Thursday's special legislative session at the Capitol brought a lot of frustration for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, as lawmakers rebuffed four major initiatives by him for dealing with the budget crisis. The blocked Malloy proposals would have:
--Given Malloy expanded authority to privatize state services now performed by employees who are to be laid off.
--Decreased the number of accrued sick days that an employee gets annually from 15 down to 10.
--Frozen and ultimately phased out the controversial "longevity payments" that employees receive -- to the tune of more than $40 million a year -- just for staying on the job more than 10 years.
--Eliminated overtime pay from the calculation of state employees' pensions.
Shortly after 8:30 p.m. Thursday, the Senate voted 30-6 to pass a bill that would accomplish Malloy's requested changes concerning the pension calculations and longevity payments - but House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, had said earlier Thursday: "We're not going to bring [it] up here today."
The failure of those two Malloy proposals affecting organized labor came hours after Democratic leaders of both the Senate and the House refused to even put two other Malloy proposals into either of the two bills considered during the day: his plans for privatizing services and cutting the number of accrued sick days. Both proposals had been made too suddenly -- on Wednesday -- to allow proper discussion of them, legislative leaders said.
It was a tumultuous day at the Capitol, with speculation rampant on subjects from estimates of planned layoffs to state agencies that might be eliminated. One rumor was that the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities might be axed -- but Malloy senior adviser Roy Occhiogrosso said that was untrue.