Even as Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the Connecticut General Assembly convened once more in special session in an attempt to find a compromise on an overdue budget, a passel of new laws affecting business went into effect.
The laws followed a winter and spring of intense lobbying, with the most prominent bill to emerge being the SustiNet proposal for extending health insurance to all residents in the state, a plan that also aims to reduce health care costs.
On the health front, the state also committed to converting the state insurance pool to a self-funded model while opening it to include employees of small businesses; in theory lowering the premiums they pay.
Those proposals and others brought droves of supporters and opponents to Hartford to speak out on bills, with some legislation dying in committee and others making it to the desk of Gov. M. Jodi Rell for enactment.
Their arguments, pro and con, are encapsulated below along with summaries of laws as analyzed by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, the Office of Legislative Research and other organizations.
As of deadline, Rell had yet to act on asterisked bills, but had not indicated she would veto.
Health and insurance
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PA 09-148:Â Implements SustiNet, a state-run health care plan that aims to provide near-universal health coverage and lower costs.
“Over the years, we have seen a lot of health care reforms proposed here. Many times they were written in a vacuum without a doctor in the room. They contained some interesting ideas but many of those ideas wouldn’t work in the doctors’ offices across Connecticut. That”™s not the case with (SustiNet).” ”“ Dr. Michael Derren, chairman, Connecticut State Medical Society
“I would caution you about being less cautious about expenditures because they occur in (later) years. Just because we don’t have to put them in the budget this year, doesn”™t mean we won’t have to pay the piper somewhere down the road.” ”“ Robert Genuario, secretary, Connecticut Office of Policy and Management
PA 09-147: Opens the state employee health pool to small businesses and other groups in an attempt to limit premium inflation for those businesses.
“Our office ”¦ (traveled) around the state to speak to small-business owners about the possibility of small businesses joining in the state health insurance pool. I will tell you that there was overwhelming and enthusiastic support for that idea; once people learned about the bill, they wanted to sign up for that insurance yesterday.” ”“ Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut Secretary of State
PA 09-46: Requires health insurance carriers to disclose the medical loss ratio of medical claims to earned premiums.
“The legislation should also go further to protect consumers (by) establishing a minimum medical loss ratio using public insurance as the reference (and) requiring insurers to provide refunds to consumers if they exceed (the) threshold.” ”“ Rich Sivel, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
“Medical loss ratio (MLR) is a metric that bears little relationship to the quality of a health insurance product and should not be used by consumers as an indicator of value ”¦ Because smaller pools are less stable than larger pools, (insurers) often pool those risks and cross-subsidize the medical risks. So in any given year one product may experience a high MLR, while another product experiences a rather low one.” ”“ Christine Cappiello, director of government relations, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield
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PA 09-49: Permits patients and doctors under some circumstances to request an expedited external appeal of a coverage denial from their health insurance carrier when the internal appeal process has been exhausted.
“This bill provides physicians with the necessary tools to advocate for their patients”™ medically necessary care, when a health insurer or other entity may initially deny such medical care. A physician”™s determination what is and is not medically necessary is paramount to ensuring quality patient medical care.” ”“ Matthew Katz, executive vice president, Connecticut State Medical Society
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PA 09-115: Mandates health insurers cover certain autism and autism spectrum-related care services.
“Autism is first and foremost a medical condition ”¦ Its treatment should be covered by insurance, just as any other medical condition is. Make no mistake, families with autism have insurance. We pay insurance premiums. The fact that we are being denied services that should be covered under insurance plans is nothing short of discrimination.” ”“ Shannon Knall, Connecticut advocacy chair, Autism Speaks
PA 09-124: Mandates that health insurers cover services provided to stepchildren.
“I have been contacted by many constituents who are currently having this problem. In some cases when a couple marries and one of the spouses chooses to add a stepchild to their insurance plan, it happens without much fanfare. In other instances they are met with many challenges.” ”“ Rep. Andres Ayala, Bridgeport
PA 09-179: Launches a review of all health-benefit mandates in Connecticut to determine their costs and benefits.
“Although many of us enjoy those benefits, it may be a time when we have to look very carefully at it and see the reality of the circumstances that we”™re in.” ”“ Sen. Toni Boucher, Wilton
“The bill is unnecessary and fiscally irresponsible because the legislature can obtain the same analysis during the legislative process.” ”“ Karen Vanderhoof-Forschner, president, Lyme Disease Foundation
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PA 09-136: Mandates that health care plans cover certain prescription eye-drop refills.
