Community Corner

Suzio: Reality and Common Sense Rare at the State Capitol

State Senator says legislators are living in a fairytale world in Hartford.

 

It would be so nice if something would make sense for a change.” 

Those words, spoken by Alice in “Alice in Wonderland,” have taken on a whole new meaning for me. 

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I have been a Connecticut state senator for 16 months. I have come to find out that inside the State Capitol is a magical world – a Wonderland rarely visited by reality or common sense. How else would one explain the zany legislation, proposals and procedures we have seen from our Democrat-controlled state legislature and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office during that span of time?

Consider:

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  • Paying the $1000-an-inch tab for an enchanted busway between New Britain and Hartford
  • Passing an oh-so-soft-on-crime bill which allows violent killers, rapists and child predators to get out of jail years before they should be released
  • Crafting a “deal” with state unions which hinged on phony savingsinitiatives such as the Amazing $180 Million State Employee Suggestion Box
  • Rubber-stamping the “Show Me The Money” Jackson Labs economic development deal in which taxpayers will shell out a mere $1 million for each job it creates
  • Coming within an eyelash of borrowing $300,000 of your money and sending it to the New Haven-based headquarters for the Connecticut Communist Party and People’s World newspaper
  • Increasing state government spending by $1 billion over two years while giving taxpayers the largest tax hike in Connecticut’s history.

If I told you 16 months ago that all this was in your future, would you have believed me? 
One thing I have learned during my brief service in Hartford is that many legislative proposals pass or fail by a small margin in the state senate. There are a number of common sense legislators at the State Capitol. Things would be very different – and much improved – if we had a few more of them. Yet, here we are, moving forward with misguided projects and policies which hurt our state.

In the early morning on June 13 during the legislature’s special session, I shook my head as I watched Democrat senators vote “yes” on a massive 469-page, six-inch thick bill. I knew they had not read it. They had taken former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s advice to heart: Pass the bill first and then see what’s in it.

As I walked about the State Capitol that evening, I kept expecting to see the perpetually grinning Cheshire Cat whenever I turned a corner. That memorable “Alice in Wonderland” character effectively summed up the current powers-that-be in Hartford when he informed Alice, “We’re all mad here.”

*Sen. Len Suzio (www.senatorsuzio.com) represents Cheshire, Meriden, Middlefield, Middletown and Rockfall.  He can be reached atLen.Suzio@cga.ct.gov and at 800 842 1421.


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