Rep. Dan Carter: 'It Was A Strange Year'

Rep. Dan Carter represents Connecticut's 2nd General Assembly District, which includes parts of Bethel, Danbury, Newtown and Redding. Patch caught up with Rep. Carter after the close of the 2012-13 legislative session to ask what issues he thought were most important this year -- and what will be most important next year.

Carter described the most recent session as "a strange year."

"The events in Newtown affected the entire session," he said. "It certainly pushed a lot of legislation back. But the fact is we did get the budget through ... I can't say we did anything positive for business this year. Even in previous years, there was a lot of bad stuff being pushed through. We'll see how this unfolds."

Carter, in his second term in office, voted against Connecticut's spending package, which he described as a "shell game."

"We basically took money we spent off the books just to get federal dollars for [Medicaid] -- and that's a horrible precedent. We only get federal reimbursement one time. This puts us in a very bad position. A lot of people don't know what we did."

Connecticut's spending cap limits increases to inflation rates or growth of personal income, but Carter said it was misused in 2013.

"That cap was put in place specifically to keep spending in place, to make sure we don't spend beyond our means. By taking our money out of the equation, it's disingenuous. Next year, I bet you money we're going to come to the table with all these programs we get federal reimbursement for."