Depending upon whether a Saturday session is scheduled, only three days remain for legislators to take action during the 2008 legislative session. The end is in sight, but there are a lot of uncertainties floating through the halls. The one certainty is that at midnight on May 7 it all comes to an end.

Short sessions were designed originally to address necessary budget adjustments or necessary fiscally related items or items of emergency nature. With the lack of agreement between the House and Senate leaders and the Governor's office, in addition to the day by day falling state revenues, any action on a variety of new initiatives has been halted. In fact, the Governor yesterday asked legislative leaders to find cuts in next year's spending and she is awaiting a response. Without a big budget initiative, many are wondering what the 2008 session accomplished. Especially heard around the halls of the House, folks are listing items such as: allowing the state to vote on whether 17 year olds who will be 18 by the fall elections can vote in primaries in the summer of that year; moose and bear initiatives, endangered species, and stricter ethics standards to name a few.

The Governor sent a message to legislative leaders yesterday by announcing she will not sign a bill that clarifies that MDs who volunteer at mobile clinics can take advantage of the reduced license fee legislation passed last session. With a projected possible $72,000 fiscal note, the governor said she would allow the bill to become law, but that any other bill containing a fiscal note will not be so lucky. She warned them she was ready to take out her veto pen. SO any piece of legislation with a fiscal note pretty much has little chance to be signed into law unless the funding is part of the budget bill, which may or may not pass.

Instead of legislators and lobbyists negotiating the content of a piece of legislation, everyone is scrambling to find creative ways to eliminate the fiscal notes on the bills in order to keep their bills on life support with the hope of being called before Wednesday at midnight.

Partisan warfare has finally found its way to the surface with the announcement by the Democrats that it may be better off to adjourn this session without making any adjustments to the state budget. The Republicans have since used this announcement as an opportunity to make a case that it is better for Connecticut's citizens to do something opposed to do nothing. Something may be done, but it will not be as dramatic as caucuses announced back in the beginning of February when they rolled out their session goals. As the deficit seems to be getting larger by the minute, there is much concern over the next two years and what it will mean to nonprofits, CT based businesses, and certainly property owners and residents.

When the session ends and those few bills made their way through to the Governor's desk, Sullivan & LeShane will have a lot to report. As we do every year, we will be sending out detailed final reports that will recap the events of the session for you to review. In the meantime, it is certain that you will all be hearing from us plenty in the days to follow!

The revenue numbers are finally out and the news isn't good. The Office of Fiscal Analysis announced downward revenue estimates by $110 million. As a result, the rumor is the Democratic majority may stick with last year's budget as is and not make any major changes. The Republicans, on the other hand, have announced an alternative budget that would cut state gas taxes, eliminate the business entity tax, and offer state employees an early retirement plan that would reduce spending by $163 million next year.

The reception from Majority party leaders Williams and Amann was not warm, as well as the reaction from Republican Governor Rell. In fact, both parties basically called the proposal dead in the water. Rell thinks the early retirement plan does not pay for the initiatives such as the gas tax holiday. The Democrats just think it's too simple and won't work. Tuesday night the Democrats in the House had a mandatory caucus to discuss the budget and what to do.

In a nut shell, the major component of the Republicans' budget is a three point gas tax plan. The first point is a two-month gas tax holiday from July 1 to Labor Day weekend. The 10 percent per gallon tax cut would be projected to save taxpayers $25 million. The second point would repeal the .5 percent gross receipts tax hike scheduled for July 1. The third point would be to cap the gross receipts tax.

The proposed alternative budget would also keep the bipartisan initiative to repeal the business entity tax - a $250 tax for a business merely existing. The tax would be reduced to $125 in the first year, then to zero in the second year. The proposal would save small businesses $35 million a year ($17.5 million in the first year).

The Republicans also propose to make government smaller by offering an early retirement incentive program for state employees. The Office of Fiscal Analysis estimates that 11,600 employees would be eligible and approximately 4,233 would be expected to participate. Overall, for every three positions vacated, two would be refilled. Certain areas such as corrections and the state police would refill 100 percent.

The plan also includes support for another bipartisan initiative, the Money Follows the Person program. It would move 700 seniors from nursing homes to homecare and would provide $3 million in staffing to accelerate participation in the program. The budget would also provide funds for items such as criminal justice initiatives, the early reading success program, private provider and nursing homes, and energy assistance for low- income families.

"Now is not the time to sit back and 'do nothing' when we are all aware of the potential deficits that lie ahead," said House Republican leader, Larry Cafero. "Doing nothing means raising taxes," said Senate Republican leader, John McKinney, "We should instead respond with budget adjustments that will protect Connecticut's long-term economic security."

The Republicans' budget adjustments are over $350 million under the spending cap and leave a surplus cushion of $25 million. It also cuts $100 million off the future projected deficit for FY 2010. We'll continue to keep you posted on the status of the budget projections.

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 do not have the numbers to do so in both chambers, they are short in the Senate.

As the House and Senate flip bills between chambers in the next week, S&L will continue to post the bills that are of special interest and have been signed into law. They will be assigned a public act number (PA) or special act number (SA) if signed by the Governor. So far the Governor has not taken out her veto pen! But don't think she won't. If you recall last session in total she vetoed six public acts. And just yesterday she announced that bills arriving on her desk with appropriation needs will not have an easy go unless there's a budget in place to allocate and provide funding for those proposals. The game of chicken is about to begin!

Governor Rell signed this week:
SB 57 AN ACT REQUIRING THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION TO PROVIDE INJURED EMPLOYEES THE FORMS NECESSARY TO FILE A CLAIM

SB 282 AN ACT CONCERNING THE STATE METHADONE AUTHORITY

SB 495 AN ACT CONCERNING ELIGIBILITY FOR THE PUBLIC HOUSING PILOT PROGRAM AND THE LOW AND MODERATE INCOME HOUSING TAX ABATEMENT

SB 518 AN ACT CONCERNING BEER COOLER ACCESSIBILITY

SB 579 AN ACT CONCERNING METHICILLIN- RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS

SB 622 AN ACT CONCERNING CERTIFICATES OF NEED ISSUED BY THE OFFICE OF HEALTH CARE ACCESS

HB 5318 AN ACT CONCERNING TECHNICAL REVISIONS TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

HB 5323 AN ACT CONCERNING THE DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

HB 5449 AN ACT CONCERNING ISSUANCE OF EMERGENCY CERTIFICATES BY LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKERS AND ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSES

HB 5912 AN ACT CONCERNING THE REPEAL OF THE EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM ELIMINATED BY THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND WORK OPPORTUNITY RECONCILIATION ACT