Despite Rowland’s Problems, Lawmakers Say Work ContinuesBy Susan Haigh

Associated Press

HARTFORD — At the start of the new legislative session, state lawmakers from both parties vowed this week that they will not allow Gov John G. Rowland’s ethics problems to cloud the next few months.

They claimed it will be business as usual at the state Capitol, promising to tackle everything from medical malpractice insurance reform to tighter standards for auto emissions.

“We think it’s our responsibility that government should go on and these things should be addressed,” said Senate Minority Leader Louis DeLuca, R-Woodbury.

The three-month legislative session opened Wednesday, the same day Mr Rowland released his revised $14.2 billion budget for the 2004–05 fiscal year and addressed a joint session of the legislature.

Mr Rowland is under fire for accepting gifts from state contractors, employees, and friends for his Litchfield cottage and then lying about it. The governor, a three-term Republican, has said the gift-givers were friends and he provided nothing in return.

Both the US attorney’s office and the state House Select Committee of Inquiry are investigating the governor. The committee, created last week following an unanimous vote in the House of Representatives, could recommend impeachment.

In his address to the Legislature, Mr Rowland talked about education, the achievement gap between rich and poor children, the state’s economic recovery, his plan to increase sin taxes to balance the budget, homeland security needs, and efforts to help revitalization projects in midsized cities.

When Wednesday’s pomp and circumstance was over, lawmakers from both parties said they planned to work on legislation that will restore the public’s faith in government.

All four caucuses –– the House Republicans and Democrats, and the Senate Republicans and Democrats — have proposed laundry lists of bills aimed at toughening ethics laws, reforming state government, and tightening rules pertaining to gifts.

House Democrats want to restrict future use of a law allowing certain state construction projects to be fast-tracked in emergencies, bypassing the regular, time-consuming approval process. Federal investigators are focusing their probe on several major projects that were approved by the legislature for fast-tracking.

Meanwhile, House Republicans want to establish a $50 per year limit on gifts from subordinates to any state employee or office holder. They also called for increasing ethics penalties from a maximum of $2,000 to $20,000 and lengthening the statute of limitations for investigating ethics cases from three to five years after an alleged violation occurred.

Ethics reform is among a list of priorities outlined Tuesday by One Connecticut, a coalition of antipoverty groups. Last year, the organization lobbied for the so-called millionaire’s tax, a one percent income tax increase on those earning $1 million or more.

The group is again pushing for the tax, claiming the state’s revenue system is inequitable and needs reform.