Whew….where has the time gone! These first 18 months blew by and it will already be election time in 4 months.  I will be running again and there’s a lot of good stuff to run on. This second year of being First Selectman has been particularly busy and a lot has been accomplished.

I promised all through my campaign to lead a fiscally responsible effort and that’s been accomplished. This year we actually lowered taxes by 2.5% without cutting services and still added extra dollars to our capital fund.  (The previous year we kept the budget flat.)

In response to the high salts and chlorides that’s been in the town’s well water, we continue to make progress on putting potable water from Town wells into Town buildings. Through research and action we are going to achieve it this year.

Just this last week we installed an air monitor to measure baseline air quality in preparation of the Cricket Valley Power Plant starting up. After the plant opens for business, we will continue measuring and make a comparison to see if our Sherman air quality is adversely affected.

Throughout my term I have tried as hard as I possibly can to be responsive to the day-to-day needs of our citizens. Along the way, I have directed traffic, weed whacked grass for better sight-lines, hauled dead animals out of yards and driveways, and even chased cows a couple of times.  Our Town entities are better coordinated now, our Town employees are working well together, and it all makes for more efficient and effective services for our citizens. In addition, many people have remarked to me that they appreciate the town having a less “political” feel to it. If I helped in any of that good vibe, then I am pleased. Through NIXLE and social media I have done my best to communicate emergencies and other sudden public announcements concerning the health and well-being of Sherman residents. Not only has our Housing Commission been reinvigorated, but other boards and commissions are robust with wonderful volunteers who donate their valuable time to make Sherman the wonderful place it is to live.

I have continued to try and find ways to better serve the Sherman Senior citizens by increasing the budget for them and also by trying to find a new space for the Senior Center. But this remains a challenge. Another challenge will be to re-imagine Happy Acres Farm. I have already put the wheels into action on that and by the fall there should be a tangible plan on how to go forward.  In the meantime, we are painting both the house and barn, and making essential repairs on the barn.

All of the accomplishments that I have listed are the result of teamwork with Sherman citizens of all parties, ages, and social structures involved. If there’s one thing that I can truly lay claim to is that I am pretty good at getting folks to work together for the good of the Town.  This job has been the honor of my life!

Heat Buckled Highway 

Increases in potentially lethal heat driven by climate change will affect every state, including Connecticut, in the decades ahead, according to a July 16, 2019 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The report found that historically, Connecticut has averaged about 10 days per year with a heat index above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. That would increase to 40 days per year on average by 2050 if no action is taken to reduce heat-trapping emissions. The days with a heat index above 100 degrees Fahrenheit would increase to 13 per year on average and CT’s larger cities would experience the highest frequency of these days.The heat index is what we feel the temperature to be when we factor in relative humidity.

Heat cramps, caused by the loss of body salts and fluids during sweating, can be painful. Heat exhaustion is how the body responds to loss of water and fluids from heavy sweating. Symptoms include headaches, nausea, dizziness, weakness, thirst, and heavy sweating. The most serious is heat stroke, which happens when the body gets so hot it cannot regulate its core temperature. People going into a heat stroke stop sweating, so their bodies cannot get rid of the excess heat,  Chart below is from *1  and indicates four heat index ranges with their corresponding physiological problems.

On Saturday, July 20th, Danbury reported a record high heat index of 105 degrees.

Tracy Babbidge, who works in the air control division of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), said the study serves as a “good reminder for us to review that we are doing everything we can and should be doing to deal with the issues of climate change and reducing emissions.”  Current climate change is mostly caused by the fossil fuel emissions that increase atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide. Note that “Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get.”

Babbidge said that Connecticut is enrolled in the Global Warming Solutions Act, which many refer to as Connecticut’s central climate commitment. It requires the state to reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions to at least 10% below 1990 levels by 2020, and to at least 80% below 2001 levels by 2050.

The number of high heat-index days was calculated by averaging projections from 18 high-resolution climate models between April and October. The report looked at these conditions for three possible futures.

The “no action scenario” assumes carbon emissions continue to rise and the global average temperature increases nearly 8 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels by century’s end.

The “slow action scenario” assumes carbon emissions start declining at mid century and the global average temperature rises 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit by century’s end. In the “rapid action scenario,” global average warming is limited to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit — in line with the Paris Agreement.

