Politics & Government
Harding is hearing from constituents about electricity bills
State senator says open space is still a priority in Brookfield
By Scott Benjamin
BROOKFIELD – Sitting in an Italian restaurant on Federal Road near the southern perimeter of Connecticut’s largest state Senate district – the one where Salisbury, at the northern perimeter, seems one time zone away - Stephen Harding discusses the 2023 season prospects for his beloved Yankees.
Someone says that even without considering the injured starting pitchers, there are questions: You hope that Stanton hits for higher batting average. You hope that Donaldson and Torres play to their potential. You hope that Volpe and theother young heroes will have an impact.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“In sports, hope is not a dirty word, but it is a treacherous word,” Harding is told.
However, Harding, a Republican from Brookfield, indicates that among his
constituents in the 30th District “electricity” is not a treacherous word but a dirty
word.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
He says “one of the biggest things” he hears from constituents is that their “highest bill” they now have is for turning on the lights.
CT Mirror has reported that electricity rates in Connecticut increased about 50 percent earlier this year for customers of Eversource and United Illuminating. The companies have stated that the increases were due to rising costs.
Emily Caminiti and Patrick Skahill of Connecticut Public Radio have reported that Frank Reynolds, president and CEO of United Illuminating, told members of a legislative committee that “the increase in energy supply prices, set by out-of-state generation companies and driven by a broken power market in New England, is harming our customers and hardworking families across Connecticut.”
“It’s more than what your rent may be or what y our mortgage payment may be,” Harding said in an interview with Patch.com. ”It is difficult making those payments.”
The answer a quarter century ago was to invite more competition in the electricity industry.
“It hasn’t worked,” said Harding of the deregulation bill that was developed in
Vermont at a meeting of New England governors in 1996 and was approved,
according to the Hartford Courant, by a 126-17 margin in the state House and 27-
7 in the state Senate in 1998 and signed by then-Gov. John Rowland (R-
Middlebury).
The premise was that it would spur competition and immediately lower prices by
10 percent.
“We have the highest electricity costs in the continental United States,” Harding
lamented.
What can be done?
He said that he supports a proposal by state Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-36) of Greenwich to take state taxes and fees embedded in electricity bills that are related to boding and other programs and shift them to the normal state appropriations process where those costs and benefits will be weighed fairly and openly against other programs that are needed in the state budget.
"In six months [it would] reduce people’s electricity bills by 10 percent,” Fazio remarked in a recent interview with Patch.com.
“Ryan’s plan makes sense,” Harding explained.
Mark Pazniokas of CT Mirror has reported that U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Greenwich told the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in 2020 that, “We need to think big about becoming smaller, more responsive and smarter about the way we do public utilities and deliver power.”
Harding said he supports Blumenthal's call for breaking up the electricity monopoly in Connecticut.
"It is quite clear that Eversource in not operating in the best interest of our constituents," he commented.
On another topic, now about seven years after demolition began at Brookfield Village – a major component in the emerging 198-acre Brookfield Town Center business district – Harding says he still receives complaints from constituents about housing “overdevelopment.”
“There has been some commercial – it has been incremental,” he said. “I think
primarily people felt it would be more commercial [than it has been].”
Municipal Community Development specialist Greg Dembowski told Patch.com
recently that through the summer and fall of 2022 there was a ribbon cutting
almost every week for a new business in Brookfield Town Center. He said that without the new housing, for example, you would not have Food Emporium building a supermarket and
adjoining commercial space near the Still River Greenway. That project is slated to open next year.
Harding acknowledged that development of the central business district has been a positive
for Brookfield.
However, he added that, “Open space is incredibly important” in a suburban town with just 19.8 square miles of land, which is less than a third of what there is in neighboring New Milford.
Harding, a member of the General Assembly’s Environment Committee said the
panel has been reviewing the Department of Motor Vehicles boat registration
program to ensure that more motorboats and have boat stickers on them at Candlewood Lake - which reaches into Danbury, New Milford, Brookfield, New Fairfield and Sherman - as well as elsewhere.
"The bigger issue here is collecting the fee from the out of state boaters," he explained. "For in- state boats it is not a collection issue generally, as it is part of their registration fee."
Regarding the state's fiscal stability, Harding awards at least passing grades to Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D-Greenwich) proposed $50.5 billion two-year budget.
Since the state has a surplus and flush rainy day fund, he said he supports the governor’s call to lower the middle class income tax rate from five percent to 4.5 percent and the lower rate from three percent to two percent.
However, he said he also likes the plan from state Rep. Bob Godfrey’s (D-110) to reduce the sales tax from 6.35 to six percent during this time of high inflation.
“I think we should explore doing both,” Harding commented. “I would like to see the numbers, and see if we can do both reasonably.”
He lauds Lamont for offering conservative revenue forecasts, noting for example, that capitol gains forecasts are "so unpredictable."
Keith Phaneuf of CT Mirror has reported that the second year of Lamont’s proposed budget would leave $405 million in spending under the state cap. That is more than five times the average for the last decade.
Earlier in the current regular session, Harding voted to extend the fiscal guard rails – the volatility camp and spending cap – for five years, but would have preferred they go for 10 more years.
He said, "Five years is better than nothing."
Regarding the budget, he said he is concerned that since the University of Connecticut at Storrs has strenuously protested the governor’s proposed funding and is the state’s flagship
school it may in the end win the higher education tug-of-war with the Board of Regents, which oversees the four state universities, the 12 community colleges and Charter Oak College.
