Confessions Of A Legislative Liaison

Building a city budget is a big pain in the ass.

While city bean counters are weighing revenues versus expenditures they’re at the mercy of the state budgetary process which is not even completed by the time Mayor Bill Finch sumbits his budget to the City Council in April.

Hope, pray, light candles; it’s impossible to build a municipal budget without some leap of faith. And that’s where–dare I bring up the subject again–the city’s state legislative delegation is key to grinding out Bridgeport’s budget. The mayor is trying to close the current-year budget gap with a nod toward Hartford and his next budget year that begins July 1.

When the  City Council reviews the mayor’s budget, all the budget meetings, hearings and votes move forward before portions of the state budget are resolved. One or two key decisions in Hartford could mean millions of dollars more (or less) on the revenue side.

You think Bridgeport’s crazy? Well, the budget process inside the State Capitol is no less kooky: yell, scream, beg, borrow, trade this for that. OIB friend Michele Mount (aka MCAT) served as the city’s legislative liaison for a couple of years. She provides some observations about life in Hartford in a special commentary below.

By the way, attention OIB readers in the Hartford area, aka Legislative Office Building, I’ll be at The Bookworm, 968 Farmington Avenue in West Hartford this Saturday at 11 a.m. to sign copies of my book Bow Tie Banker, a biography of David Carson, retired chief executive of People’s Bank. Lots of tidbits in the book about bank lobbying and legislation. Carson will also be there. Join us, check out Bow Tie Banker and support an independent book store.

Legislative Life In Hartford
By Michele Mount

The well has run dry and not even the rainy day fund can fill it up. The state has no cash, nada, none, zippo, zilch; but that fact won’t stop lobbyists, municipalities and government agencies from asking for it. There is always the inner voice saying that there must be something, somewhere and if anyone smells even a George Washington in the water, there will be an attack similar to Jaws on Captain Quint’s behind.

I was the Legislative Liaison on the Mayor’s staff, for one session with Mayor Fabrizi and one with Mayor Finch, with a short stint as an Assistant City Attorney in between. I gave it up to run for State Representative in Monroe, where I had a Republican’s chance in Bridgeport of winning. So now I sit ready to surf www.cga.ct.gov and watch CTN and job websites. (Yes, I know that I am an attorney, but I finally figured what I wanted to be when I grew up and I am loath to give it up.)

What is fascinating to me is that there are people out there who think there are two Connecticuts–the Cities and Suburbs. Having worked in the City and live in a suburb, the fact is that just isn’t true. I truly believe that healthy cities make strong suburbs and that the State needs to give more than lip service to that issue. I was vilified in my unsuccessful race for state representative for having that opinion, but stupidly I didn’t figure on my opponent vilifying Bridgeport.

Some of my friends who were elected told me, “you actually should be glad you’re not here.” Sadly I am not. I love Hartford, the smell of lingering coffee and aftershave in the LOB (Legislative Office Building), the clacking of heels on the polished marble and granite floors, the way everyone walks around with cell phones and bluetooths in their ears looking a tad schizo, waving their arms and seemingly talking to no one in particular. I never experienced a high quite like the ones I felt when I was a cog grinding away in the center of the state machine.

In Hartford overcoming the suspicions and assumptions regarding whose “political agenda” I was pushing was the toughest nut to crack. It didn’t help that when I introduced myself to legislators, staff and lobbyists as the liaison for Bridgeport, people laughed or expressed their condolences. My keen grasp of the obvious kicked in later in my tenure–that the City’s agenda was not always the delegation’s agenda or their priorities. In addition, some City department heads had their own priorities that sometimes conflicted with the Mayor’s.

A major piece of legislation I worked on my first year–a concerted effort by many people–dealt with collecting property taxes from Wheelabrator, operator of the regional garbage-to-energy plant located in the city’s West End. This legislation ensured that Bridgeport could collect (some will say try to collect) an extra $6 million a year in taxes. There were so many people involved in putting together the actual egg of this legislation, but I was the one who sat on it and kept it warm until it finally hatched in Hartford.

This bill was a complex issue mired in politics, which needed constant effort and lobbying many committees, their chairmen, their staff, giving public testimony and running my butt off going up and down stairs between the House and Senate. Perhaps because I was new, I expected all delegation members to believe me or to be part of this effort, despite the chidings of the seasoned Hartford regulars. Again, the City and 8 different legislators with different goals, views and agendas are not always going to work together.

Nevertheless, a funny thing happened my rookie year, despite the political maneuvering of the people who smelled blood in the water for the Mayor’s job, the entire delegation signed onto that legislation; Finch and State Rep. Chris Caruso shook hands on the house floor and I, former campaign staff for Senator Finch, employee of Mayor Fabrizi and the City, sat on the house floor for 45 minutes providing background information to Representative Caruso to help silence the Republican objections to the bill–quite the unique alliance. This was one of my proudest moments in my short career. (Note: Registered Lobbyists cannot go on the floor and if a Representative needs information on the spot a Lobbyist cannot give it to them. That’s just one of the reasons liaisons are useful.)

It wasn’t really as simple as all that either. There were other horse-trading deals going on behind closed doors in the Speaker’s office that involved trading concessions on the Airport in return for support of the bill, and game-playing as to which legislator would “take out the bill,” and as to which house needed to pass it first. I knew it, I fell on my sword, pleaded ignorance and did a little tap dancing, but I didn’t care, my goal was getting that bill passed because it meant new annual revenue to Bridgeport in the millions of dollars. The following year I was immersed in the legislation that attempted to regulate the potential monopoly of the trash to energy plants, which resulted in a lower contract price for tipping fees on trash for Bridgeport and 18 area towns.

I will miss every 16-hour day, LOB cafeteria food, working with other big cities and working with the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, chess moves and horse-trading. The City no longer has a position like mine, the duties I had are now distributed among others on the Mayor’s staff.

I thought about getting a job as an actual lobbyist, but that means I can’t fundraise for my DTC or any candidates. Plus so many people are willing to spit on Lobbyists without regard as to whose behalf they are lobbying, even if it benefits taxpayers. The really sad fact is that there will be nothing, dollar-wise, available for which to lobby. The best we can hope for is preventing the cuts from being too deep and perhaps gain some real movement on how we can stop the State’s addiction to property taxes, save education and give municipalities other ways of getting revenue. So good luck to all of you who don’t get paid enough for what you do.