The report states if the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement is met and future global average warming is limited to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, by late century the United States would see half the number of days per year, on average, with a heat index above 105 degrees Fahrenheit, and almost 115 million fewer people would experience the equivalent of a week or more of “off-the-charts” heat days.

Connecticut is a member of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

On June 1, 2017, President Donald Trump declared his intention to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement. The U.S. can’t exit the agreement until Nov. 2020, the day after the next presidential election.

Editor’s note: Sections of this article were from a scientific blog  and an article in the CT News Junkie.
*1 – Click here to see additional weather bio-indices. 

On Jan 26th, our new State Senator Julie Kushner held her first “Community Conversation” with Sherman area residents at Charter Hall. Chaired by long-time SDTC member Barbara Ireland, all Shermanites, regardless of their politics, were invited to dialog with Julie.

If you missed the conversation or just want to experience it again, then click here to see the video.

Julie’s Committees

Senator Kushner began by describing her first days in the State Senate. She will Co-Chair the Labor Committee, serve as Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Environment, and will be a member of the Housing, Transportation,Education, Appropriations, and Executive and Legislative NominationsCommittees. . .

Life of a Bill

Julie described how bills are introduced, discussed, and acted upon. After a bill is introduced, committees may hold public hearings during which residents may appear or send in written comments. For more information, click here to find a bill of interest and whom to contact. Or ask Julie..Julie has already co-sponsored about 50 bills!

Bills of Note

Senator Julie talked about bills of special concern to her. First and foremost is her signature issue which she introduced,.the paid family leave bill (SB1), To read the bill, click here. It allocates 12 weeks leave at full pay for a new child and for illness in family members. Funded through a payroll tax, most Connecticut workers (also potentially self-employed workers) are covered. Elections matter! Our Republican State Representative, Richard Smith, voted against the bill.

She also co-sponsored the Minimum Wage Bill (SB2) which would raise the minimum from $10.10/hour to $15 over the next few years. To read the bill, click here. Our neighboring states, New York and Massachusetts, have minimum wages much higher than Connecticut’s. Again, Representative Smith voted against the increase.. An audience member then expressed concern about this legislation on small businesses and, went on to describe other needs of small businesses.

Of special interest to Sherman, Senator Kushner introduced SB585, which requires an air quality study in towns that may be impacted by the nearby, soon-to-open, Cricket Valley gas burning power plant.. To read the bill, click here. An air quality monitoring station is now operating at Kent School,The bill adds state support for using the data for longitudinal studies. An audience member wanted the Connecticut Attorney General, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the Department of Health to also address this issue.

Julie: More State Revenue, Not Less Spending

Sherman First Selectman Don Lowe raised concerns about proposals to consolidate auto and property tax collections by the state. To read the bill, click here. He felt they would negatively impact small towns such as Sherman.

Julie commented, “We don’t have a spending problem in CT, we have a revenue problem. We have to ask our super-wealthy people to put more in.” We need an equitable way to bring in revenue, she elaborated, balancing the resources and needs of small and big towns, of richer and poorer people. One source of potential revenue is from currently un-taxed property owned by not-for-profit organizations such as hospitals. Reform of tax laws, she added, must be addressed in a holistic way, not piecemeal..

Schools

Several audience members raised concerns about the impact of the proposed regionalization of small school districts. How do we ensure that the needs of students take precedence over cost efficiency, while still making the system more efficient through regionalizing services such as special education, supervision, and high level management? Other speakers voiced support for UConn, asked about the proposed consolidation of community colleges and state university branches, wanted more development of trade schools, apprenticeship programs, and adult programs at schools such as Abbott Tech. Some were concerned with the statewide issue of funding teachers’ retirement plans. “We need to address this issue,” said Julie, “without threatening them.”

The Six Underfunded State Sponsored Post-Employment Benefit Plans

Another discussion focused on the problem of funding these plans. Julie said that Connecticut is in the middle of U.S. states with respect to what it offers new retirees, yet it has the third worst funding ratio for its biggest fund. Because the problem was long in the making (almost 100 years), it will be long in the fixing. State payments into the system will rise until 2023 then drop; by about 2032, the State will be in “a strong position,” and by about 2045 pensions will be fully funded. It’s a balance between becoming solvent without being too hard on state employees, who have already “given up more than $17,000 in wages and benefits”. One audience member observed, “People focus on how much we are spending on ‘state workers,’ forgetting they are really talking about spending on the services that the state delivers.”