“It is not easy to be sure that every drop in the bottle actually gets into your eye, and it is not easy to be sure you have enough medicine in the bottle to last the time it is supposed to, and I spend too much time worrying about my eye drops and going blind ”¦ When I first started on eye drops, which was about 14 years ago, this medication that I was on ”¦ was referred to as liquid gold ”“ very expensive.” ”“ Bill Rumley, Newington
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PA 09-126: Allows an employer to not pay for a terminated worker”™s health insurance premiums in most cases and requires the carrier to credit the employer any prorated premium paid on behalf of such employee.
“We have sort of a dichotomy that exists ”¦ if you are a business with 50 or more employees and you have an employee quit or terminated, at that point in time the health insurance payments stop and the employee can go on COBRA ”¦ If you are a small business with 50 or less employees, that doesn”™t happen. You are obligated to pay that insurance through the month or however, whatever period of time the employee was terminated or quit through the end of that month. And on a small business owner, that can be $1,000.” ”“ Rep. Diana Urban, Stonington
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PA 09-206: Requires the state to create a pharmaceutical bulk purchasing plan to lower costs for participants in the state”™s public health insurance programs, including HUSKY, SAGA, Charter Oak and ConnPACE.
“We”™re concerned that (the bill) would impose cost criteria rather than health-care criteria as the basis for deciding what medicine a patient could have.” ”“ Marjorie Powell, senior assistant general counsel, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
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PA 09-103: Prohibits the manufacture, sale or distribution of any reusable food or beverage container containing bisphenol-A (BPA); and prohibits the substance”™s use in containers that store baby food.
“We do have safer alternatives for these products ”¦ I brought some BPA-free liquid and powder from Similac today. I also brought some plastic baby bottles that do not contain BPA. This one was purchased for just 98 cents a block away from my house … So we”™re not talking about breaking down industries. We”™re just talking about shifting to what we know is safer and what we know works.” ”“ Sarah Uhl, environmental health coordinator, Clean Water Action
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“There is already a very wide safety margin built into the products that contain bisphenol-A on the consumer market ”¦ A 22-pound baby would have to drink 423 four-ounce bottles a day before it actually reached (the) safety level that was set by the European Food Safety Authority.” ”“ Bonnie Bettoncourt, American Chemistry Council
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PA 09-59: Provides immunity from damages in a lawsuit for acts arising out of negligence in not having or improperly using a cardiac defibrillator.
“Does anybody in this room know where the nearest defibrillator is, and the nearest person who knows, how to operate one? It”™s just a question ”“ I”™m bringing it up to make a rhetorical point, I suppose.” ”“ Dr. Jonathan Greenwald, cardiologist, Norwalk Hospital
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*PA 09-222: Makes it a crime for third-party “runners” to attempt to procure a patient for a legal firm or health clinic, with the goal of tapping insurance benefits.
“Runners operate by going to the police station and getting all the previous days accident reports so they can identify who the victims of accidents are, and then solicit them to take them for treatment ”¦Â Sometimes people are taken who may not have medical problems and then, obviously, that would lead to fraudulent claims being made.” ”“ Kathy Emmett, president, Connecticut Trial Lawyers
Real estate, development and construction
PA 09-60: Effective July 1, allows municipalities to postpone property revaluation schedules until 2011.
“It just simply doesn”™t make sense in this time of volatile housing values to have this revaluation mandate just continue on autopilot.” ”“ Gian Carl Casa, director of public policy and advocacy, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities
“This proposal if adopted has the potential to create complete chaos regarding the rescheduling of future municipal revaluations ”¦ may not be enough reval company technicians available to assist the assessor in the proper way.” ”“ Tony Homicki, president, Northeast Regional Assessors Association
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HB 6097: Protects developers from liability for contamination that escapes from a brownfield before they acquired it; sets a deadline for decontaminating a property, but allows property to be used while undergoing long-term, groundwater monitoring and remediation.
