Connecticut
Looks like red light cameras are coming to CT. Here’s what the fines will be.
Connecticut moved Tuesday night towards automated traffic enforcement with the Senate voting 27-9 for a bill that would give municipalities a local option to use cameras to issue tickets for speeding and running red lights.
To win final passage in the last 24 hours of the 2023 session, proponents had to overcome concerns raised by the ACLU and NAACP about potential abuses and discriminatory enforcement.
Parents beware: Thousands of teens have lost their lives driving between Memorial Day and Labor Day
“It’s something that has become a little bit contentious and controversial. And because of that, the Transportation Committee membership has really taken a hard look at what automated enforcement should look like in the state of Connecticut,” said Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, the committee co-chair.
Automated enforcement zones would have to be clearly marked, and fines would be capped at $50 for a first offense and $75 for a second offense regardless of a violator’s recorded speed. Speeders would have to be going at least 10 miles per hour over the limit to get an automated ticket.
The speed limit and red light cameras would be limited to school zones, defined pedestrian safety zones and other locations chosen by local officials and approved by the Office of State Traffic Administration. Violations would be handled like a parking ticket, with no points assessed to a driver’s license.
Red light and speed trap cameras across CT? 104 lawmakers say yes.
“I am concerned about Big Brother,” said Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, one of eight Republicans to oppose the bill. “What we’re doing by this bill is we’re giving government yet one more tool to monitor our behavior.”
Sen. Saud Anwar of South Windsor was the only Democrat opposed.
Members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, who had been lobbied by the NAACP to oppose the bill, said minorities often are disproportionately affected by law enforcement but also by uncontrolled speeding in urban neighborhoods.
Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, said he lives near an accident-prone intersection with frequent accidents, including one that left a car on his lawn and another that resulted in a near miss as he returned home with his young twins.
“We all have seen it and lived it,” said Sen. Jorge Cabrera, D-Hamden. “We have to do something.”
Last year was the deadliest on Connecticut roadways in decades, with the deaths of 239 drivers and passengers and 75 pedestrians in 2022.
Camera locations would have to get approved by the DOT every three years, and the local legislative body would have to authorize their use.
Sen. Herron Gaston, D-Bridgeport, said he has been assured by DOT officials they will work with civil rights groups to ensure the automated cameras are not used in a discriminatory fashion.
Gov. Ned Lamont is expected to sign the bill.
Mark Pazniokas is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2023 © The Connecticut Mirror.
Connecticut
CT medicaid managed care study gets pushback from advocates
Providers and advocates renewed their calls to reject a potential return to Medicaid managed care during multiple meetings hosted by the Department of Social Services last week.
The stakeholder meetings were intended to collect feedback on the current state of the Medicaid program as part of the “landscape analysis” that Gov. Ned Lamont charged the department to conduct. The study is meant to explore different Medicaid models, including managed care, which 45 states use in some form for at least part of their Medicaid programs. Connecticut is one of five states that do not.
Lamont’s curiosity about managed care has drawn fierce criticism from some Medicaid providers, advocates and enrollees, who pointed to potential downsides of the model, including reduced access, increased cost and lack of transparency. A handful of participants in last week’s meetings reiterated those concerns.
“We should be very concerned about access to care in the long-term care environment, and managed care would not be an answer to any of those significant issues,” said Matthew Barrett, president of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, during one of the sessions.
David Bednarz, a spokesperson in the governor’s office, said that the study is merely a tool to ensure the state is best serving its Medicaid members, adding that Lamont is not proposing any policy changes as of now.
“This review will provide the administration and the General Assembly with information on whether there are improvements to achieving this goal that could be implemented, and we shouldn’t be afraid of receiving that data. At this time, Governor Lamont is not proposing any policy changes — whether administratively or legislatively — on this topic,” said Bednarz in an emailed statement.
The study report is due by the end of this year, stated Christine Stuart, a DSS spokesperson.
Connecticut used managed care until 2010 but then transitioned to a managed fee-for-service model, where the state pays providers directly for services delivered to Medicaid beneficiaries. In a traditional “capitated managed care” model, the state instead pays a set monthly fee per member to insurance companies to manage the Medicaid program, and the insurance companies pay providers.
States often turn to managed care for increased budget predictability and improvements to quality and access, but according to KFF Health News, its impact on both access and costs is “limited and mixed.”
Other concerns
Some critics of the governor’s plan to study managed care say that the results of last Tuesday’s presidential election make it even more important to defend the Medicaid program.
