Lyddy Takes A Broad View As 2012 Legislative Session Winds Down

By John Voket

One of the biggest differences Newtown’s State Representative Chris Lyddy sees in himself as his second term in office and the current legislative session begins winding down is an ability to focus beyond particulars to see issues from a broader perspective.

In an interview April 25, Rep Lyddy said that the self-imposed shift from trying to tackle legislative challenges from the ground-up to trying to see the big picture is helping him understand how structural and policy changes are gaining traction toward benefiting state taxpayers as well as the consumers or recipients of state services.

“Over the last three years I’ve stepped back to look at things more holistically, versus getting too deep in the weeds [focusing on] certain programs,” Rep Lyddy told The Bee.

With that broader perspective in place, Rep Lyddy is awaiting word on how April tax collections will influence the outcome of the current state budget deliberations.

“I think we are going to have a deficit,” he said.

Even if state tax collections produce robust results, the revenue will likely fall short of countering increasing costs for newly qualified low-income adults seeking Medicaid assistance.

But even that ominous fiscal outlook is tempered by guarded enthusiasm because Rep Lyddy believes those increasing costs mean more residents are getting the medical care they need.

“The state switched from a managed care model for these Medicaid recipients, to an ASO or administrative services organization model. That was a good move because it made processing and qualifying applicants for benefits much faster and more efficient,” he said.

Mergers Generate Savings

The local lawmaker said he is also seeing growing pockets of savings as various departments adopt new practices, or merge aspects of their operations to eliminate duplication of services.

“For example, there have been a number of program alignments and mergers within the state Department of Education, which I believe will generate a $10 million windfall,” he said. “It’s these little bites that we see offsetting some of the bigger hits contributing to the [anticipated] deficit.”

In the high profile Department of Children and Families (DCF), Rep Lyddy sees a newly adopted practice called “differential response” as helping to identify and mitigate cases involving state children and families whose issues do not yet rise to the level of intervention.

“As we identify these families through initial DCF investigations, we can refer them to get the help they need through new programs or other more appropriate departments,” he said. “This has several benefits — we see it cutting down on caseloads, we’re [potentially] keeping those families off state welfare programs, and out of the judicial system.

“So part of this big picture view is seeing and realizing how these new practices, from education reform to differential response at DCF, are helping inform how we budget,” Rep Lyddy said, adding the savings at the DCF caseworker level alone could generate as much as $13 million in savings.

Speaking of education reform, Rep Lyddy said he is in a holding pattern as the legislative leadership continues working away behind closed doors with teacher union representatives.

“My leadership says we’re making progress,” Rep Lyddy said, while refusing to classify that progress as reform. At least not yet.

“We can’t fool the public into believing it’s reform if it’s not,” he said. “The optimist in me is hoping the end result will focus on improving core skills like reading, writing and math to benefit student learning.”

A Seat For Everyone

Rep Lyddy said the good thing about education reform, when it finally arrives, is it provides a seat at the table for everyone involved.

“It’s just a matter of when [certain parties] get their seat,” he said. “These ongoing negotiations, which are a necessary part of the government process, can be frustrating. But since unions are playing such a large role, I would urge union leaders to keep their focus on the children. We need teachers to support reform, too, but we must have balance.

“We can move forward with compromises, but don’t call it reform if children can’t read or write any better than before we got started.”

The local lawmaker also recalled the session he and other legislators, including Representative DebraLee Hovey and Senator John McKinney, had with the Newtown Legislative Council, during which came a call for repealing or holding the line on certain unfunded state mandates.

Since many of those mandates drive up the cost of education, Rep Lyddy said he is putting stock into a new program at the Department of Education identifying practices that generate too much red tape, in turn putting a greater cost burden on local districts like Newtown.

“Districts are responsible for doing a lot of reporting, which means at certain times this could generate added costs,” Rep Lyddy said. “But if they are duplicating data in different reports, or generating the same data at different times of the year, we need to communicate with the districts to better understand where it’s happening, so we can address the most onerous of these costly mandates.”