“Many of these towns would like to develop these old mills. They stand empty. They are eyesores. They can be put back on the tax rolls and provide exactly the kind of housing that we need.” ”“ David Fink, policy director, Partnership for Strong Communities
*PA 09-236: Creates a pilot program for municipalities under which they can prepare plans for taxing land at a higher rate than buildings.
“For the entire time I”™ve lived (in Stamford) there”™s been a 4.3 acre hole in the ground … Even the assessor”™s database calls it ”˜the hole in the ground.”™ And right across the street is the Marriott that you see as you drive through on 95. It”™s a comparable-sized piece of land. It provides jobs, it provides hotel rooms, meals, parking, a whole variety of things that the market wants, and yet we tax it more than we tax this hole in the ground. And the incentives that we”™ve got have just not moved the owner of this hole in the ground to put it to good use.” ”“ Wyn Achenbaum, Stamford
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*PA 09-181: Allows developers more time to complete certain projects by resetting
statutory deadlines municipal agencies may impose on projects approved between July 1, 2006 and July 1, 2009.
“Markets are quiet, to put it as an understatement; lending is more difficult even for approved projects. Having to go back and redo those applications if they expire is a very expensive proposition. This is again a temporary extension that will allow markets and lending practices to essentially catch up with existing approvals. It will provide a necessary dose of certainty to approved projects so that they know they won”™t expire before the market has a chance to come back, and it will prevent the undoing of a number of literally hundreds of approvals across the state.” ”“ Bill Ethier, CEO, Home Builders Association of Connecticut
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*PA 09-202: Establishes a tax credit for between 5 percent and 10 percent of the construction or renovation costs of certified “green” buildings; and allows the tax credits to be sold to other parties. The state is initially authorized to issue up to $25 million in tax credits.
“Despite the growing adoption of green-buildings standards by the public sector, the private sector is still facing some barriers to wide-scale adoption ”¦ This (bill) is very similar to tax credit programs that exist in Maryland, New York, Oregon and New Mexico.” ”“ Charles Rothenberger, staff attorney, Connecticut Fund for the Environment
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*PA 09-192: Clarifies existing law regarding buildings meeting construction standards for thermal conservation and mechanical systems.
“A code that is consistent (and) coordinated is an enforceable code.” ”“ Fred Wajcs, senior energy engineer, Connecticut Light & Power
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*PA 09-165: Requires regional planning organizations to create a pre-application review process for those seeking approval from state or local agencies for development projects deemed to have regional importance.
“The pre-application process to vet their merit seems appropriate to us.” ”“ Martin Mador, legislative chair, Connecticut Sierra Club
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*PA 09-231: Enables multiple municipalities that are part of the same federal economic development district to share tax revenues from new economic development.
“Not every ”˜regional”™ program works region-wide. That there are initiatives that can be done on multi-town basis, but that can”™t necessarily be done throughout the region.” ”“ Rep. Brendan Sharkey, Hamden
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“You don”™t want just two municipalities at the far edges of the economic development district joining to revenue share, and omitting the participation of the heart of the economic development district.” ”“ Bill Cibes, advisory board chair, Home Connecticut
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PA 09-196: Allows assessors to obtain net income and expense data in determining the value of income-producing property; and requires them to determine the value of large properties through a comparison to sales of similar properties regardless of their locations.
“We have a lot of small businesses that don”™t have the larger, more-valuable land parcels or personal property, etcetera, and they are blocked out of those hearings because they are commercial property but they don”™t have that higher figure right now. Lowering it would give them the same opportunity that a lot of the larger employers have.” ”“ Bonnie Stewart, vice president of government affairs, Connecticut Business and Industry Council
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*PA 09-141: Intended to speed the development of brownfield sites along waterways where industrial mills were located.
“Connecticut”™s restrictions are more restrictive then several of the surrounding states ”¦Â (which) actually refer to the (Federal Emergency Management Agency) guidelines … Connecticut guidelines require the 500-year flood elevation, whereas FEMA is based on the 100 year. That difference, again, can result in ”¦ considerable cost differences in the rehabilitation of these mill sites, and in some cases, prohibits them.” ”“ Kent Schwendy, principal, Fuss & O”™Neill
Business regulation
*PA 09-239: Broadens the definition of identity theft; increases the penalties when the victim is 60 or older; allows the victim to sue for damages in more situations, extends the statute of limitations from two to three years; and specifies that damages include lost wages and any financial loss resulting from the identity theft.
