Senate Democrats Prioritize Ratepayers in New Energy Legislation

By Hugh McQuaid

January 21 @ 9:50 am

In response to rising energy costs burdening state residents, Senate Democrats announced plans Thursday to advance a “Ratepayers First Act,” aimed at lowering electricity prices and prioritizing the interest of Connecticut families over utility company shareholders.

Legislative leaders outlined the bill’s goals during a midday press conference in the Legislative Office Building. Sen. Norm Needleman, an Essex Democrat who co-chairs the Energy and Technology Committee, said the legislation would be designed to bring down costs and give regulators the tools to hold utilities accountable.

“Certainly the aspects of accountability and making sure that the performance that the utilities provide in exchange for an exclusive monopoly to provide us not only distribution but transmission of electricity — that is something that is very complicated,” Needleman said.

“There’s been no desire to hurt these companies, but if we have to bring them a little bit around to understanding that the way it was for their prior 20 years is not the way it’s going to be,” he said. “I think we’ve found a willing partnership with our regulators. And it’s been pretty much war ever since then. I’m not excited about that, but I’m here to fight the battle for the ratepayers.”

Needleman was joined by Senate President Martin Looney and Majority Leader Bob Duff. The leaders of the Senate’s Democratic majority said the bill was a response to warranted complaints from state residents about the cost of energy.

“It will seek to address cost, enhance the reliability of Connecticut’s power grid, increase energy production, and ensure the utilities prioritize ratepayers and recognize their responsibility as public utilities,” Looney said. “We have obviously heard many, many complaints about rates, about the volatility of rates, and we are, of course, very sensitive to that.”

Leaders of the legislature’s energy committee plan to consider a variety of ideas for reducing the energy burden on ratepayers, Needleman said. The bill is expected to be crafted by the panel and refined by feedback from members of the public and other stakeholders through the public hearing process.

“This bill is an open book,” Needleman said. “There are no specific things that we’re going to talk about at this moment. We’re going to listen to all the bills that are coming in, and they’re coming in at a rate much higher and faster than the energy committee has ever seen. We’re going to listen to ideas from across the spectrum,—that’s Republicans and Democrats, that’s cities and rural areas, that’s everybody that we can hear from.”

On Thursday, Senate Democrats discussed a number of ideas including shifting the costs of electric vehicle charging programs to transportation bonding, ensuring better accountability of public utility companies by making them subject to Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act, and increasing power supply through broader adoption of generation options like solar and nuclear power.

Duff said that any effort to acquire more supply from nuclear facilities had to be done on a regional basis.

“We’ve gone it alone too many times at high cost for our ratepayers,” he said. “By doing more on a regional basis, I think that helps to level set and helps to make sure that we are taking on the risk that we need to but not more risk than we have to.”

“We want to make sure that we provide the most reliable, best priced energy to the state of Connecticut “

“We expect from our partners in the utilities a response that is reasonable and not aggressive. The amount of money lobbying, the amount of money spent to influence everybody involved in this process is astounding.

“This bill is an open book. There are no specific things that we’re going to talk about at this moment, we’re going to listen to all the bills that are coming in and they’re coming in at a rate much higher and faster than the energy committee has ever seen. We’re going to listen to ideas from across the spectrum, that’s republicans and democrats, that’s cities and rural areas, that’s everybody that we can here from and then decide what belongs in this bill.”

“We want to strengthen the regulators and give them more options in terms of holding utilities accountable.”

“Corporate profits continue to grow, even in the face of some bad business decisions that they’ve made, where they’ve had to take write offs.”

New Bill Seeks to Protect Warehouse Workers From Unsafe Quotas, Aid Striking Families

By Hugh McQuaid

January 17 @ 5:00 am

Warehouse workers would be protected from unreasonable production quotas under priority legislation announced Wednesday by Senate Democrats, who also proposed to extend unemployment benefit eligibility to workers involved in prolonged labor disputes.

Sen. Julie Kushner, a Danbury Democrat who co-chairs the Labor and Public Employees Committee, outlined the proposal alongside caucus leaders during a midday press conference in the Legislative Office Building.

Kushner said the new protections for warehouse workers were inspired by testimony from Amazon employees, who described being pushed to meet excessive quotas in order to maintain their jobs.

“The result of that, too frequently, is workplace injuries and we know that the rate of injuries is much higher in Amazon [facilities] here in the state than it is for other, similar, work,” Kushner said. “That’s something we have an obligation and responsibility to look at, and we think we’ve come up with a good way to legislate that so that the quotas don’t result in workplace injuries.”

Kushner was joined by the Senate President Pro Temp Martin Looney and Majority Leader Bob Duff, who said the worker protections would be among the chamber’s leading priorities during the legislative session, which began last week and runs until June 4.