“We have a ton of work to do to adjust to the changing landscape in Washington and protect the Medicaid program, and certainly as part of that, we have to fulfill our promise to raise rates for providers,” said Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, in an interview with The Connecticut Mirror. “Throwing additional chaos into the program at a time when the very future of the Medicaid program is potentially on the line is unwise and a major unneeded distraction for the Department of Social Services and the administration.”
During President Donald Trump’s first administration, he approved Section 1115 waivers that allowed states to impose certain work requirements for Medicaid eligibility, though many of the approvals were struck down in the courts.
Project 2025, which Democrats tied to Trump policies and future plans on the campaign trail despite the GOP candidate’s insistence he wasn’t tied to it, also includes a proposal to restructure Medicaid as a block grant program, which would cap the amount of federal funding it receives. Currently, the federal government pays a fixed percentage of states’ Medicaid costs, regardless of the amount. Affordable Care Act subsidies that lower the cost of buying a health plan on state exchanges are also set to expire in 2025, unless they are renewed by Congress.
Others have concerns that the study is being conducted by an organization with interests in the managed care industry.
At the beginning of November, over 30 organizations and individuals sent a letter to Lamont criticizing the selection of Manatt, one of the consultants conducting the Medicaid study. According to the advocates, several of Manatt’s clients are Medicaid managed care providers. The firm has also done legal work on behalf of Medicaid Health Plans of America, a trade association of managed care organizations.
“In sum, it is impossible for Manatt to provide an independent, evidence-based assessment of our current nation-leading, efficient managed fee for service Medicaid program,” stated the advocates.
A spokesperson with Manatt did not respond to a request for comment. DSS spokesperson Stuart and Bednarz, the governor’s spokesperson, did not address specific questions about the concerns regarding Manatt.
Connecticut
Employee of Wethersfield group home accused of assaulting resident
An employee of a group home in Wethersfield is accused of assaulting a resident who lives with autism and has been arrested. Police also said two group home employees who are suspected of being involved were fired before the incident was reported to the police.
Police said they were notified around 1:30 p.m. on Oct 30 about an assault that had occurred days earlier at a group home on Eastern Drive in Wethersfield that HARC, Inc. administers.
The group home provides services for people with intellectual and physical disabilities 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to police.
Investigators determined that an employee of the group assaulted a resident several times on Oct. 13, police said.
They said the victim is a 28-year-old woman who lives with autism and is non-verbal. She sustained several head and facial cuts and a closed fracture of the nasal bones.
An ambulance took the victim to the hospital.
Police said they obtained an arrest warrant charging 24-year-old Kendra Demudd, of Hartford, with assault of a person with intellectual disability in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the second degree and cruelty to persons.
She turned herself in to police on Wednesday and she is being held on a $50,000 court-set bond.
Demudd is due in New Britain Superior Court on Wednesday.
Connecticut
Connecticut mom searching for lost necklace that contains son’s ashes
A mother in Connecticut is launching a desperate search for a necklace containing her son’s ashes which she lost while on a beach walk Wednesday.
Leslie Soyland realized that her most prized possession was no longer around her neck after returning home from a stroll at her local Calf Pasture Beach, in Norwalk.
Soyland had worn the necklace for ten years — receiving it at the wake of her son, Johnny, who died at age 27 in a car crash on Oct. 3, 2014, according to Connecticut News 12.
“It’s monetarily not worth much, but sentimentally, it’s everything,” Soyland told News 12.
The jewelry features a small teardrop charm with a heart inside on a 30-inch chain and contains some of her departed son’s cremated remains.
“I just feel like I lost part of – sounds funny but — part of me, you know? And I’m sure there are a lot of people out there that don’t understand it, and probably think it’s strange, but it’s what I had all the time, and it just made me feel close to him, because we were very close,” Soyland told Eyewitness News.
She believes it slipped off her neck when she took a sweatshirt off during her walk on the beach.
The bereft mother says that she traced the steps of her usual 3-mile walk along the coast multiple times in search of the missing piece of personal memorabilia to no avail.
With no luck, she took to Facebook to ask for assistance from locals and was warmed by an overwhelming amount of support.
“There’s been just such an outpouring. I am overwhelmed. I feel so blessed,” Soyland told News 12 while tearing up.
Some neighbors have already made trips to Calf Pasture Beach seeking the lost amulet, according to the outlet — which ran into one such stranger with a metal detector by chance.
“Out of everything bad, something good happens. And the something good is so many people have reached out and so many people have shared things on Facebook and said, ‘Keep your eye out for this. It needs to get back to her.’ That’s touching. That’s an amazing thing,” Soyland told the news station.
Johnny left behind a son when he passed away.
“He was the best father bar none. He was amazing,” his mom said.
The necklace with his ashes has yet to be found.
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