“An individual is probably better off getting mugged than they are being the victim of identity theft, because when someone gets mugged, it ends. It”™s over and you can move on with your life ”¦ I prosecuted a number of these (identity theft) cases and came to know from the victims firsthand how painful it is.” ”“ John Danaher III, commissioner, Connecticut Department of Public Safety
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PA 09-83: Increases the penalty on “foreign” companies doing business in Connecticut without registering with the secretary of state, from $165 to $300 monthly.
“If a consumer or a person in our state would like to file a lawsuit, we (need to) know where that business entity exists. The attorney general and I have worked together to go after foreign corporations that have not properly registered, and we have raised over $3 million in fines.” ”“ Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz
PA 09-19: Requires the state when proposing new regulations to publish an analysis of the expected fiscal impact on small businesses.
“If I”™m the (Department of Environmental Protection), and I”™m going to do something that regulates flower shops, I don”™t have to go around and identify every flower shop and see what”™s going to happen, if they can do this or can”™t do that. But I do need to contact a few, ask them to come sit down with us for a couple hours, help us understand what the impact is, and then write up a summary of that ”¦Â I don’t think it”™s an unreasonable burden that we”™re talking about here.” ”“ Eric Brown, associate counsel, Connecticut Business and Industry Association
PA 09-55: Adopts provisions of the Model Business Corporation Act to make Connecticut”™s business law statutes more uniform with those in other states.
“Connecticut is a small state with relatively little corporate case law, so case law from other states can provide valuable insight to assist those in interpreting our statute.” ”“ Henry Beck, vice chair of the business law section, Connecticut Bar Association
Banking and finance
*PA 09-207: Makes residential mortgage fraud a crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines; changes the definition of the non-prime home-loan interest rate; and permits the banking commissioner to determine if certain mortgage professional license applications are abandoned.
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*PA 09-209: Implements the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE), mandating conditions on licensing for mortgage professionals; creates a system for tracking the owners of up-to-four-family dwellings obtained through foreclosure and allows towns to enforce any statute or municipal ordinance governing the repair or maintenance of real estate.
“The foreclosure problem begins with a family that loses its home and its shelter. It progresses to an empty house on a block. That empty house on the block depresses the property values of the homes surrounding it, and eventually as more foreclosures take place can affect the values in the entire community and eventually roll up into a challenge to the economy of this state.” ”“ Tim Bannon, president, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority
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PA 09-161: Extends protections granted to commercial revolving loans secured by a mortgage to all commercial future advance loans secured by mortgages. Under current law, so long as certain standards are met, revolving loans that are secured by a mortgage have priority over other claims ”“ known as a “safe harbor” provision. The legislation extends those provisions to mortgage-backed loan accounts that do not “revolve.”
“A revolving feature involves a situation where, let”™s say for a loan of $100,000 the lender may advance $50,000 at once and then perhaps $20,000 a little bit after that, and if the borrower then pays back, say, $30,000 of that particular loan ”¦ We just feel that there”™s no need to distinguish between the protection given to a revolving open-end commercial loan and a non-revolving commercial loan.” ”“ John Anderson, CATIC Financial Inc.
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*PA 09-193: Expands the definition of racketeering under the Corrupt Organizations and Racketeering Activity Act (CORA) to include violations by broker-dealers of the federal Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act; and makes CORA applicable to securities fraud and related offenses under the Uniform Securities Act.
“I suspect that these cases may well have far more at stake than most drug-asset forfeiture cases ”¦ and may be necessary because of the complicated nature of those prosecutions and investigations.” ”“ Paul Murray, deputy chief state”™s attorney for operations
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PA 09-100: Authorizes the banking commissioner to process applications for “expedited” banks.
“It would be a valuable tool in attracting business and economic development to our region during this difficult time.” ”“ Alan Chichetti, deputy commissioner, Connecticut Department of Banking
PA 09-48: Requires insurance carriers to furnish the Department of Insurance an auditor”™s statement annually on the soundness of their derivatives transactions such as swaps, options, and futures.
“This is actually a provision that we looked at and we extracted from a very extensive New York insurance law dealing with assessments and oversight for investments.” ”“ Beth Cook, counsel, Connecticut Department of Insurance
Utilities
PA 09-31: Requires owners of residential buildings to give utilities and heating-fuel
dealers access to meters and other facilities on their premises, and establishes verification requirements for the termination of residential utility service.