The Regents system has the highest enrollment in Connecticut.
Jessika Harkay and Keith Phaneuf of CT Mirror reported, “baseline operating aid for the regional state universities and community colleges[the Board of Regent system] increases under the governor’s plan from $693 million in the current biennium to $755 million for the next two fiscal years.”
They added, “But once temporary aid is considered, overall assistance for the regional universities and community colleges falls over the same period from $1.04 billion to $923 million.”
However, enrollment at the public colleges has been declining for years. Trevor Ballantyne reported in The News-Times of Danbury that there were about 1,300 fewer full-time students at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury n 2021 than there were in 2011.
Why do these colleges need more money if they have lower enrollments than years ago?
“We’re talking about inflation,” said Harding.
Interestingly, the state Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Competitiveness stated in its March 2018 report that the state should develop a college devoted to STEM fields and place it in Stamford, New Haven or Hartford. The report indicated that employers have trouble finding graduates in these areas. There apparently has been no action on that recommendation.
On another subject, Harding said that with a current budget surplus, he wants to see more state Education Cost Sharing funds for the local school districts. Democrats in the General Assembly have made similar comments.
Harding said he has not taken a position on a proposal to increase the minimum salary for wait staff workers that is as low as $6.38 per hour to the minimum wage of $14 an hour for other workers.
Hugh McQuaid of CT News Junkie recently reported that the legislation was approved on an 8-4 partisan vote in the General Assembly's Labor Committee and will next be considered by the state Senate.
McQuaid also reported that "during a public hearing earlier this month, Saru Jayaraman, president of the national advocacy group One Fair Wage, told the committee that seven states require a full minimum wage and the policy has had positive benefits for workers including making them less reliant on customer tips in order to make a living."
Harding remarked, “It is a difficult issue because of all the complexities in how wait staff get paid. I am open to looking at what the proposal would be.”
He said he is concerned about the potential impact on restaurant owners, many of whom are small businessmen.
Harding said he also hasn't made a decision regarding allowing wine to be sold in grocery stores. It is currently restricted to liquor stores.
“I truly understand both sides of the argument on this,” he commented.
For example, he said that Sunset Meadow Vineyards in Goshen - one of the 18 municipalities in his state Senate district - wants to sales to expand to the supermarkets.
However, Harding said that by doing that you might "shut down" the liquor stores as a result of the increased competition.
Ct News Junkie has reported that recently the General Law Committee opted not to have a vote on the issue, which means the General Assembly will probably not consider it until at least the 2024 session.
Attorney Philip Howard recently wrote a book, "Not Accountable," that as John Ketcham stated in his Wall Street Journal review, underscores that "public sector unions serve their own purpose at the expense of the public's."
In the book, Howard cites such sources as Democratic former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who said that, "The process of collective bargaining cannot be transplanted to public service" and longtime AFL-CIO President George Meany, who indicated, “It is impossible to collectively bargain with the government.”
In a Washington Post column on the book, George Will wrote, "In the private sector, employee vs. employer bargaining concerns the allocation of profits. A private business facing extortionate union demands can relocate or go out of business. A government can do neither."
Howard stated that, "Bargaining over public choices is a recipe for collusion, not good government" since, among other things public sector collective bargaining units often engage in campaign activities in support of candidates and, in effect, help to elect their bosses.
Said Harding, “I don’t know that I would say collusion. I respect what the collective bargaining units do. They have their role."
“I do look at it as we have to consider the impact these collective bargaining units have on implementing unfortunate fiscal policies,” he commented. “We as legislators have an obligation to carefully consider the burden that some of these salary increases, pension increases and health benefits have on the taxpayers."
Ct Mirror's Keith Phaneuf said at an April 2019 League of Women Voters forum in Wilton that the pensions for the state employees and the kindergarten through 12th grade public school teachers were structurally under-funded in each year from 1939 through 2010.
How did that happen?
“Sometimes government can be short-sighted,” Harding commented.
He said those decisions are largely responsible for Connecticut having the second highest state debt in the country, after Illinois.
Phaneuf said on a recent CT Mirror podcast that the pent-up liabilities will be an issue for decades.
Harding said that the pensions have been structurally fully funded each of the last 12 years under Democratic former Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex) and now Lamont.
He added that he is pleased that the General Assembly now votes on the collective bargaining agreements instead of just putting them on the calendar and letting them become law.
Who was the greatest Major League Baseball catcher of all time: Mike Piazza or Johnny Bench?
“Mike Piazza was a better hitter, a better power hitter,” remarked Harding, a former high school and college baseball player.
“I think overall, I would say Johnny Bench,” he explained.
It was neither. It was Yogi Berra.
Apparently, Harding spends too much time reading “The Almanac Of American Politics” and not enough time perusing “The Bill James Handbook.”
Resources:
Interview with Stephen Harding, March 21, 2023.
https://ctmirror.org/2023/02/1...
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2023/...
https://patch.com/connecticut/...
https://patch.com/connecticut/...
https://z-upload.facebook.com/...
https://ctmirror.org/2023/02/0...
https://ctmirror.org/2022/12/1...
https://open.spotify.com/show/...
Philip Howard, Not Accountable, Rodin Books, 160 pages, 2023.
