Looney Hails Short Session

Thanks to a little-noticed last-minute decision in Hartford, a woman beaten by her husband may end up staying at home, rather than in a homeless shelter, this coming year.

Another little-noticed action may not actually prevent a cyclist from getting run over by a driver this year — but it may lead to a newly increased fine for that driver, and through deterrence save another cyclist’s life the following year.

That’s the take of New Haven’s most powerful state legislator, Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (pictured), as another annual session of lawmaking ended with its usual all-night scramble this week.

He said some of the decisions that will most directly affect some New Haveners happened quickly, without making many if any headlines or even coming up for public hearings or discrete votes.

In an interview at Geltman’s Deli Friday morning, Looney, the majority leader of the state Senate, took stock of the session, his 34th.

The 13-week session ended late Wednesday night. It was the biennial ​“short” session — 60 percent shorter than on odd-numbered years, when legislators craft two-year budgets. (The short sessions conveniently correspond to state legislative election years, giving lawmakers more time to campaign for reelection.) You have to fight harder to obtain new money in a short session, since that means renegotiating and retweaking the second year of an already-approved budget.

“I am very pleased by what we got done in a short session,” Looney said.

He spoke about some of the big items: Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2017. Crafting a new pre‑K program. Adding $20 million statewide — about $4 million of that for New Haven — to the already-approved increased pot for the Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program. (More on that later in this story.) Those measures dominated headlines for weeks.

Looney spoke just as much about the items that passed at the end of the session with less fanfare. Like a new rule to benefit victims of domestic violence. A measure passed by the legislature will enable victims to obtain not just temporary restraining orders from judges to protect them batterers — but also rent or insurance or utility payments that will enable them to avoid losing their homes and ending up in shelters. Looney said he’s confident that that legal change will have real-life consequences for people.

One reason you may not have heard about this: The legislature didn’t take a separate vote on it. The proposal ended up in a catch-all massive ​“implementer” bill. The legislature passes one of those in the waning hours of each session to cram in as many matters as possible before losing another year and having to start the process over again. The bill covered 314 pages this year, with 260 sections. Democratic and Republican leaders negotiate it in secret; most legislators have maybe 15 minutes to actually look at it and decide how to vote before the gavel comes down on the session. (Click here for a broader look at this year’s version.)

Another lesser-noticed new law that Looney helped shepherd to passage protects ​“vulnerable users” (let’s call them ​“VUs”) — aka cyclists and pedestrians and highway workers and skateboarders who are potential roadkill for drivers. The new law imposes fines on reckless drivers who injure or kill those VUs.

Asked if the measure will lead to a saved life this coming year, Looney said he wasn’t sure. He said he believes it will lead to reckless drivers getting fined — and therefore eventually over time lead to drivers being more careful, sparing lives in the process.

In the fast-changing health care landscape, Looney, a Democrat, worked with Republican state Sen. Len Fasano to produce a law adding new conditions to state approval of conversions of not-for-profit hospitals to for-profit, to take into account community impact. Looney did not succeed in winning an outright moratorium on any new conversions.

He pointed to what he called a more important (and again unnoticed) portion of that new law, one affecting the purchase by hospitals of independent medical practices. Yale-New Haven Hospital, for once, has begun gobbling up private physician practices; they’re disappearing fast. Looney said in some cases that benefits society, when struggling practices would otherwise fail. In other cases it could drive up the cost of care. The new law will require hospitals to obtain a certificate of need in order to acquire a private practice. Organized labor had pushed for that provision.

Looney claimed victory, as well, in starting the process of creating a ​“retirement for all” program. Like his work in the past in creating a state earned income tax credit, this crusade involves pursuing the issue for years, step by step, building support and making the case. This year he and his colleagues passed a $400,000 measure to convene a panel of experts to design a ​“retirement for all” plan that could go into effect in 2016. Modeled after a similar program in California, it would enable people who work for private employers — and don’t receive pension of 401K plans — to sign up for one through the state, with employee contributions administered through payroll deductions. The program would cover employees at smaller businesses, not large employers.

“Many people are going off [an economic] cliff when they retire,” relying solely on social security, Looney said.

Looney is able to take the long view in pushing issues — because he’s been around a long time. He was first elected to the state House 34 years ago. He has been in increasingly powerful roles since then to advance legislative caucuses. Next year he is widely expected to ascend to the position of state Senate president; the current president, Don Williams, is retiring.

One of those long-term battles has involved PILOT, the money cities get back from the state for property-tax revenue they can’t collect from not-for-profits. That’s a crucial issue for New Haven, where close to half of the property is tax-exempt.

The PILOT law authorizes the legislature to send 77 percent of lost revenue back to cities and towns. In practice, it has been sending back only 33 percent of the money lost on hospitals and colleges, 22 percent lost on state-owned property. That’s one reason New Haven struggles each year to avoid tax increases without also slashing public services.

Earlier in the session Looney proposed a fix: Set up new tiers for PILOT reimbursement. Cities like New Haven that have the highest amount of tax-exempt property would be guaranteed at least 50 percent reimbursement. His was one of two big-picture PILOT bills. (The other, by House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, would have enabled cities to start collecting taxes from large not-for-profits like hospitals.) Neither bill passed.

But New Haven did end up with a PILOT boost. Looney helped win approval of a statewide $20 million total increase in PILOT reimbursements, on top of increases already built into the two-year budget passed last session. New Haven gets about $4 million of that $20 million, he said.

What about the criticism, raised by local budget critics like Prospect Hill Alder Michael Stratton, that that’s peanuts compared to what New Haven could be pulling in if PILOT were fully funded? That Looney failed to deliver on the issue?

“No reasonable person would say that,” Looney responded. He said it’s no mean feat to pry another $20 million for PILOT out of an already-approved two-year budget, especially as a projected budget surplus evaporated and future deficits loomed. In fiscal year 2013, New Haven received $35.2 million in PILOT reimbursements for colleges and hospitals, $4.7 million for state-owned property. In fiscal year 2015 it will receive $42.4 million for colleges and hospitals, $6.8 million for state-owned property.

He said he prefers his proposal to Sharkey’s because eliminating colleges and hospitals’ tax-exempt status could have unintended consequences. It could immediately reverse the improved relations between Yale and New Haven. And once exempt property comes back on the rolls, it can turn out to be worth less than previously thought. Right now the state rarely questions assessments of college or hospital property when reimbursing cities under PILOT. The hospitals and colleges have little incentive to challenge the assessments. That could change once they start getting taxed. Looney pointed to one example: when not-for-profit Waterbury’s Post College became for-profit Teikyo Post University. Waterbury anticipated a tax windfall. Then, after the assessments were challenged, the city ended up taking in not much more revenue than it had under PILOT, Looney said.

Passing longer-term fixes like his tiered plan often takes years, he said. He and Sharkey got the conversation going this year. He predicted his bill will get more traction next year, his 35th at the Capitol. He may be in the top spot to make that happen.