Supplementing the above, a fresh approach is being undertaken that has other states interested. In lieu of cash, the state may donate some of its real assets as an in-kind contribution to its pension funds.

Audience Concerns 

The “conversation” with the audience continued. While many attendees asked questions or raised concerns to Julie, more often the questions served as a springboard for discussions within the audience. In several instances, audience members made plans for longer term interactions and joint projects among themselves.

Other issues raised by participants included:
•    Invasive species in Candlewood Lake
•    A proposed program for universal testing of children for dyslexia  
•    The impact of road salting on water quality
•    Investing in infrastructure, and in particular, in developing east-west public transportation in Connecticut
•    The problem of wage theft
•    Addressing the impact of the then-ongoing shutdown of the federal government in Connecticut.

To contact Julie,visit her site by clicking here. Or call her legislative assistant, Javier Smith, at 860-240-0509, or 1-800-842-1420. To sign up for Julie’s e-newsletter, click here.

With these issues warmed-up, the next conversation with Julie, this Saturday, March 16th at 1 pm, should be a lively one!

On February 27th, the Sherman Board of Selectman approved a resolution to oppose the establishment of tolls in CT. First Selectman Lowe said tolls::

• Financially penalize low-income individuals
• Are among the least efficient taxation devices
• Will increase local traffic as drivers circumvent the toll-roads

Currently, two bills in the House (HB’s) one in the Senate (SB) have been introduced to address highway tolls:

• To (1) require the Commissioner of Transportation to submit a tolling proposal to the General Assembly; and (2) create the Connecticut Transportation Finance Authority (HB07280). This bill requires a vote in both houses within 15-days of the Committee hearing, if not, the bill is automatically approved by the General Assembly.
• To exempt low-income residents from paying tolls in the event electronic tolling is implemented in the state (HB06968)
• To establish electronic tolls on major highways and raise revenue for transportation infrastructure projects.(SB00102)

Also click here to read the 500-page report submitted to the then Governor-Elect Lamont by his transportation advisory panel.

The map below is from that report according to www.notollsct.org which shows 83 possible toll locations in red dots.The report itself does not recommend implementing that many.

Last Wednesday, March 6th, hundreds of proponents and opponents descended on the state Capitol for the hearing on electronic highway tolls.

“We’ve got to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century, and we’ve got to do it now,” said Governor Lamont, who was joined by scores of toll supporters at the Legislative Office Building. “This is about jobs…This is so key to economic growth and opportunity in this state.. ”, as reported in the Hartford Courant. It also said “Lamont’s budget calls for tolling all vehicles on I-95, I-91, I-84 and Route 15….The precise locations of the gantries and the tolling rates have not been determined. State residents with an E-ZPass would receive a discount of at least 30 percent, according to Lamont’s budget.” Lamont ran on a plan for tolls only on tractor-trailer trucks but now says that would not raise enough to fix Connecticut’s roads and bridges.

Almost all Republican legislators are against it and propose an alternative, a 30-year, $65 billion plan that would rely on state bonding to fix CT infrastructure. In his budget proposal, Some legislators want to wait to see how much funding Connecticut receives from the federal government for infrastructure improvements before making any moves on tolls. The Federal Highway Administration has already said Connecticut is in “new territory,” because no other state has undertaken tolling existing highways – and certainly not all the existing highways.

Clearly, this issue challenges Connecticut residents to weigh the benefit of the whole population against individual disadvantage.

Connecticut Democrats won big in November, reelecting Chris Murphy to the U.S. Senate, Jahana Hayes to the U.S. House of Representatives, Ned Lamont to the Governorship and Julie Kushner to the State Senate.

The State Senate, which had been split 19-19 in the last session, now has 23 Democrats to 13 Republicans. The new Senate has a record 13 women, all but one of them Democrats.

