Council, weighs in on the audit.

Republican leaders split on Dems putting off special session

December 30th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, earlier this afternoon “applauded” the announcement by Sen. President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, and incoming House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, to hold a vote on a deficit mitigation plan Jan. 14.

Cafero had ideally wanted the Democratic majority to agree to return to the capitol Friday to take up Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposal to address the current, $356 million budget shortfall. But he said he was willing to put it off as long as the Democrats scheduled a future date.

The regular legislative session begins Jan. 7 so any plan up for adoption Jan. 14 will come before the newly sworn General Assembly as opposed to the “lame duck” legislature in place for this final week.

But in a statement sent this evening, Senate Minority Leader John McKinney had the opposite opinion of Williams’ and Donovan’s announcement.

“If the Democrats are serious about passing the Governor’s mitigation plan, then there isn’t a moment to lose; certainly not two more weeks. We should be in special session Friday, or at the very least be prepared to vote on opening day,” McKinney wrote.

Radio personality and Norwalk resident Diane Smith laid off

December 30th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

According to the Hartford Courant, Diane Smith, a familiar face at various charity events and self-written book signings in lower Fairfield County, has lost her job co-hosting a morning talk show on Hartford’s WTIC 1080 radio station.

Cafero: If no special session Jan. 2, then when? Give me a date.

December 30th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

State House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, said he will not fight Democratic leaders’ opposition to a special session this Friday on the deficit if they come up with an alternative date.

The special session was called by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell to vote on her proposal to address the current fiscal year’s $356 million deficit. Rell argues the budget hole should be dealt with BEFORE the General Assembly reconvenes Jan. 7 for the 2009 legislative session, during which lawmakers will have to address a $6 billion deficit projected for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 fiscal years.

But Democrats late last week decided against returning to the capitol Friday.

Cafero said he has since spoken to incoming House Speaker Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, and urged him to schedule another time to take up Rell’s proposal.

“We’ll support cancelling it if you set a date certain in January whereby we’ll be taking up the Governor’s mitigation plan,” Cafero told me this afternoon. “That’s reasonable and logical. I am not supportive if we just cancel the session and make no plans other than to say ‘we’ll take it up some day’.”

Supposedly Donovan and Senate President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, are meeting today to decide whether to set a future date to take on the current, $356 million budget shortfall.

If they don’t, Cafero acknowledges he has little recourse as minority leader.

“I guess I don’t have a procedural recourse than to complain loudly,” Cafero said.

UPDATE:

Williams and Donovan just announced they have agreed to take up a deficit-mitigation plan on Jan. 14.

“The effects of the global economic crisis have landed on our doorstep and we must face the challenges head-on,” the pair said in a statement. “In the next two weeks we expect to work closely with Gov. Rell to reach agreement on a budget mitigation plan that can be approved on January 14. We must begin the 2009 legislative session the same way we will end it many months from now - working together to make tough, smart and responsible decisions.”

DiNardo mum on time and place of meeting with Lieberman

December 29th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

Nancy DiNardo, chairman of the state Democrats, said this morning she has scheduled a meeting with black sheep (my words, not hers) U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman for this week. But she declined to give any specifics.

“It’s this week. It’s not today,” DiNardo said.

Lieberman, a long-time Democrat and Stamford native, has had an increasingly frosty relationship with his party since losing the 2006 primary to anti-Iraq War candidate Ned Lamont of Greenwich.

Lieberman ran and won the general election as a third party candidate, then used his independence (he labels himself an “independent Democrat”) to back the Republican presidential ticket this year, further infuriating his party with some pretty tough criticism about Democrat Barack Obama.

But the election is over, Obama won, and Lieberman has since indicated he regrets some of the stuff he said about the President-elect and wants to try and mend some fences with the state party.

In an interview last week during a stop in Norwalk Lieberman told me he had reached out to DiNardo to meet this week, and she confirmed at the time talks were occuring but nothing had been finalized.

Asked if she will alert the media once the meeting has occurred, DiNardo said “I imagine I will be making a statement. I don’t know what his plans are.”

The legislature has to spend money to save money

December 27th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

One argument against convening a special legislative session Jan. 2 to address the budget deficit is it would cost taxpayer dollars that might be saved if the vote took place during the regular session.

The regular 2009 legislative session begins Jan. 7.

It is true that special sessions do not come cheap. When legislators returned to the capitol in November to vote on a plan to decrease the deficit, it cost, according to the Office of Legislative Management, $18,500.

And that does NOT, according to OLM, include the money the individual Senate and House Democratic and Republican caucuses paid to order out lunch and dinner.

“These costs are paid from caucus funds and the appropriate caucus determines where the food is ordered on a particular day. No contracts exist for these purchases,” Dana Crompton, a state employee who helps keep track of this stuff, wrote in an e-mail.

Christopher Cooper, spokesman for Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who is pushing for the Jan. 2 special session, said those concerned about the cost make “a valid point.”

“But the Governor just believes that there’s an urgency to getting this deficit mitigation in place,” Cooper said.

Were a special session held, I guess lawmakers could at least find savings by brown-bagging it.

I’ll ask again - Why can’t Lt. Gov. Fedele be the biz advocate?

December 27th, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

Back in November I wondered why the state needs to spend money on a business advocate when it has Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele of Stamford, who clearly wants to make economic development a hallmark of his tenure in office.

Since that initial blog post, current business advocate Rob Simmons has decided to leave the job.

And I returned to the office today from Christmas vacation to find a day old e-mail from Fedele’s office promoting a column he wrote for the National Federation of Independent Business. In it Fedele reiterates one of his “top priorities” has been economic development and talks about the economic crisis.

He also goes on to write the following: “Connecticut’s business owners, do what you do best - run your company. Your contribution to Connecticut’s economy in terms of investment - financially and in employment - is invaluable and appreciated. As a businessman, I know the struggle you face in day-to-day decisions such as the rising cost of energy, healthcare, taxes and making payroll - and the responsiblity you feel trying to keep your business going and growing.”

So I’ll ask again. Why not make “business advocate” one of Fedele’s official duties?

‘Tis the season for trains under the tree, but not railyard audits

December 23rd, 2008 | Posted in news | No Comments »

There’s a rumor floating around the capitol that the long-anticipated audit of the over-budget New Haven Rail Yard project will now not be released until AFTER Christmas.

Although there is still the paranoid part of me that thinks Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration will issue the findings some time tomorrow afternoon, when reporters are leaving for Christmas Eve and it will be difficult for those still on the job to track down people for comment.

Rell proposed upgrading the railyard in 2005 as part of her transportation initiative, which included the purchase of 300 or so new Metro North train cars to service lower Fairfield County.

Earlier this year it was revealed the cost of the project had quadrupled from the estimated $300 million to over $1.2 billion.

Rell initially denied having been aware of the issue, but it then surfaced that both state budget chief Robert Genuario of Norwalk and Rell chief-of-staff Lisa Moody were aware of the rising price tag last year.

In June Rell decided to spend $630,000 to audit the rail yard plans for cost savings. The administration had initially said the audit would be completed by the end of September.