What's in an Executive Order?

Killed bills

Last session, the General Assembly killed two bills which would have allowed childcare and personal care workers to organize. Recently, Gov. Dannel Malloy resurrected them as Executive Orders 9 and 10. But in so doing, the governor usurped legislative power, some lawmakers argue.

Under Executive Order No. 9, certain family child care providers who receive subsidies through the state run Care 4 Kids program may elect a "majority representative" to hold nonbinding discussions with the Department of Social Services regarding quality of care, pay, and benefits. 

Executive Order No. 10 created a seven-member Personal Care Attendant Quality Home Care Workforce Council, comprised of the three state officials and four governor appointees, to study training, retention and compensation for personal care attendants.

 a Republican representing Wilton and parts of Norwalk in the 143rd House district doesn’t support either order. But that’s not the point, she said.

Rather, Lavielle said she’s unsettled about a seeming trend to concentrate power in the executive branch. She referred to the June 30 special session, where Malloy asked the legislature to cede authority to him when it came to deciding how to further cut $1.6 billion from the biennial state budget.

“I find the use of these executive orders to override the legislature's intent even more disturbing than what they actually say, because they fly in the face of the roles assigned by the state constitution to each of the separate branches of government,” Lavielle said. “I've spoken with many people in both parties who find this extremely troubling.”

In a statement released with both Executive Orders, Malloy said that the orders only codify the principle that workers have the right to organize.

"I have said repeatedly that I believe in the rights of workers to organize and collectively bargain, and personal care attendants and family child care providers are often-times the hardest-working, and lowest-paid workers in our job force," Malloy said. 

That may be true, but it pushes the envelope, said  a Democrat representing Fairfield and Westport in the 133rd House district.

“It’s a sort of balancing act,” Fawcett said. “We need to have a strong executive leader who is willing to take a position but at the same time if something was already controversial it was controversial for a reason. He needs to stop and look at it and be more thoughtful and respect the deliberate process of the legislature.”

Andrew McDonald — General Counsel to Malloy and a former state senator representing Darien and Stamford — said it’s incorrect to accuse the governor of overstepping.

“The EOs only address those aspects of the legislation, which pertain to executive branch functions. Those parts which would require legislative action were left out because the legislature did not adopt them,” McDonald said.

That position didn’t stop the Hartford-based grass-roots organization We the People of Connecticut from petitioning the General Assembly on Oct. 17 to hold an “official bipartisan inquiry into the unconstitutionality of Executive Orders 9 and 10, and to take whatever action is necessary to have the Orders amended to conform with the rule of law, or,
 to be rescinded, effective immediately.”

State Rep. Lile Gibbons — a Republican representing Greenwich in the 150th House district — acknowledged that the twin orders simply establish committees at this point, but they send the wrong signal, she said.

“The governor is a union man and I expect to see legislation on our desks Feb. 1. I think this tilts the favor in balance of unionizing these workers,” Gibbons said.

Moreover, Gibbon said she’s puzzled because if the GA eventually voted in favor of either provision, it would add to state workforce at a time when trying to reduce the number of state workers.

Education Cost Sharing

The application for Race to the Top is signed, sealed and on its way. Now legislators are again turning their attention other education issues facing the Nutmeg State, including Education Cost Sharing.

In short, ECS is a formula that determines how money is divided by school district. It is intended to provide equal educational opportunity by considering differences in student need and towns' ability to pay.

But according to Connecticut Voices for Children, “the ECS funding formula uses a measure of wealth that is distorted by outdated and misleading sources of data. It is partially based on a measure of town wealth that uses income data from Census 2000 (1999 income).” 

As such, Malloy appointed a Task Force to examine the issue, which most legislators agree needs fixing.

“Stop tinkering. The state needs a long-term strategy,” Fawcett said.

“It’s a complex complicated formula that everybody knows needs to be overhauled. But the first step is understanding how much it costs to educate a kid. We really don’t know how much it costs.”

Recently, the Stamford delegation held a forum on education, which addressed ECS among other things.

Pilot program

Two lawmakers want to launch a pilot program in Connecticut to hire veterans to perform residential energy efficiency work as part of airport noise mitigation efforts.

There’s a 11.5 percent unemployment rate among veterans nationwide, according to Sen. Carlo Leone (D-Darien/Stamford) and Rep. Timothy Larson (D-East Hartford/South Windsor).

That’s more than two percent higher than the national unemployment rate. Of those, 20 percent of young veterans under age 25 are unemployed. The proposed Leone-Larson program hopes to find jobs for military veterans by adding energy efficiency work to sound abatement projects in neighborhoods near airports.

“The FAA has funding available for residential noise mitigation and there are a lot of similarities with energy efficiency work such as insulation and sealing air leaks that make it a natural fit,” said Larson, who is also executive director of New Haven’s Tweed Airport. “So, we’re saying why don’t we also add funding from existing energy efficiency programs and leverage the opportunity to create jobs for our deserving veterans?”

Leone — program manager at WorkPlace, Inc. in Bridgeport — said the program would benefit the community and make a wise use of federal programs.