Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The Legislature that can't

I am still trying to figure out what the Connecticut State Legislature accomplished this past session. I really do not know. There are many pressing problems in the state and it seems once again that our legislature shortchanged taxpayers.
What happen with tax reform? There were some great concepts which may have been mentioned however I guess time just runs out and the net result is that we are still the second highest taxed state in the country. I also must be happy then that no known new tax taxes were passed (I am sure some technical ones were and will be passed on to consumers in some way i.e. CT Gross Earnings Tax on fuel)
What happen with judicial reform? Or does anyone care how secret our court and judge system has become? Why is this system fearful of applying the freedom-of-information law to all judicial functions? Are they afraid that the taxpaying public will see the charade that is going on masked as justice in Connecticut?
What happen with transportation reform? We know there will be many new trains in service but what about our archaic highway system with projects that just goes on forever and ever? Obviously none of the legislators use our highway system because if they did they would have done something about it already. Anyways we as taxpaying commuters are stuck with it, just deal with it, when did the state legislature care about commuters anyways?
Connecticut’s legislature needs to be reformed. Terms should be made 4 years with term limitations of 2-4 year terms being allowed. Pay should be increased to $52,000. a year so a wider range of individuals from our state may serve and actually come up with solutions to our state’s problems rather than the current bunch of lawyers who are creating greater laws to perpetuate their own self interest. Also after their terms ended they would not be allowed to become lobbyists until five years later. This would eliminate a lot of the problems that we currently see with lobbying in Hartford today.
So once again another session has ended and golly gee nothing got done. Oh well, who cares anyways, taxpayers have an infinite amount of money to support our state government.