A good boss cares about his customers. He wants to keep them happy and actively seeks out their feedback. Such is not the case at the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The CDOT’s new Commissioner, Joseph Giulietti, has missed several important opportunities to interface with riders in his first 100 days in office. Not that he hasn’t been working. He just hasn’t been meeting with customers.
CT Viewpoints
We welcome informed and responsible commentary about local, state and national public policy from all Connecticut residents and organizations. Submit one here.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
It’s time for a fairer work schedule law
Imagine the following scenario: You’re a single parent, working full-time at a big-box store. You return home at the end of a long afternoon shift at work. You cook dinner for your child, sit down to help with homework, and read a book. As you get your child ready for bed, you get a text at 10 p.m. from your supervisor telling you to report to work the next day at 6 a.m..
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Many opinions, plenty to say about highway tolls
The issue of whether to impose tolls on Connecticut’s highways has inspired a lot of comment from residents, both pro and con. Here is a sampling.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Three bills to make child care more affordable, accessible
Here’s the harrowing truth about the contemporary United States child-care system: for many families, it is not a matter of which child care provider is best or available, but if child care is even an option.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Tolls, not more borrowing, is the transportation solution
Sometimes wishing for ‘the good ole days’ requires revisionist history, but I do remember when Connecticut was a state that reflected issues that we all face in a bipartisan fashion. Solutions were viewed with the aim of ensuring a quality of life for all of its citizens. Party lines were not the determinant of how our legislators voted. They were leaders! The dire state of our infrastructure: roads, bridges, transportation is one arena that demands a bipartisan solution.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Borrowing transportation funds, in the short term, makes sense
Let’s celebrate Gov. Ned Lamont’s constructive proposal that would start to solve Connecticut’s Transportation Crisis! Using short term borrowing to bridge the gap until toll revenue can come onstream makes sense. The cost of the need to fix our Transportation Infrastructure is almost overwhelming. We need creative solutions to address this problem now.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Nobody likes tolls… unless
Nobody really likes tolls…. unless they are a better option than the alternatives. What I do not like is that my daily commute to Grand Central Terminal is now 30 minutes longer. As a consequence, the value of my home in Westport has decreased.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
A fair toll system for Connecticut
If there are going to be tolls, this is a fair way to set the rates:
Posted inCT Viewpoints
End auto-renewed third party electric contracts
AARP has worked for over a decade to address and rectify the fraud, misleading advertising and unscrupulous practices that has plagued and undermined Connecticut’s deregulated third-party electric market place. This has frequently resembled a game of whack-a-mole with a new scheme or trick popping up every time AARP and other consumer advocates knock down a deceptive supplier tactic through legislation or a Public Utilities Regulatory Authority ruling.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
We need a new revenue source for transportation
Nobody denies that there is an infrastructure crisis in Connecticut: 57 percent of public roads are in poor condition; 338 bridges are rated as structurally deficient. No one wants a repeat of the Mianus Bridge collapse, but that is where we are headed if nothing is done soon.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
All parents deserve paid family leave
Since becoming a parent and moving back to Connecticut, I have supported the various paid family and medical bills that have been proposed in the legislature over the past few years because of my experience with California’s paid leave system. In one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest country in the world, many people are forced to make a choice between work and health. If the legislature establishes a paid family and medical leave system, Connecticut’s workers will no longer have to face having a baby, taking care of a sick relative, or dealing with their own illnesses while being afraid of losing their jobs or watching their savings dwindle.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Every student has the right to a safe and healthy classroom
As the leader of an organization advocating for education equity and excellence, I don’t often find myself speaking out on health issues. However, there’s a debate taking place right now at the State Capitol which, I believe, requires all of us to raise our voices. I’m talking about the brave efforts by some legislative leaders to remove the existing religious exemption from school vaccinations.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
It might soon be time to close another prison
Last week Connecticut’s total prison and jail population dropped below 13,000 for the first time in 25 years. A brief history lesson will be helpful to appreciate the significance of this milestone.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
For profit mass transit — the Port Jeff ferry
Public transportation is a money-losing proposition. But Connecticut is home to one of the few profitable transit companies in the US. It’s not CT Transit or Metro-North, both of which are heavily subsidized. No, the operation that’s squarely in the black is the Bridgeport – Port Jefferson Steamboat Company, a.k.a. “the ferry.”
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The ‘public option’ will be devastating for Connecticut
Insurance is a hot topic in Hartford. That’s nothing new. After all, Connecticut is the “Insurance Capital of the World.” But today, legislators are the ones doing the talking about insurance. I commend them for addressing the high cost of insurance for employers and individuals in our state but a public option is not the answer.