Lawmakers back DOT overhaul

A proposal by Gov. Jodi Rell to carve the troubled state Department of Transportation in half sounds good to area lawmakers.
The move would be “a darn good idea,” said state Rep. Frank Nicastro, a Bristol Democrat who is a member of the transportation committee.
The issue was one of many that arose during a legislative breakfast held by the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce at the Clarion Hotel Thursday, which drew seen lawmakers and about 80 business leaders interested in hearing them speak.
Nearly all of the politicians said the state has to act to help cushion a looming recession and most declared their support for junking the $250 minimum tax that every business has to pay, no matter how small it may be.
John Leone, president of the chamber, said that abolishing the business entity tax would be “a great first step” toward making Connecticut more friendly to business because it’s such “an onerous tax.”
Politicians promised they would try to keep the Route 72 extension project on track and push for state help for downtown revitalization efforts.
State Sen. Tom Colapietro, a Bristol Democrat who represents the 31st District, said that he didn’t pay too much attention to Rell’s address because it contained “nothing but good things that everyone wants to hear.”
He said that businesses and workers “need relief now” and pleaded with business leaders to remember that constantly cutting back on pay and benefits is leaving working people with too little to spend, which ultimately cripples the businesses they work for.
“We’re all in it together,” Colapietro said. “You can’t keep taking and taking and taking.”
The senator urged business leaders to help him push insurance companies to cease constant rate hikes that are driving up the cost for health care, workers compensation, unemployment compensation, malpractice insurance and more.
“It has to stop,” Colapietro said. “Nobody has the courage and the guts to take on the insurance companies.”
Nicastro said the state may try to add municipal employees to its health insurance plan because adding them to the size of the pool would be “a heckuva lot cheaper” for taxpayers.
The biggest proposal on the table, though, is the governor’s call to overhaul transportation oversight.
Rell said she wants to throw out the existing DOT and replace it with two new bureaucracies: a Department of Highways and a Department of Public Transportation, Aviation and Ports. The change would take effect in 2010 if her plan is approved.
Rell told lawmakers this week that "bold reforms are necessary" to “give rise to a culture of change, opportunity and reform at DOT.”
"No longer will the phrase 'That's how we've always done it' be justification for the practice," the governor said.
State Rep. Bill Hamzy, a Plymouth Republican, called the proposal “a pretty interesting concept.”
Hamzy, who represents the 78th District, said that such a “radical transformation may be a way to promote change.”

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com