Releasing Convicts Early, Illegal Immigrants' Tuition Deplored by GOP

Prison inmates are more likely to be released early, illegal immigrants will pay in-state tuition rates at Connecticut public universities, and a new sick-leave law is full of loopholes allowing employees to abuse it and making it even more difficult for businesses in the state, area lawmakers said at a recent public meeting.

State Sen. Toni Boucher, along with state representatives Gail Laveille of Wilton and John Hetherington of New Canaan—all in the Republican minority in the state Legislature—met Thursday with constituents in Wilton Library. They discussed a number of the that will soon be signed into law.

Sick Leave Law

The “has been viewed by businesses as a bill that hurts them,” said Lavielle, whose 134th House district covers part of Norwalk. She cited her own experience with “250 businesses” which she said gathered before the Labor Committee to protest the bill.

“As a concept, it sounds good,” said Hetherington, who represents the 125th House district. “It’s in the details” where the problems happen. He said that lack of need for a doctor’s note, and there being no defined requirement for treatment, may cause some workers to take off from work to simply “meditate,” or treating an ‘illness’ with “going to the beach” to be healed.

“Theoretically, it would be okay under the bill,” he said.

“When a businesses comes to Connecticut, it’s not a certainty; it’s high stakes gambling,” said Lavielle, voicing her discontent with the repercussions the bill might have on future business prospectors. She also said the bill was written with “gray, fuzzy,” and “hard-to-define” language.

The sick leave bill requires businesses of more than fifty employees to provide for its workers one hour of paid sick leave for every forty hours worked.

Live Here, Learn Here

Boucher praised the which allows students who have graduated from a state college  and have been a state resident for five years to deposit up to $2,500 of state income tax liability, annually for 10 years. The bill has been seen as one part of curbing young people's flight from the state.

“Eighteen to 34 year-olds leave Connecticut in much larger numbers than other states, and that’s a serious problem,” she said.

Early Prisoner Release 

Hetherington criticized the good-behavior legislation which permits the reduction of an inmate’s prison sentence and allows inmates to be eligible for early release for good behavior.

Hetherington said that the bill to be omitted, providing for an example that crimes involving the “sexual abuse of children” and “several kinds of rape” would allow offenders to be released earlier. 

In-the-Works Transgender Anti-Discrimination Law

Hetherington broke from the Powerpoint script to go on a tangent about a new transgender anti-discrimination legislation in the works.

 According to Hetherington, a person who doesn’t have a sex change operation but who feels to be a member of the opposite sex would be included in the bill.

 “What if I woke up today and I feel like a Native American—I just know somewhere inside I’m a Native American?” he said. “Where does that lead us?”

Hetherington also felt that the bill would affect “locker rooms” and “bathrooms,” possibly because the bill, according to Hetherington, might include those who have not had a sex change operation access those areas.

Public Space Immunity Laws

Lavielle praised the passing of a legislation protecting towns from certain town-owned public properties from lawsuits resulting from injury to those using the property.

“The whole reason [that these laws were enacted] happened in Wilton 15 years ago,” said Lavielle.

“In 1996, someone fell over in a tennis court, sued the town, lost, appealed it and won…. A precedent was set.”

“This immunity will now be restored…. That’s great for things like the Norwalk River Valley Trail, and further acquisition of open space for the town,” she said. She felt he law would aid in “protecting our states from frivolous law suits.”

Under current law, Land Trusts are still protected by immunity and this does not appear to be changed.

In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants

Boucher said a bill who have attended high school or received a GED in the nutmeg state was “not cost neutral.” She said that there were “about 200 people” who would benefit from the law.

She criticized the act, saying that “if someone is illegal” they can receive emergency room health care and receive a college education.

 “We are becoming more and more a state of dependent people…. And fewer and fewer [people are] paying for what that dependence costs.”

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