Congressional Quarterly has a fascinating article about the federal surface transportation bill and Rep. James Oberstar, chair of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee. Oberstar's vision is perhaps the only thing keeping hope alive for an authorization bill in this session of Congress. The administration and Congressional leadership are more interested in the economy, health care and climate change.
State Senator Donald DeFronzo has penned an opinion article in the Hartford Courant on mass transit and lists his five favorite projects. Missing from the list is the Hartford to New Britain Busway.
The Connecticut House voted to approved the 2009-2011 state budget voted earlier by the Senate and send it to the Governor. Governor Rell has promised to veto the bill when it reaches her desk. The bill included an increase in the licensing fees, a 25% surcharge on business profits and an increase in the state income tax for "wealthy" individuals and families. It did not include a sales tax on engineering services.
The Governor invited legislative leaders to her home Sunday to discuss the budget and negotiations have resumed. Will we get a budget deal by Wednesday morning? Stay tuned.
The Connecticut State Senate passed a budget Thursday for the two fiscal years starting July 1, 2009. SB 1801 passed the Senate by a vote of 19-16 which is not sufficient to override a promised veto by Governor Rell. The bill goes to the House for a vote Friday before going to the Governor.
The bill would increase license fees across the board but does not include a sales tax on engineering services. It does increase income tax rates for wealthy individuals and families and adds a 25% surcharge on business taxes.
The US Senate's Energy and Natural Resources has passed the American Clean Energy Leadership Act and sent it the Senate floor. It is expected to face strong opposition in the Senate. (Read highlights of the bill.) On the House side, the Committee on Energy and Commerce has passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act. It's expected that if both bills are passed by their expected chambers, the bills could be combined into one bill. However, the bills have run into strong opposition.
The bills include much potential work for engineering companies, including electric grid improvements, power plant work, building efficiency projects, etc. Both bills include provisions which would establish federal building code requirements for energy efficiency for residential, commercial and all other construction.
The Federal Railroad Administration has announced details and deadlines for its highly touted high-speed rail grant program. Connecticut will be one of the states in competition for the grants. See ENR article. Senator Dodd, at a recent Congressional hearing, strongly endorsed Connecticut's plans.
Does using federal stimulus dollars to purchase busses manufactured outside Connecticut (and perhaps outside the US) help the state's economy? Interesting discussion in this Hartford Courant article. At least the construction projects are more likely to put state residents to work.
The state has settled civil actions against the contractor, engineering inspector and others involved in the disastrous I-84 project in Waterbury and Cheshire. The defendants agreed to pay an additional $4.6 million to the state. Read Hartford Courant article. However, the FBI continues its investigation and criminal indictments may still be issued.
Aside from not passing the budget, what else is new? ACEC/CT managed to block some bills which were quite problematic for the industry.
HB 5373 would have allowed state agencies and municipalities to procure engineering services by reverse auction. It died with the assistance of many members who raised the alarm with their legislators. Thanks!
Also died:
HB 6690 would have required engineers to register as lobbyists if they represent clients before municipal land use boards.
SB 1155 would have raised the DPW dollar threshold for consultants on the "On-Call List" for non-higher education projects and on the "On-Call List" for higher education projects and to reflect the current rate of inflation.
SB 1002 To allow landscape architects to form professional practices with architects, professional engineers and land surveyors.
Some bills did pass: (Note that some bills are amended and not in final form)
SB 1033 AN ACT ESTABLISHING A TAX CREDIT FOR GREEN BUILDINGS. To establish a tax credit for projects that meet or exceed LEED Green Building Rating System Certification.
HB 5821 AN ACT CONCERNING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS, IN-STATE MICRO BUSINESSES AND THE STANDARD WAGE. To authorize licensed professional engineers to certify that work done on economic development projects is done in accordance with state requirements in order to expedite the completion of such projects.
HB 6097 AN ACT CONCERNING BROWNFIELDS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS. To facilitate the development of brownfields projects.
HB 6466 AN ACT CONCERNING PROJECTS OF REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE. To authorize regional planning organizations to establish a voluntary preapplication review process for projects of regional significance.
HB 6467 AN ACT CONCERNING SMART GROWTH AND THE STATE PLAN OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT POLICIES PLAN. To define smart growth and require smart growth provisions of state, local and regional plans of conservation and development be consistent.
SB 785 AN ACT CONCERNING CONSTRUCTION CHANGE ORDERS. To limit the amount of unapproved change order work imposed on contractors and subcontractors.
HB 6284 AN ACT CONCERNING GREEN BUILDING STANDARDS AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS. To require the State Building Inspector and Codes and Standards Committee to revise the State Building Code to include a model energy code and green building standards for certain new construction or renovation projects.
The regular session of the 2009 Connecticut General Assembly ended at midnight last night without a two-year state budget. The new fiscal year begins July 1 and some politicians believe that the state may not have a budget until Labor Day. It's like watching teenagers play chicken with their parent's cars.
Engineering firms are still under the gun for a possible state sales tax on engineering services. (If you haven't contacted your state senator and state representative, please use the model letter in the column at right under "Government Affairs.")
Here's the problem. The state budget deficit for this fiscal year is approaching $1 billion. The projected deficit for the next two fiscal year cycle is over $8 billion. The deficit as a percentage of the budget is over 15%. The Governor has pledged not to raise taxes. Democrats in the General Assembly don't want to cut spending that much and believe that businesses and wealthy individual taxpayers have to pay more. The Governor has an agreement with state employee labor unions not to fire state workers in exchange for about $760 million in labor savings. At the end of the day we will probably have some program cuts, some tax increases and we will borrow the rest. We've borrowed money to balance the budget before in the early '90s. Like credit card debt, you end up paying lots of interest. It also consumes borrowing capacity that the state could use to fund infrastructure projects.