On January 9th, Julie took the Senate seat held by Republicans since 1992 and on which Mike McLachlan sat for the past decade. Julie’s large victory over her fellow Danbarian is due to a big Danbury margin. In Sherman, she fell 26 votes (49.3%) short of winning, a better result than the same Democratic effort two years ago. Kushner’s campaign focused on expanding health care access, pay equity and paid family leave to attract and retain more people in the state and to stabilize Connecticut’s financial future. Whereas McLachlan, one of the Legislature’s most conservative members, campaigned on sharp cuts to the state budget and more limited government.

Now Julie faces the real work of turning election hopes into ongoing policy. Early in January, just before the legislative session began, the SDTC Newsletter talked with our new State Senator (and her knowledgeable husband, Larry) about her early impressions and intentions for the job.
Julie Kushner (right) is sharing her experiences and plans with SDTC Newsletter staff (counterclockwise) Alexis Mace, John Ehrenreich and Jeff Ginsburg

Julie is appointed Chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee(leveraging her long labor union career) and Vice Chair of the Committee on the Environment whose.chair is another newly-elected Senator, Christine Cohen, from CT’s eastern coast. Although the General Assembly is supposedly a part-time job and the full Senate meets only once a week during the early months of the five-month session, committee meetings are scheduled for up to five days per week, so Julie plans to commute daily between Hartford and her Danbury home.

Julie’s new legislative aide, Javier Smith,.is bilingual and will manage her office, constituent services, the flow of communications, and assist with legislative matters. Several bipartisan State Senate offices and the Democratic caucus provide help with legal research, policy analysis, and communications.

Julie’s intention is “to be bold and make noticeable changes for Connecticut.” In a short period of time, she intends to enact a “not watered down” paid family leave program and to increase the minimum wage .

All of Connecticut’s neighboring states (see chart below) have enacted paidfamily leave laws; only CT does not pay for a leave to care for a loved one at home, even for a new or sick child.. Last year, the Connecticut State Senate turned down a paid leave proposal, with our own former Senator McLachlan voting “no”.

The most generous in the nation, Massachusetts, will provide up to 80% of pay for 12 weeks to care for a family member, Rhode Island’s “Temporary Caregiver Insurance” program is limited but provides up to 4 weeks partial wage replacement.

Also shown above, Connecticut’s minimum wage, at $10.10 per hour, lags behind all its neighbors. Then-Senator McLachlan voted against last year’s bill to increase it to $15 per hour. Rhode Island Democratic Governor Gina Raimondo has said she’d like to see the minimum wage increase from $10.50 to $15 per hour.

Julie also wants to work to create a fair taxation system for Connecticut. “Paying taxes is difficult for people and they need to feel confident that taxes are fair.” She notes that proposals have been floated to end the estate and gift taxes in the state, which would only benefit wealthier citizens. She is not necessarily opposed to these proposals, but they should also reform other taxes on income, property, sales, gasoline, and others.

Julie worries that throughout the state “we are falling behind” in creating a more equitable system of educational opportunities at all levels: from universal pre-K, post-secondary vocational training programs and on through college.

As Vice Chair of the Committee on the Environment, she plans to address environmental issues such as the DEEP’s refusal to monitor the air qualityimpact of the Cricket Valley electric plant currently under construction in nearby Dover, NY. She will also work to protect Candlewood Lake in a way that meets the needs of diverse interest groups, including the power company, lakefront homeowners, and recreational users. She wants wants Connecticut to become a greener state.

Julie stresses her desire to remain close to the needs of her constituents and her district. She will meet in a variety of venues with constituents. Her websiteand Facebook pages are being reformulated to provide easy ways for communicating with her, and she can be reached by email at Julie.kushner@cga.ct.gov.

Meet her at Sherman Firehouse’s Charter Hall, Saturday January 26, 1:00 – 3:00 pm

To the enrolled members of the Democratic Party of the Town of Sherman

Pursuant to the Rules of the Democratic Party and the State election laws, you are hereby notified that a caucus will be held on Monday, January 21^st, 2019 at 7:30 pm, at the Sherman Old Town Hall, located at 8 Route 37 Center in Sherman, to endorse candidates for the Democratic Town Committee and to transact other business as may be proper to come before said caucus.

Dated at Sherman, Connecticut, on the 7^th day of January, 2019.

Democratic Town Committee of Sherman

Joel Bruzinski
Chairman