The legislation comes just days before former President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 return to office. Duff said the incoming administration would prioritize the interests of millionaires and billionaires.

“Here in the state of Connecticut, we’re going to prioritize working people and working families and that’s why we have these two pieces of legislation that are going to be so important to workers all across our state,” Duff said.

The bill will include a provision that would make striking workers eligible for unemployment benefits after they have been on the picket line for at least two weeks. Lawmakers said the goal was to even the playing field by preventing employers from negotiating in bad faith while the families of striking workers struggled without compensation.

During the press conference, Sen. Jorge Cabrera, D-Hamden, recalled a 2019 strike of more than 31,000 Stop & Shop workers across New England. He said workers are at a disadvantage while on strike because it creates financial hardships for them and their families. At the time, some families relied on donations of food and money to support their families, according to the New Haven Independent.

“We have to make a decision about whose side we’re on in the state of Connecticut. Are we on the side of working families or are we on the side of big, oftentimes global, multinational corporations, who are so far removed from the reality of what these workers go through on a daily basis to help them reach the incredible economic gains that they have,” Cabrera said.

The Labor and Public Employees Committee raised the bill during a Tuesday afternoon meeting. Republicans on the committee voted against the legislation and its protections for workers. Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, argued that the protections were unnecessary because warehouse employees were not forced to take their jobs.

“To me it’s a frustration because we’re talking about an employment situation that is voluntary,” Sampson said. “No one is being forced to work at any of these particular facilities.”

Both of the concepts included in the bill, called Senate Bill 8, have been vetted and debated during previous sessions of Connecticut’s General Assembly. Meanwhile, the states of New York and New Jersey have enacted policies making striking workers eligible for unemployment benefits after 14 days.

On Wednesday, CWA Local 1298 President David Weidlich Jr. told reporters that making striking workers eligible for unemployment benefits would shorten or prevent strikes altogether.

“It kind of levels the playing field because a lot of times we run into situations where the company is not really aggressively working to get an agreement because they know that our only resource is to go out on strike. If we were to go out on strike, we lose money. They get to keep the money that they would have to pay us,” Weidlich said. “So if both parties understand that the recourse of the strike in which the workers only get maybe 50% of their pay — but something instead of nothing, I think that gives you a lot better position to bargain.”

Advocates, Lawmakers Call for Budgetary Flexibility

By Hugh McQuaid

January 16 @ 11:23

A coalition of Connecticut advocates, labor leaders, and state legislators crowded into a Hartford conference room Tuesday to make a case for more budgetary flexibility to fund critical investments in education, housing and health care.

The group, called Connecticut For All, argued for modifications to a set of budgetary constraints that include caps on state spending and a requirement that certain revenues be set aside to eventually be used to pay down state debt. In recent years, these restrictions have resulted in supplemental debt payments totaling more than $8.5 billion.

Proponents of modifying these rules argue that these fiscal guardrails have captured a greater share of state revenue than intended and forced Connecticut to underfund certain critical services despite years of budget surpluses.

“It doesn’t matter where you live in this state, this issue affects you,” Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, said. “This is an issue that makes it harder for people all across the state, who never imagined this would touch them, to do the things they need to do — the necessary things they need to do.”

The coalition outlined an agenda for this year’s legislative session, during which lawmakers will craft a two-year state budget. The group called for a variety of investments including additional state funding for Connecticut school districts and the restoration of a child tax credit, as well as fair wages and benefits for a range of publicly funded workers.

Rob Baril, president of health care workers’ union, SEIU 1199, said the group would seek improvements in how budget dollars are allocated.

“We formed this coalition because we believe that we shouldn’t have to make choices between funding health care and funding education, between funding child care and making sure that we have the infrastructure that all people in Connecticut need,” Baril said.

Jenny Graves, a special education teacher who serves as vice president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, called for changes to the state’s Education Cost Sharing formula — a program the state uses to offset the costs of local school districts — as well as livable wages for paraeducators.

“Year after year, we see billions in surplus from our fiscal policies,” she said. “It’s time to modify the fiscal roadblocks and invest in equitable education for all, especially our students with special education needs. The time for action is now.”

The event followed a Monday press conference, where Democratic leaders in the House and Senate announced their plans to prioritize education funding and housing policy during this year’s legislative session.

Senate Democrats have also argued for modifications to Connecticut’s fiscal guardrails. Last month, Senate President Martin Looney told the Connecticut Mirror that the chamber’s majority Democrats intended to make changes to the budgetary constraints.

“We won’t call any budget for a vote in the 2025 session if it doesn’t include some changes to the guardrails,” Looney said. “The guardrails are staying, but their parameters need to be updated. The guardrails aren’t a straitjacket.”