An Act Concerning the Penalty for a Capitol Felony

Early last Friday morning, after a debate that lasted nearly eleven hours, the Senate voted 19-17 in support of a proposal to abolish the death penalty, HB 6578, An Act Concerning the Penalty for a Capitol Felony. Although the bill passed both the House and Senate, Governor Rell has stated her intent to veto it, in her words, "as soon as it hits my desk".

Rarely in the Senate do we face decisions that are influenced by such a wide range of factors, be it our families, religion, personal experiences, or simply our human response to horrific events. It was evident from the floor speeches given throughout the night and into the morning that each legislator felt more obligated to vote in line with their conscience than their party.

I voted, along with colleagues on both sides of the aisle, in opposition to this proposal, believing that there are some crimes so horrific that capital punishment is the only adequate form of justice for the perpetrators of these crimes. While I support retaining the death penalty, I believe we need to use it very sparingly. It would be an utter travesty for an individual to be put to death for a crime they did not commit and I know that we bend over backwards to make sure no one on death row is there unjustly. Fundamentally, I believe the death penalty does work as a deterrent and is the only just punishment for certain horrific and heinous crimes.

In addition to deterrence and just punishment, I believe the death penalty is necessary to keep law and order in our correctional facilities. I have six correctional facilities in my district housing over 8,000 individuals, including ten on death row. If an inmate is already in prison for life without the possibility of release, absent the death penalty, there is no deterrent to keep them from killing a correction officer or some other prison employee. In light of this concern, I offered an amendment that would carve out an exemption to the underlying bill for the murder of an employee of the Department of Correction by an inmate, but it was defeated 20-15.

Additional amendments were offered by other Republican senators to carve out exemptions in the case of a death of a police officer, or a member of the armed forces, and to retain capital punishment as a penalty for crimes committed before the implementation date of the bill, all of which were defeated. Nevertheless, Governor Rell will veto HB 6578 and there clearly are not enough votes to override her veto.

A Better Way

Since April of 2008, Republicans have been sounding the alarm on the need to reinvent state government as we know it in order to face the budget crisis we all knew was on the horizon. Unfortunately, Democrats have failed to respond to changing economic conditions over the past year and are now expecting Connecticut taxpayers to foot the bill for their procrastination to the tune of $3.3 billion – the largest tax increase in state history.

State Republicans believe the Democrats plan is heading entirely in the wrong direction and will only serve to increase the financial burden on middle class families and small businesses already struggling to make ends meet.

We know there is a better way. To that end, we set out to draft our own budget proposal – a balanced budget we would pass if we were in the majority. We approached this process from the principal that state government must first exhaust all responsible options for reducing spending and creating efficiencies in the way we do business. Many of the decisions we faced were difficult. Many of the cuts are deep. But, the result is a balanced budget proposal that makes government live within its means and does not raise taxes.

Connecticut taxpayers simply cannot afford the government majority Democrats have created. Over the past six years, state government has grown 36 percent from a budget of $13.6 billion in 2003 to $18.5 billion. At the same time, state auditors and independent news outlets are uncovering examples of government waste and inefficiency everyday. When the state Department of Social Services auditors report, as they recently did, that the state has been sending benefits checks to deceased people, the residents of Connecticut have a right to expect their government to get its own fiscal house in order before reaching into the pockets of taxpayers for a bailout.

Republicans are going to do everything in our power to prevent the Democrats’ proposed $3.3 billion tax increase from becoming a reality. We will continue to drive budget discussions towards solutions that streamline state government and reduce spending.

