The Business Council of Fairfield County

PUBLIC POLICY COUNCIL

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Priorities 2008 Legislative Program
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Connecticut Legislative Policy Framework

Choose Competitiveness!
PRIORITIES 2008

Introduction

Our Recommendations:
Spending and Performance
Transportation
Health Care
Education
Energy
Housing
Quality of Life

Spending and Performance
Connecticut is locked into escalating costs and facing inevitable tax increases for two fundamental reasons. We are inefficient and, too frequently, ineffective. State government has not been permitted or encouraged to continuously revise and improve its operations. We spend ever greater amounts on the consequences of not making strategic investments, rather than making the investments themselves.

Connecticut hasn’t undertaken a thorough, comprehensive review of its operations in over 18 years. The first order of business for both the Governor and the Legislative leadership must be a meaningful bi-partisan commitment to government performance. GOVERNING, a respected public policy journal, rated Connecticut a C- for the overall quality of its service to its citizens. This is the latest in a series of dismal grades we’ve received as Connecticut has consistently fallen behind its peers. The cost of this inefficiency over the last decade can be measured in billions of dollars wasted and opportunities for progress squandered.

While examples in transportation, health care, and social services abound, no example is more gripping than the continuing failure of our urban school systems and the continuing growth of our prisons. Our failure to educate and our eagerness to incarcerate tell the story of a state with mismanaged resources and misplaced priorities.

ACTION ITEMS

Connecticut should develop a long term strategic plan that includes principles of responsible growth. The Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee recent study of long term planning in Connecticut indicated that Connecticut has set no clear vision for where it wants to be in 10 or 20 years, or how it intends to get there. We believe it is time to develop a long-term vision for Connecticut, to set our priorities and to meaningfully assess the performance of state agencies and programs. Connecticut taxpayers deserve to know what returns we are getting on our tax investments and to be assured that the State is working to continuously improve – not merely expand – services.

The Governor should adopt the definition of Responsible Growth and associated principles developed by the Responsible Growth Task Force. The Governor should direct all state agencies and quasi-public agencies to develop Responsible Growth criteria and to use them in making decisions impacting both policy and the expenditure of funds.
The General Assembly and its various committees should adopt the definition of Responsible Growth and associated principles developed by the Responsible Growth Task Force and use them in making decisions impacting both the development of legislation and policies and the expenditure of funds.
A standing advisory committee, with broad-based membership, should be created to advise decision makers on the development of Responsible Growth policies, land use laws, and programs going forward.
The Interagency Steering Committee created under Executive Order 15 should serve as the coordinating body for the development of Responsible Growth policies. It should also continuously review and permit processes of projects that advance Responsible Growth.
Measures and benchmarks should be developed by December 31, 2009 to monitor the State’s Responsible Growth.
The Responsible Growth Task Force should develop model municipal zoning regulations crafted around Responsible Growth.
The State should support regional coordination of consistency in planning between all levels of government and promote unified development codes at the local level.
The State should develop a means to review, coordinate and, if consistent with Responsible Growth principles, encourage projects of Regional Significance.
Amend State statutes to authorize municipalities to use Community Benefit Agreements for projects that are consistent with Responsible Growth principles.

Create an Office of Inspector General. Despite efforts to improve state contracting and oversight, further actions are needed to protect the integrity of the State and municipal programs as well as beneficiaries of those programs. An Office of Inspector General should be created to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse, and violations of law.

Develop a plan to quantify, continuously disclose, and fund Connecticut’s Other Post Retirement Benefits liability. Connecticut must develop a thoughtful plan to manage this liability. With health care costs escalating at such a rapid rate, the practice of locking in a benefit plan design for lengthy periods of time must be avoided in the future. The State entered into a 20-year agreement with State Employees for health benefits that does not expire until 2017.

Provide funding to implement the recommendations of the Governor’s Commission on the Reform of the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The Commission has prepared a series of preliminary recommendations to improve the performance of the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The Legislature should set aside funding to implement these recommendations (e.g. talent assessment, process mapping, adoption of a quality and continuous improvement program, etc.)

The Business Council of Fairfield County
One Landmark Square, Suite 300
Stamford, CT 06901-2679
General Phone: (203) 359-3220
Fax: (203) 967-8294
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