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All five Congressmen from Connecticut last night voted in favor of the historic health care reform bill. The vote handed President Obama the victory he has sought since taking office. US Rep. Chris Murphy wrote on an online social network, “Millions more people get health care, an end to discriminatory health insurance practices, tax cuts for CT small businesses, and $130 billion off the deficit. An historic day.”

All that may be true but the fact is, no one really knows how this will all work out. This morning, critics are saying that in the coming years, states will be saddled with billons in additional Medicaid costs.

There is still the question of the $100 million Sen. Dodd is said to have put in the bill for a new or renovated UConn Health Center. Apparently there are a number of states that will compete for that money—it’s not an automatic. This is the exchange between FOX News host Chris Wallace and Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democrats’ chief deputy whip on FOX News Sunday:

WALLACE: $100 million for a hospital in Connecticut? That’s not a special deal?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: That’s not $100 million for a hospital in Connecticut. There are 13 states eligible to competitively compete for that program. That is not just a special deal for Connecticut. That has…

So I guess we need to hear from Sen. Dodd as to whether Connecticut is getting this money or not. The $100 million was a lynchpin of Governor Rell’s plan for the UConn Health Center’s future.
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Should the possession of drug paraphernalia or less than an ounce of marijuana be a misdemeanor or a ticketed offense? That was the question before the legislature’s judiciary committee Friday. Supporters cite the financial savings the state would see by not having to prosecute so many cases. Opponents see it as opening the door to decriminalization of other drug. Or from the police’s perspective, cutting off an avenue for further searches.

“We don’t like the bill,” West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci told the Hartford Courant after the hearing. “It would take what’s now a crime and make it an infraction, and that would reduce an officer’s ability to take further investigative action, particularly for searches.”

The Democrats who would be governor had their turn on live TV in a debate Friday night on NBC Connecticut (Channel 30). The six candidates focused mostly on the budget deficit and how to fix it. Unlike the Republicans seeking the office, the Democrats were more than open to new sources of revenue.

The beginning of the debate was a bit odd as the lectern set up for frontrunner Ned Lamont was empty. Moderator Gerry Brooks explained Lamont was stuck in traffic. When Lamont did arrive, he commented that he hoped transportation would be discussed because he “was loaded for bear on that one.” Lamont may have thought showing up late and making a joke out of it was cute. To The Shad, it was nothing short of insulting.

Most of the candidates, to varying degrees, sucked up to public employee unions and unions in general while expressing a need to take on the expected $3.5 billion deficit in the coming years—seemingly contradicting undertakings.

Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman stood out not only as the sole woman on the stage but also by reiterating a signature issue for her—smart growth and regionalization. She also said that as governor, she would maximize federal funds, saying the current administration has left millions on the table.

Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi voiced strong support for tolls as a way to raise revenue (the legislature’s transportation committee referred the tolls issue for further study earlier this year.

Sounding confident and well versed on the issues, former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy nonetheless left this viewer with a sense of “we’ve heard this all before.” That’s probably because we have. Malloy won the party’s endorsement in 2006 only to lose the primary to New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.
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The clock is ticking on President Obama’s health care reform bill. The $100 million for Dempsey Hospital that Sen. Dodd engineered is still in the Health Care Reform bill—as of now—while others have fallen. http://www.foxnews.com/

The reason the headline for this entry is not more descriptive or even longer is because that’s really all there is to say about the encounter between the 8 people vying for the Republican nomination for governor. It was your typical initial debate, no one straying very far from the traditional GOP line.

How do we fix the state budget shortfall? Cut, cut and cut some more (nearly every non-partisan expert on state government has said a combination of spending cuts and new revenue is needed to solve the budget crisis). The leader of the pack in the latest Q-Poll, Greenwich multimillionaire Tom Foley, promised to forgo the $150,000 governor’s salary if elected, saying the state’s problem is not one of revenue but one of taxing.

Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele who earlier this week promised not to raise taxes of any kind, touted what he said was a record of job creation in his years as a businessman.

The most noticeable thing about the debate was there were candidates The Shad had never heard of—as in last night was the first time I had ever heard his name mentioned.

