Jodi’s Bridgeport Bucks And Jail Extension, Plus: SuBy For Pooper Scooper, And Malloy’s Take On Rell

Afternoon Update: Gov. Jodi Rell’s proposed 2010-11 budget that begins July 1 plugs in $189,568,331 for Bridgeport’s Statutory Formula Grant, roughly $1 million less than the current year. Slot money from gaming facilities is roughly the same, $6,109, 924. Education Cost Sharing the same, $164,195,344. Pilot payment (payment in lieu of taxes) for state owned property is up about $500,000. Pilot payment for colleges and hospitals down $1 million.

City bean counters cannot be happy. We’ll see how Jodi’s budget gets tweaked by super-majority legislative Dems.

Hartford’s Statutory Formula Grant is $50 million more than Bridgeport’s. What’s going on here? Hartford and New Haven always get more. Is the formula fair or screwy? Sounds screwy to me.

With no state Bond Commission meeting scheduled, Jodi’s Jail deadline has been extended by three weeks or so. Will Jodi’s Jail be built on Virginia Avenue on the Upper East Side? Or will the state relax its rigid building requirements and work with the city to secure another location?

Mayor Bill Finch has asked the state to be reasonable about the location for a girls’ juvenile detention center that will service the entire state. We’re waiting to hear how the state responds. Hopefully, Governor Rell will instruct state bureaucrats to work with the city. I like the Health Department building on the East Side as an alternate location where the city could even be a resource provider to the girls such as health care and counseling. And why not transfer the state property on Virginia Avenue over to the city for a proper project to increase the tax rolls? Jodi could do that with a stroke of a pen. Yes, I’m a dreamer.

The Scoop On SuBy’s Poop

Well, I guess SuBy could still run for her current seat, no? Or maybe run for governor again, no? Or maybe keep fighting, no? Or maybe run for local Pooper Scooper? Talk about a stick in the eye. No one can accuse Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz of concocting a winking game with Dick Blumenthal when she asked the attorney general to issue a decision addressing her “active practice” qualifications to run for the seat he occupies. Weird thing about her request, Blumenthal himself stated that he doesn’t have the legal authority (a court does) to decide whether she meets the constitutional definition required to serve in the position. But instead of ducking, he punted, but in so doing basically said no you don’t have the cred.

So now SuBy, relentless political warrior, has a mighty large credibility complication. Did she really think Dick would see things her way? That prehistoric noise you just heard came from SuBy. The scream that followed was from Dick as SuBy jammed another needle into Dick’s voodoo doll. Funny thing about all this stuff, Susan is the state’s chief election official. Would you trust her with a decision to place you on the ballot? Check out this news release from Susan that was released under official state letterhead. Methinks it would be better had she released it under campaign letterhead.

Secretary Bysiewicz Thanks Attorney General for Opinion Regarding Legal Qualifications to Run for Office

Secretary of the State Sought Clarification to Requirement That Attorney General have 10 Years Active Practice of Law

Hartford: Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz today issued the following statement in response to the formal legal opinion rendered by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal addressing the question of whether or not Connecticut General Statute 3-124, requiring that the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut have at least 10 years in the active practice of law at the bar of this state, is constitutional. The opinion, requested by Secretary Bysiewicz in her official capacity as Connecticut’s chief elections officer, also asked the Attorney General what constitutes “Active Practice” of law.

“I would like to thank the Attorney General and his staff for their diligent work answering a very relevant question for the Secretary of the State’s office. Since my office is responsible for accepting or rejecting nominating papers or petitions from all those who seek to be candidates for state office in this election year, I am confident that this opinion will give clarity to all potential candidates for the office of Attorney General. Accordingly, it will be the position of the Secretary of the State’s office that the statutory requirement to become Attorney General is constitutional and that active practice of law requires more than simply being admitted to the Connecticut bar. Pursuant to the Attorney General’s opinion, our office will be accepting nominating papers and petitions from candidates seeking to run for Attorney General of Connecticut unless we have specific knowledge that a candidate does not meet the legal qualifications for that office or will not meet them by the time they assume the office if elected. It is clear from the Attorney General’s opinion that the authority to decide if an individual candidate meets the legal qualifications to serve as Attorney General of Connecticut does not lie with our office, but rather any challenge to a candidate’s qualifications will have to be resolved in a court of law.”

News release from Dan Malloy:

MALLOY APPLAUDS SMALL BUSINESS HELP, BUT WARNS CONTINUED BORROWING IS ‘UNSUSTAINABLE’

February 3, 2010 – Former Stamford Mayor and potential candidate for Governor Dan Malloy today released the following statement in response to Governor Rell’s State of the State address:

“I’m very pleased to see that in these tough economic times Connecticut’s small businesses will have greater access to loans. The state’s number one priority right now has to be creating jobs, and our small businesses are our best chance to do precisely that.

“At the national level, the large banks that were bailed out on the taxpayers’ dime have simply not lived up to their end of the bargain by lending those funds back to struggling businesses. As such, it’s only right that Connecticut should step up and help businesses that, through no fault of their own, have been severely undercut and critically need a lifeline. As Mayor of Stamford my administration implemented a similar pooling of small businesses in order to spur growth, and the resulting job growth over time was substantial.

“That being said, given that the Governor’s administration is clearly aware of the current credit dilemma facing the state, it’s somewhat ironic that she would choose to borrow an additional $1.3 billion to help close our deficit. While it’s true that all states should use borrowing wisely over time, borrowing money to pay for operating expenses is bad fiscal policy, plain and simple.

“Gov. Rell said that state government ‘Must not spend what it does not have,’ but the truth is that we also shouldn’t borrow to pay for what we already can’t afford. That kind of fiscal management is unsustainable, and it’s a large part of the reason that we’re in this current mess.

“Finally, as Gov. Rell has now completed her final State of the State address and will begin to wind down her term in the coming months, I’d like to thank her for her public service to the State of Connecticut. While the Governor and I have not often seen eye to eye on how best to plan for Connecticut’s future, I’ve never questioned that she had the state’s best interests at heart. I wish her well in all her future endeavors.”