June 9, 2010
REP. ROJAS DISMAYED BY GOV. RELL VETO
OF BILL ADVOCATING REGIONAL DISPATCHING
Lauds Signing Of Other Legislation for Regionalization
State Rep. Jason Rojas was dismayed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell's veto of the proposed Act Mandating the Regionalization of Certain Public Safety Emergency Telecommunications Centers and a Study of Consolidation (PA 10-125).
"I am disappointed to hear that this legislation was vetoed after it passed both chambers with overwhelming bi-partisan support with a House vote of 119-29 and a Senate vote of 35-0," said Rojas, who co-sponsored the legislation.
Under the legislation, municipalities with 40,000 or fewer people would be ineligible beginning in 2016 for enhanced 911 funding if they have not joined with two or more municipalities to form a regional public safety answering point.
"There seems to be constant rhetoric about the need to regionalize services and provide opportunities for town and cities to work together. The intent of this bill was to do just that because the legislature recognized that this is a situation where costs savings and a reduction in the duplication of services could be realized," Rojas said.
"I can appreciate the concerns that the Governor and other opponents had of the bill but the reality is we as a state had until 2016 to work out any obstacles that might arise and if need be could make adjustments to any unintended consequences that became apparent over the next half decade," he said.
The law also would have required the Office of State-wide Emergency Telecommunications (OSET), which administers the state's E 9-1-1 program, to use money in the E 9-1-1 Telecommunications Fund to study PSAP regionalization issues and submit its findings to the Public Safety and Security Committee by July 1, 2011.
"Currently, there are seven regional public safety answering points serving 73 towns so this is not new territory for the state," Rojas said.
Rep. Rojas represents the 9th Assembly District, which includes parts of Glastonbury, Manchester and East Hartford. He is a member of the legislature's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee and the Planning and Development Committee.
In other legislation, Rojas lauded Rell for signing into law An Act Permitting Two or More Boards of Education to Jointly Purchase Employee Health Insurance (HB 5424).
The new law now permits two or more municipalities or local or regional boards of education to enter into a written agreement to act as a single entity to provide medical or health care benefits for their employees under certain conditions stated in the bill.
"This was a common sense change to make since boards of education were not allowed to do this. It will allow our boards to use larger pools of employees to secure health insurance benefits at what we hope will be a lower cost. I was a co-sponsor of this as well," said Rojas, who co-sponsored the bill.