“Presently we have two alternatives. One of them is to hire an attorney, basically go to court and get a court order; a sheriff. That takes a lot of time to get access. It”™s very costly … The other alternative is very drastic. And that is to terminate service to the entire building in a multifamily dwelling.” ”“ George Balsamo, meter security manager, United Illuminating Co.
Environment
PA 09-56: Requires only professionals to apply pesticides at day-care centers, and imposes parental notification requirements on pesticide applications.
“There was no provision ”¦ for a trained applicator inside where the kids, you know, are all the time clawing around, playing with things. There was no information about who could ”“ like if they see a wasp, they could take a can of Raid and spray it around to try to kill the wasp. There was no control over that.” ”“ Dr. Jerry Silbert, Guilford
Retail
PA 09-2: Extends the bottle bill to containers of water and flavored water, but not juice and mineral water.
“It will help out a very serious litter problem, of which water bottles are one of the main culprits that are seen scattered throughout our landscape.” ”“ Ann Berman, chair, Environmental Concerns Coalition
“My company is not against every bottle bill ”¦ What we oppose is perpetuating a bottle recycling system that operates as if the rest of those products in the house, that are made of the same plastic and glass and materials that our products are, (don”™t) exist. ”“ Brian Flaherty, director of public affairs, Nestlé Waters North America
PA 09-129: Requires retailers to allow some individuals access to their employee restrooms under certain circumstances.
“Almost identical legislation already exists in Illinois, Texas, Maryland, Minnesota, Tennessee and Colorado. The experience in those states has been that there has not been any undue burden on retailers. What this has done is sort of raise the consciousness of retailers, so that patients can get access to sanitary facilities when they need them.” ”“ Jennifer Jaff, executive director, Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness
“While I understand and appreciate the good intentions behind this bill, I also know that requiring commercial facilities to open their restrooms to the public, even under the narrow construction of this bill, has broad implications ”¦ Many retailers in ”˜Main Street”™ locations have restrooms that are located in the basement or in the stockroom area of their building, not always easily accessible from the selling floor. Opening these restaurants to the public raises serious and expensive liability concerns.” ”“ Tim Phelan, president, Connecticut Retail Merchants Association
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PA 09-50: Revises laws concerning compensation and terminated contracts between auto dealers, manufacturers and distributors.
“This bill will set new and fair rules between the manufacturers and local car dealerships by ensuring that if a dealer is forced out of business, he gets his investment back from the manufacturer.” ”“ Jeff Aiosa, chairman, Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association
Human resources and personnel
PA 09-13: Redefines “marriage” to entitle gay couples who wed to the same rights and benefits as heterosexual spouses.
“Marriage has a secular dimension. It”™s supported with special benefits according to civil law. These are designed to weave together a social network that supports a couple and whatever children grow up in their care.” ”“ Obadiah Ballinger, New Haven
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PA 09-70: Permits an employee to take up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave from work to care for an immediate family member who is in the military.
“I know firsthand the difficulties of balancing a military life with one”™s civilian and school life.” ”“ Staff Sgt. Derek Egerman, Connecticut Air National Guard
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PA 09-101: Prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on gender in compensation; and creates civil penalties for employers who refuse employees access to their personnel files.
“We receive complaints from individuals alleging violations of the personnel file statute, which provides access to their personnel files ”¦ We believe the potential for civil penalty will help move these matters forward.” ”“ John McCarthy, Connecticut Department of Labor
“However many employers that you hear may be offending this law, I think they”™re probably a small fraction in comparison to the overall numbers of employers in the state. So I don”™t know that imposing a potential fine against every one that makes some technical violation of this complex law is well-advised.” ”“ Kia Murrell, Connecticut Business and Industry Association
PA 09-104: Allows companies performing construction on some public works projects to present sufficient evidence of workers”™ compensation insurance as an alternative to producing a physical certificate of insurance.
“Approximately 32 percent of our licensees, current licensees, renew their licenses on line. So this information can be fairly easily captured as part of that electronic process with no further cost ”“ no further fuss or muss to the state.” ”“ Jerry Farrell Jr., commissioner, Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection
