Rep. Srinivasan Creating a Business Friendly Environment and Efficiencies in State Government

HARTFORD — State Representative Prasad Srinivasan (R-31) has proposed several pieces of legislation this year.

“In my travels around the state, I have heard from several business owners, over and over again, that they are burdened by excessive regulations, the state’s lack of economic predictability, and an onslaught of taxes,” said Rep. Srinivasan. “I am concerned about our business climate and believe that we need to address these issues head-on to make a change and reverse our negative reputation.”

Rep. Srinivasan’s business-friendly proposals include:

• Simplify regulations
• Require online filings for independent contractors to be streamlined and thus allow them to work more efficiently
• Allow both large and small businesses “three strikes” when complying with financial and/or state regulations
• No new or retroactive taxes on businesses
• Compensate businesses for their costs of collecting sales taxes
• Eliminate personal income tax on pensions

Rep. Srinivasan’s proposals regarding state government efficiencies include:

• Reduce legislator, commissioner of state agencies and the governor’s salaries
• Require the legislature to vote on all union contracts and state employee collective bargaining agreements
• Remove overtime pay from retiring state employees’ pension calculations and require cost-of-living increases to state employee pension payments to mirror those of Social Security
• Create a wage parity between public and private sector jobs under municipal binding arbitration awards and require state employee benefits to parallel those provided in private industries
• Review current copay amounts paid by state employees under state employee health care plans
• Require that new state employee hires receive defined contribution retirement plans, and create health savings accounts, rather than defined benefit plans
• Review state agency practices to identify waste or inefficiencies in their protocols, and recommend best practices to implement cost savings

“I am well aware of other related legislation sponsored by my colleagues,” Rep. Srinivasan said. “I will continue to monitor other introduced bills closely; co-sponsoring them where appropriate, and fighting hard to block those that could have a negative impact on our businesses.”

All of the aforementioned bills are currently awaiting action in committee. Please stay tuned for public hearing information where constituents may testify on any one of these, or other, bills.