Connecticut
IGLTA Welcomes Connecticut as its First State Global Partner
The Worldwide LGBTQ+ Journey Affiliation at present introduced its international partnership with the Connecticut Workplace of Tourism, the first-ever state tourism workplace to affix IGLTA on the World Accomplice stage.
As a World Accomplice, Connecticut shall be positioned alongside the highest international locations and types dedicated to year-round help of LGBTQ+ welcoming journey.
“Connecticut has lengthy led the nation on important points dealing with the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, and that’s the reason I’m extremely proud that we’re the primary state to affix IGLTA as a World Accomplice and emphasize to LGBTQ+ vacationers within the U.S. and overseas that they’re welcome and celebrated in Connecticut,” Governor Ned Lamont mentioned. “Each individual has the correct to be themselves, freed from discrimination, concern, and prejudice, and we’re dedicated to sharing these values with all who dwell, work, and play in Connecticut.”
The Connecticut Workplace of Tourism or CTvisit just lately launched a brand new multi-million-dollar marketing campaign titled “Discover Your Vibe,” which highlights Connecticut’s vibrant tradition, together with its LGBTQ+ neighborhood and celebrating tourism companies and occasions. The state’s newly up to date tourism web site, www.CTvisit.com, options inclusive imagery and content material all through, and now, contains a LGBTQ+ part that can dwell on the homepage yr spherical. Moreover, CTvisit will take part in LGBTQ+ celebrations in Connecticut and neighboring states all year long.
“We’re thrilled and honored to affix IGLTA of their mission of advancing LGBTQ+ journey,” Noelle P. Stevenson, director of the Connecticut Workplace of Tourism, mentioned.
“The LGBTQ+ neighborhood has at all times been an integral a part of Connecticut’s fiber and the state’s tourism trade, and we’re placing that message entrance and heart all yr spherical in every thing we do.”
Among the many assets obtainable on CTvisit.com is a listing of greater than 25 Delight Month celebrations, in addition to year-round occasions together with movie festivals, drag performances, comedy exhibits and choral concert events, nightlife choices, LGBTQ+ owned and operated companies, eating places and resorts, and hundreds of different concepts for people, {couples} and households alike.
“We’re so proud to welcome the Connecticut Workplace of Tourism as our latest World Accomplice,” mentioned IGLTA President/CEO John Tanzella.
“Lengthy thought-about one of the LGBTQ+ inclusive U.S. states due to its progressive laws, Connecticut packs a various collection of sights, culinary experiences, and outside actions right into a compact vacation spot. We stay up for introducing extra of our international neighborhood of vacationers to this vibrant and culturally wealthy New England state.”
Connecticut
Want to donate to Los Angeles fire victims? Be aware of scams
CONNECTICUT (WTNH) — In Los Angeles, where fire has destroyed thousands of homes, officials say they don’t need any more items like blankets or clothing. What’s needed is money to help people try to get back on their feet.
Here in Connecticut, if you want to give there are some things you should know to avoid being scammed.
A warning from the Connecticut Better Business Bureau says that before you open your heart and your wallet, do your due diligence before you donate and verify which charities truly have a proven track record of helping.
One of the more common scams you may see is a direct message in your social media feed.
“So, an acquaintance on Facebook messages you and says my uncle was a victim of the fire in LA and I’m collecting money, and you’re asked to click to donate or send me some cash via Venmo, but what you don’t know if that FB page has been hacked,” Kristen Johnson of Connecticut Better Business Bureau said.
The best advice is to pick up the phone and call that Facebook friend and ask are you really collecting money for LA relief. And if you can, make sure the charity you give to is registered with the state of California.
“And another thing that happens and this isn’t a scam, but people who want to help they set up charities to help but they don’t have boots on the ground — they’re not established,” Johnson said.
In other words, avoid grass roots efforts even though their heart may be in the right place. Experts also say never send cash and only a use a credit card.
If a charity says 100% of your gift goes to the LA cause that’s a red flag. Why’s that?
“Because every charity has some overhead right even your credit card payment will come with a transaction fee,” Johnson said.
The Connecticut Better Business Bureau has certain charities that meet their criteria. Just go to give.org to see the list.
Watch the full story above.
Connecticut
Central Connecticut State University remembers Jimmy Carter’s 1985 visit
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WTNH) — A few years after former President Jimmy Carter’s term ended, he made a trip to New Britain.
In 1985, about 3,000 people gathered at Central Connecticut State University’s Welte Hall to hear the former president deliver the annual Robert C. Vance Lecture.
This lecture series ran from 1983 to 2015 to honor the editor, publisher and journalist for The Herald in New Britain, Robert C. Vance.
In addition to giving a speech, Carter was also awarded the university’s first honorary degree.
The university’s archivist, Renata Vickery, said, “it was also important for our students to see someone who started from the very humble beginning.”
Connecticut
Opinion: If the guardrails are unconstitutional, then what?
This is the last of a six-part series on the constitutionality of the state’s “budget guardrails.” Here are Parts One, Two, Three, Four and Five.
If Connecticut’s budget guardrail statutes were determined to be unconstitutional, what are the implications for state budget policy? The following outcomes seem most likely and desirable:
1. The guardrails statute in Public Act 23-1 would revert to the status of ordinary legislation, amendable by majority votes and subject to gubernatorial veto.
2. The spending cap in the Connecticut Constitution, including the three-fifths vote “escape clause” and the three adopted definitions in state statute, would remain in force without alteration.
3. The three-fifths supermajority vote requirement in the guardrail statutes would be severable from the remainder of the statute.
4. Absent the severed supermajority vote provisions and the nullified bond covenant, the remainder of the fiscal statutes would continue to be implemented as currently done by the Office of Fiscal Analysis and the Office of Policy and Management, unless and until these statutes are amended.
5. The priority funding of the rainy day fund and prepayment of pension debt would continue under the status quo, unless and until amended by law.
6. The budget impacts of revising the guardrails will be determined by future actions of lawmakers. All the statutory caps in P.A. 23-1 could be amended by a majority vote except to the extent covered by the constitutional spending cap in article Third, Sec. 18c.
7. The General Assembly and governor would be expected to carefully project how their fiscal decisions going forward will impact Wall Street’s credit rating agencies.
8. The bond lock should be recognized as “null and void” by legislative repeal or by exercising the “escape clause” to avoid unintended consequences.
9. The State Treasurer should seek immediate legislation relieving him of the obligation to insert the bond lock covenant in future bond sales.
10. Assuming that there is at least some consensus of good faith acknowledgement of constitutional flaws in the statutory guardrails, the threshold question of whether any changes should be made will have been definitively answered, allowing everyone to move on. In response, House Speaker Matt Ritter, Senate President Martin Looney and Gov. Ned Lamont might convene an “all parties” negotiation to address post-guardrail changes to the FY 26-27 state budget and to hammer out new flexible fiscal policies to replace the old inflexible statutory guardrails.
The prospects for a successful negotiation seem high despite current bickering because there is ample political and policy consensus that some level of fiscal controls should remain in place. The CT Voices report and the Yale Tobin/Connecticut Project report both propose sensible fiscal revisions, but neither group advocate for eliminating fiscal controls all together. Governor Lamont in particular should take credit for the fact that “guardrails” of some type have now become a permanent part of Connecticut’s fiscal infrastructure because of his insistence.
The General Assembly should now approve what it neglected to do in 2017 or in 2023: adopt a “best practices” approach by establishing a new permanent Fiscal Commission of budget experts, stakeholders, and representatives of municipal, business and nonprofit leaders, to monitor on a regular basis the productivity, responsiveness and efficiency of ongoing fiscal policies. The Commission’s reports should contain fiscal analysis on the authoritative level of the OFA’s Fiscal Accountability Reports and recommendations on the data-driven policy level of the recent guardrail reports from the Yale Tobin Center and CT Voices for Children.
Consequences for bond purchasers
What might be the legal consequences for bondholders and the state if the bond lock covenant is unconstitutional?
Experienced bond counsel would need to be consulted about extracting the state from these entanglements. The following assurances could minimize if not eliminate any serious risk to the state from a bondholder lawsuit.
First, bondholder investments are sufficiently protected under the conventional bond covenant from the State of Connecticut to pay principal and interest on the bonds, guaranteed by the full faith and credit of the state. The primary security pledge received by the bondholders has not been impaired.
Second, bondholders will still receive extra protection from the risks of the normal state budgeting cycle by the constitutional spending cap which exempts in article Third, Sec. 18b “expenditures for the payment of bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness” from the cap.
Third, the exercise of a public entity’s sovereignty in limited circumstances has been upheld by courts as a defense or justification for post-sale changes to bond covenants. A well-known example excused a municipality’s non-performance with its pledge to dedicate casino revenues to pay bondholder debt service after the city’s approval of construction of a new casino was rejected by a voter referendum. A finding of unconstitutionality would leave the debt service obligation intact even if the bond lock were nullified.
Fourth and most importantly, the General Assembly was never constitutionally authorized under the “anti-delegation legislative rule” to issue the bond lock covenant in the first place. There is no “breach” for damages if the covenant was void from the start and there is no claim for “damage” if the debt service is paid.
Fifth, future assessments by Wall Street’s credit rating agencies will largely depend on the budget policies adopted in the post-guardrail period. No other state has adopted a bond lock covenant. Wall Street has welcomed Connecticut’s fiscal results but has not been clamoring for other states to replicate the bond lock.
Sixth, a final option for the state to extricate itself from the any bond covenant contract disputes without even the appearance of a technical default is for the General Assembly and the governor to exercise the bond covenant’s procedural “escape clause” for each of the remaining fiscal years on the 2024-2028 covenants and not to renew the covenants in 2029 for the optional second five years.
Conclusion and a note of judicial caution
In this series of opinion essays I have presented a “big picture” analysis of the unconstitutionality of the budget guardrails to stimulate the kind of legal research and discussion that regrettably has been avoided since 2017. As an obvious caveat, these essays were never intended to take the place of a legal brief.
Asking a Connecticut court to declare a state statute unconstitutional can be a daunting task. A 1986 court ruling stated: “It is well settled that a party who challenges a statute on constitutional grounds has no easy burden, for every intendment will be made in favor of constitutionality, and invalidity must be established beyond a reasonable doubt.”
That is why, in the end, it is my hope is that without formal judicial intervention the General Assembly and the governor will find either in these essays or in a legal opinion from the Attorney General or in an advisory opinion from the Legislative Commissioner’s Office enough of a persuasive legal rationale to conclude that the Connecticut Constitution requires a different process to adopt future state budgets, unencumbered by questionable statutory budget guardrails that may be out of date or out of order.
Seeking to have the guardrails recognized as unconstitutional is a weighty matter not to be undertaken frivolously. But continuing to adopt state budgets outside of the bedrock rules enshrined in the state constitution also carries serious risks and is likely to cause damage to trust in government and lead to more factional disunity.
Although the guardrails deserve their share of recognition for addressing the depleted rainy day fund and advancing payments of pension debt, let’s not forget that fiscal performance improved in every state between 2021 and 2023. During that period, 48 states cut taxes, and many built up their rainy day funds. Only Connecticut imposed a bond lock.
Connecticut does not need to choose between respecting its Constitution and enacting fiscally responsible budgets. It can and should do both. The statutes, guardrails and budgets reviewed in this opinion series are important elements of governing, but in the end the most precious commitment that all state elected officials make is the oath they take to “support” the Connecticut Constitution.
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