Senate Republican Caucus Unanimously Opposes SB 1098

The Senate Republican Caucus unanimously opposes Senate Bill 1098, An Act Modifying Corporate Laws Relating To Certain Religious Corporations. This bill is an unconstitutional assault on religious freedoms. Specifically, it represents a clear violation of the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise of Religion Clause contained in the First Amendment. The right of a church to govern itself, free from governmental intrusion, has been repeatedly upheld by our highest courts, providing that ‘religious freedom encompasses the power [of religious bodies] to decide for themselves, free from state interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.’[1]

The state has long supported the right of the Roman Catholic Church to organize and incorporate itself as it sees fit, first codifying such self governing legislation in 1866. Senate Bill 1098 proposes to dictate the way the Catholic Church organizes and operates, replacing the control of the Bishops and pastors with that of a board of directors consisting of lay people elected from the parish. Once in place, this board would have administrative and financial powers, strategic planning authority, and control of the outreach and community services provided by the church.

Proponents of the bill site the embezzlement of funds by a pastor in Darien as the rationale for this unwarranted governmental intrusion into the affairs of the church. But, the priest in this case has already been arrested and imprisoned for his offenses. Criminal laws currently in place have done as they were designed to do – punish those who willingly misappropriate funds.

Equally troubling is the fact that this bill singles out the Roman Catholic Church. The bill does not simply stop at ordering the Catholic Church how to organize itself. It also includes a provision that allows any person who believes money donated to any religious corporation has been used for a purpose other than that for which it was donated, to report their belief to the Attorney General, who must investigate the claim and take any action he deems necessary. How exactly does one determine the ‘intended purpose’ of private donations given to the church? Under this provision, any person, whether or not they are a member of the parish, may challenge any donation made to the church, whether its $5 placed in the offertory basket, or $5,000 donated to the Bishop’s appeal, subjecting the free speech rights of the Catholic Church to be challenged by the unfettered actions of the Attorney General.

For these reasons, the Senate Republican Caucus will vigorously oppose SB 1098 in the Judiciary Committee and on the floor of the Senate.

[1] Serbian Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich, 466 U.S. 696, 721-22 (1976).

Connecticut Veterans' Wartime Service Medal Ceremony

I was honored to address recipients of the Connecticut Veterans' Wartime Service Medal at the special ceremony recently in Shelton. The medal is given by the Department of Veteran's Affairs to all military personnel who served in a time of war. During this moving ceremony, 347 medals were awarded to veterans with qualifying military service who live in Shelton. We did a similar ceremony in Stratford, and more are being held throughout the state.

Appearance on Face the State

On Sunday I appeared on WFSB's Face the State to discuss Connecticut's growing budget deficit. We need to take shift action to cut spending-- otherwise we will face an unacceptable tax increase. In this segment, I lay out some specific ideas to cut spending introduced by the Governor and legislative Republicans.

Since this taping the situation has grown more dire. On Tuesday, the Office of Policy and Management revised their deficit estimate for the current fiscal year to nearly $922 million. The current projected deficit for FY2010-11 will probably also grow from the current $6 billion estimate.

I am committed to working with Governor Rell to cut spending to eliminate the deficit, and I am prepared to help make the difficult decisions that face us. If you have additional ideas you believe we should be looking at, please e-mail me at dan.debicella@cga.ct.gov.

The Legislature of Too Little, Too Late

On Wednesday the Connecticut General Assembly again convened for the purpose of closing the state’s $356 million budget deficit, and again adjourned leaving the job unfinished. The mitigation plan passed by the legislature, but opposed by all 49 Republicans, resulted in only $120 million in savings to the General Fund and included new spending for a controversial Democrat-backed program that has never even received a public hearing.

That’s right – the General Assembly got together in order to cut spending and close the budget deficit and instead passed a bill that included new spending and left the deficit largely intact. And all this happened despite Senate President Don Williams’ promise in January that “any proposal that costs money, that doesn’t pay for itself, is almost assuredly dead on arrival.”

For her part, Governor Rell will reluctantly sign the mitigation plan into law, because she knows it is the most she can get out of the legislature at this time. But Governor Rell also acknowledged that the Democrats “didn’t make as many cuts as we needed” and “cannot continue to be the legislature of too little, too late” if we are to overcome our budget crisis, put people back to work and get our economy moving again.

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Connecticut's State Deficit.... growing by the second