Republicans Review 2011 Legislation

Connecticut representative Gail Lavielle (R-143), Senator Toni Boucher (R-26), and Rep. John Hetherington (R-125) met last Thursday night in the Wilton Library’s Brubeck room to discuss with an open-to-the-public audience a number of the in Connecticut that will soon be signed into law.

Sick Leave Law

Perhaps the most contentious issue for many republicans has been the that applies only to Connecticut. 

The sick law bill “has been viewed by businesses as a bill that hurts them” said Lavielle, citing her own experience with “250 businesses” which she said gathered before the Labor Committee to protest the bill.

“As a concept, it sounds good,” said Hetherington. “It’s in the details” where the problems happen. He said that lack of need for a doctor’s note, and there being no defined requirement for treatment, may cause some workers to take off from work to simply “meditate,” or treating an ‘illness’ with “going to the beach” to be healed.

“Theoretically, it would be okay under the bill,” he said.

“When a businesses comes to Connecticut, it’s not a certainty; it’s high stakes gambling,” said Lavielle, voicing her discontent with the repercussions the bill might have on future business prospectors. She also said the bill was written with “gray, fuzzy,” and “hard-to-define” language.

The sick leave bill requires businesses of more than fifty employees to provide for its workers one hour of paid sick leave for every forty hours worked.

Live Here, Learn Here

Boucher praised the which allows students who have graduated from a state college  and have been a state resident for five years to deposit up to $2,500 of state income tax liability, annually for 10 years. The bill is seen been seen as one part of curbing young people flight from the state.

“Eighteen to 34 year-olds leave Connecticut in much larger numbers than other states, and that’s a serious problem,” she said.

Early Prisoner Release 

Hetherington criticized the good behavior legislation which permits the reduction of an inmate’s prison sentence and allows inmates to be eligible for early release for good behavior.

Heterhtington said that the bill to be omitted, providing for an example that crimes involving the “sexual abuse of children” and “several kinds of rape” would allow offenders to be released earlier. 

In-the-Works Transgender Anti-Discrimination Law

 Hetherington broke from the Powerpoint script to go on a tangent about a new transgender anti-discrimination legislation in the works.

 According to Hetherington, a person who doesn’t have a sex change operation but who feels to be a member of the opposite sex would be included in the bill.

 “What if I woke up today and I feel like a Native American—I just know somewhere inside I’m a Native American?” he said. “Where does that lead us?”

 Heterington also felt that the bill would affect “locker rooms” and “bathrooms,” possibly because the bill, according to Hetherington, might include those who have not had a sex change operation access those areas.

 Public Space Immunity Laws

Lavielle praised the passing of a legislation protecting Connecticut towns from law suits which concern personal injury to those using the property.

“The whole reason [that these laws were enacted] happened in Wilton 15 years ago,” said Lavielle.

“In 1996, someone fell over in a tennis court, sued the town, lost, appealed it and won…. A precedent was set.”

“This immunity will now be restored…. That’s great for things like the Norwalk River Valley Trail, and further acquisition of open space for the town,” she said. She felt he law would aid in “protecting our states from frivolous law suits.”

Under current law, Land Trusts are still protected by immunity and this does not appear to be changed.

 In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants

Boucher said a bill who have attended high school or received a GED in the nutmeg state was “not cost neutral.” Boucher said that there were “about 200 people” who would benefit from the law.

She criticized the act, saying that “if someone is illegal” they can receive emergency room health care and receive a college education.

 “We are becoming more and more a state of dependent people…. And fewer and fewer [people are] paying for what that dependence costs.”

6:37 p.m: This article has been updated for the following errors: a spelling error of Gail Lavielle's name; an incorrect district (Lavielle represents the 143 district, not 134); and a correction to the Public Immunity Legislation which would protect towns from law suits, not the state itself. Patch regrets the errors.