It has been two weeks since the 2007 legislative session came to a close and now it appears that the General Assembly is finally prepared to take care of some unfinished business - the budget. This year's regular session ended promptly without a new, two-year tax and spending plan and any legislation that addressed the distribution of education dollars, an earned income tax credit, and the so called "cliff" in the estate tax.

Democrats and Republicans had been going back and forth for months trying to agree on a budget deal and after an exhaustive all day meeting this past Monday at the Governor's residence, it appears that a budget deal has been reached. Remembering back several months, Republicans released their version of a budget in late April that did not raise taxes on any residents of Connecticut - unless you smoked cigarettes. It looks like the agreed upon budget may do just that as well. The $900 million dollar surplus was the driving motivation for the Democrats to abandon their previous plan to raise taxes through a progressive income tax and instead they chose only to increase revenue through the cigarette tax.

At this point in the game, there is a sense of urgency to finish the whole process. There needs to be a budget in place before July 1 so that municipalities can enact their own local budgets and prepare their tax bills. Governor Rell has even called on her agencies to prepare contingency plans in case a budget fails to pass the House and Senate.

Legislators in every caucus have been called to a budget caucus on Thursday, an event which is bound to bring a lot of excitement to the halls of the LOB. To this point, only leadership has been involved in the process so every legislator will be frantically turning the pages of the budget to see what their towns will receive in the form of school aid, transportation funding, school construction, and those infamous "ear marked" appropriations for special local projects.

The actual date for the special session keeps moving. First, there were rumors of this Friday, as the Senate was strongly favoring this over a Saturday session. However, when the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee recently cancelled their meeting for Thursday due to "a number problem," a Friday session may not be in the cards. It looks like Saturday may be a more viable choice that will turn into an all day adventure. Regardless, many are hopeful that Sunday will be a day of rest and that months of negotiating will come to an official close with the 2007 legislative session officially being put to rest.

On Tuesday, the Governor issued her fourth veto, this time on HB 6715 AAC the Palliative Use of Marijuana. This bill was extremely controversial from its introduction. Seventy House amendments were filed on the bill as well as 55 Senate amendments. Onlookers placed bets on just how long debate would go on the bill - the final time was 6 hours and 14 minutes in the House alone!

The bill allows a patient or his primary caregiver to possess the usable amount of marijuana as prescribed by a doctor for certain debilitating disabilities or diseases such as cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis. Patients would also be permitted to grow up to four marijuana plants with a doctor's prescription. A person convicted of marijuana possession or drug dealing cannot serve as a primary caregiver. Also, the bill does not mandate that health insurance cover the palliative use of marijuana.

In her three page veto statement, Rell acknowledges that this issue is a serious and delicate matter and that this bill has good intentions to provide relief to patients' suffering. Rell cited her own battle with breast cancer two and a half years ago saying, "I am not unfamiliar with the incredible pain and heartbreak associated with battling cancer. I have struggled with the decision about signing or vetoing this bill." Ultimately, Rell stated that she must veto the bill because patients with prescriptions would still have to purchase marijuana illegally from drug dealers. There are no pharmacies that legally dispense marijuana. Rell explains that this puts already vulnerable people at risk and potentially increases the illegal drug trade. She also notes that smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes has been rejected by groups such as the American Cancer Association and the Connecticut State Medical Society.

This bill passed in the House, 89-58, as well as in the Senate, 23-13, but not with enough votes to override the Governor's veto. The House would need to flip 12 more people and the Senate just 1 in order to make this bill become law. The Democrats have only been able to come up with the numbers to override the Governor's veto once before on the DSS waiver bill. The Governor has also vetoed the Democrat's tax package and used her line item veto on the appropriation sections of the energy bill.

To date, the Governor has signed 133 bills, with 150 bills still working their way through the process to get to her office. If a bill is vetoed after the regular session of the legislature has adjourned, the Governor has up to 15 days after a bill reaches her desk to either sign it into law, veto it, or let it become law without her signature. Once the final bill has cleared the Governor's office either by being signed or vetoed, the legislature will return to Hartford for a veto session sometime in mid July to assess the willingness of 2/3 of the members in each chamber to override her vetos.

On top of negotiating the budget, the Democrats now need to decide whether or not they can get the ball over the goal line with this veto, or whether to save their efforts to get what they want on other issues. Either way, we'll keep you posted.

According to the joint rules of the legislature, after a bill is passed by both the House and Senate during session, the Governor has 5 calendar days, exclusive of Sundays and holidays, from when a bill is presented to sign or veto the bill. After session has adjourned, the bill becomes a law unless the Governor vetoes the bill within 15 calendar days after presentment. It takes at least 2/3 of the members of each house to override the Governor's veto. The Democrats currently have the numbers to do so in both chambers.

As the House and Senate pass bills, S&L will continue to post the bills that are of interest to our clients that have been signed into law and become public acts (PA) or special acts (SA), or vetoed, by Governor Rell. For a list of bills passed, but not yet acted upon by the Governor, please click the link below.

PA 07-130 (SB 1451) AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE CONNECTICUT HOMECARE OPTION PROGRAM FOR THE ELDERLY

PA 07-140 (HB 7281) AN ACT CONCERNING PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR CERTAIN MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT

PA 07-147 (SB 977) AN ACT CONCERNING RESTRAINTS AND SECLUSION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

PA 07-150 (SB 1227) AN ACT CONCERNING THE RETURN POLICY OF RETAIL STORES

PA 07-161 (SB 845) AN ACT CONCERNING SURVIVOR BENEFITS

PA 07-168 (5234) AN ACT BANNING PESTICIDE USE ON SCHOOL GROUNDS

The Governor vetoed the following bill:
PA 07-137 (6715) AN ACT CONCERNING THE PALLIATIVE USE OF MARIJUANA