Rep. Dubitsky Joins Rural/Agricultural Caucus

HARTFORD – State Rep. Doug Dubitsky (R-47) attended a recent meeting of the legislature’s Rural/Agricultural Caucus. The purpose of this caucus is for legislators of both parties with districts in rural areas to discuss and work on bills that will specifically affect their rural and agricultural constituents.

One topic of the meeting was the Governor’s proposal to have towns that utilize the Resident State Trooper Program in lieu of having a local police department pay 100% of the cost of the program instead of the current 70%. Of concern was the cost of the program weighed against the police protection received.

Rep. Dubitsky recounted a 1998 incident in Chaplin where it took half an hour for troopers to arrive at a domestic dispute that ended in tragedy. The incident prompted the Town of Chaplin to participate in the Resident State Trooper Program.

“Given that the troopers respond to calls in multiple towns, they can’t spend all of their time in the towns to which they are resident,” he said. “Requiring the host towns to pay 100% of the cost for less than 100% of the coverage, which may increase as much as $60,000.00, will likely have small towns reconsider their participation in the program.”

Alternatives to the Resident State Trooper Program were considered, including the hiring of retired state troopers as Constables and creating regional police departments to share the cost and coverage between municipalities. The Caucus decided to submit testimony in opposition to this budget cut to the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, which has primary responsibility over budget issues.

The Caucus also discussed a list of bills that they will potentially take on as Caucus priorities. A bill proposed by Rep. Dubitsky that will increase the payroll threshold triggering workers compensation liability for seasonal agricultural businesses was on the agenda and will be considered at the next meeting. The bill, HB 5210, received a public hearing in the Labor and Public Employee’s Committee and will hopefully be voted out of that committee.

Another of Rep. Dubitsky’s bills, HB 5090, was placed on the Caucus’ priorities list. The bill would prevent municipalities from mandating that existing farms comply with zoning changes that could put the farms out of business. Recent court decisions have brought the traditional grandfathering of farms into question, and this bill would restore the owners’ constitutionally protected property rights. The Planning and Development Committee recently voted this bill joint favorably and it may receive debate on the House Floor.

At the next meeting, further priorities will be established and the Caucus will discuss how to act on them. Testimony submitted by bipartisan groups often gets a lot of notice, because it is a sign that the issue transcends political lines and will likely garner support from both sides of the aisle.