Those participating in last night’s event were Foley, Fedele, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, economic development leader Oz Griebel, Newington Mayor Jeff Wright, Chester First Selectman Tom Marsh, financial analyst C. Duffy Acevedo (?), and former Congressman Lawrence DiNardis.
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While many of us are trying to figure out how to finance a new couch at Ikea or sit through the commercial just to see what’s on sale at Bob’s furniture, UConn President Michael Hogan has $35,000 worth of new furniture (including a $3,600 desk and $8,000 window treatments)in his office. This is not to begrudge President Hogan some nice digs. After all, he is a university president and some nice “stuff” should be part of the deal. The big question is, “Who is paying for it?”

The answer is that about two-thirds of the furniture costs will be covered by private donations. The rest of the furniture cost as well as the $475,000 renovation to the second floor of Gulley Hall will be paid for through…cue the outraged students…operating funds which is made up of tuition fees. The renovations have been a thorn in the side of UConn officials for some time, going back to when officials admitted violating federal law by improperly removing asbestos.
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Connecticut has the 4th most millionaire households in the country. The nutmeg state has 83,000 millionaire households according to Phoenix Marketing International. 6.5 percent of the state’s population are millionaires and the median household income is $68,000. Phoenix does point out that it unknown how the new budget that increases taxes on the wealthy will affect the numbers.

Ahead of the nutmeg state are #1- Hawaii; #2-Maryland (again, politicians are included); and #3-New Jersey. Hawaii benefits from its smaller population. It has 28,000 millionaire households but only about a half million households in all.

The latest Quinnipiac poll shows most Connecticut voters remain undecided about who they will support for Governor this fall. According to the poll, among Democrats, 44 percent of voters are undecided, while businessman Ned Lamont gets 28 percent to former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy’s 18 percent. No other candidate tops 4 percent. On the Republican side, former ambassador Tom Foley has emerged as a leader in the primary campaign with 30 percent, but 50 percent are undecided. No other candidate tops 4 percent. Not unlike Democrat Linda McMahon, Foley is using his vast wealth to be up on TV—the only Republican candidate to do so.

Meanwhile, despite all her problems, Susan Bysiewicz has a comfortable lead in the race for attorney general (assuming a judge declares her eligible to run for and serve in the office) with former state Senate Majority Leader George Jepsen getting 10%. State Rep. Cameron Staples did not top 2%.

The poll also addressed some of the more controversial issues being considered by the legislature. Voters gave a big thumbs down to allowing the Keno gambling game in restaurants, bars and taverns. They said “no” 70 – 27 percent. Voters also don’t like the idea of putting tolls on the state’s highways. By a margin of 56 – 40, voters don’t want the tolls. The issue may be moot as the transportation committee of the legislature yesterday referred the toll issue for more study.

The state legislature’s Education Committee held a hearing on a bill addressing concussions among high school athletes. Among other things, the bill requires medical clearance before an athlete can return to competition .

Senate Majority Leader Marty Looney has been a leader on the concussion issue, “This bill addresses a very serious issue affecting both the short and long term health of the more than one hundred thousand student athletes participating in scholastic youth sports each year here in Connecticut,” said Senator Looney. “National statistics indicate that more than 40 percent of high school athletes who suffer concussions return to play before it is safe to do so. We must do better.”

The author of The Shad suffered a number of concussions playing high school and college hockey (yeah, I know, it explains a lot). And even then there was little structure as to how to handle it. Unless I was hallucinating myself in French class—which actually happened once after a particularly nasty hit that plastered me into the no-give boards—I was practicing the next day. It would have been nice to have these rules in place then.
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Lt. Governor Michael Fedele says if he is elected governor, he will not raise taxes and in fact, does not want to talk about revenue at all. With the state facing billion-dollar deficits over the next few years, Fedele apparently plans draconian cuts to just about everything although he singled out state employee pension payments and state employee “longevity payments” as two particular areas.

Rival Tom Foley correctly asked why Fedele didn’t push his “no new taxes” plan with his boss, Gov. Jodi Rell, who has proposed or agreed to new taxes under every budget.