In yesterday’s budget address, Governor Malloy made it clear that state taxes will increase.  The remaining questions for the legislature are really the amount of the increases and where the increases will occur.

Fortunately, at least under Malloy’s proposal (which isn’t law), legal services will remain tax free.  For my clients it means that their bills won’t be higher. For our bookkeeper, it’s one less thing to keep track of.

Shhhh…………

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gary Holder-Winfield

When Representative Mike Lawlor and Senator Andrew McDonald left the legislature to work in the Malloy administration they created openings for the chairmanships of CT’s judiciary committee.

Holder-Winfield served on the judiciary committee during last session. He earned high praise from Lawlor for passing legislation to abolish the death penalty that was subsequently vetoed by Governor Rell.

Representative Holder-Winfield compiled an impressive record on the committee tackling issues such as diversity on the judiciary, the eyewitness ID bill, and opposition to prison based gerrymandering.

In addition, Holder-Winfield, like Mike Lawlor, was a key early supporter of Dan Malloy. At the democratic state convention, Holder-Winfield bucked New Haven’s delegation which unanimously supported Ned Lamont to support Dan Malloy. His early support of Malloy cost him a seat in the New Haven delegation to the convention.

There’s no question Holder-Winfield is on the short list of people who may chair the judiciary committee when the legislature opens session in a few weeks. In fact given his impressive legislative record, his staunch opposition to the death penalty, and his early support of Dan Malloy – one has to consider that Holder-Winfield to be a front runner to replace Lawlor.

Other possibilities below the jump

Representative Tong or Representative Fox. Fox may have the inside track as he served as Vice-Chair of the Committee last session.

The Senate last night approved a bill that cuts the current 117 probate court districts by more than half. It also imposes regular schedules in those courts and requires future probate judges to be attorneys. Conn Politics.TV

You can read the text of the bill here.

My question is where is the state going to put these courts?

I’ve been to dozens of probate courts throughout the state. Many of them are tucked in cramped offices in the basements of local town halls.  Very small spaces.

It’s certainly possible for small towns to share a court. For example East Granby and Suffield already do.

I agree that Connecticut has too many probate courts. Mostly in small towns in the eastern and western parts of the state and consolidation is a good idea.

But I suspect that the logistics of implementing this bill will prove to be challenging to say the least.

You can find the bill here.

Read OLR’s analysis here.

I guess the big news is that the legislature will expand the bottle law to include non-carbonated beverages.  Don’t they know that all the cool kids have nalgene or Sigg water bottles? Plastic water bottles are so 2000. I hope the legislature factored in cool kids with Sigg bottles in their income projections.

I’ve written about lemons before and Attorney Sergei Lemberg writes about them all the time.

If you’re a long time reader then you know my dog Brady. I adopted Brady from the Hartford Pound as a puppy. Dogs at the pound are given 8 days to be adopted or be put to sleep. Click here for a list of pets available at the Hartford Animal Shelter.

Brady is many things.

She is loving, kind, and a good pet.

She’s also a lemon. 

Within months of owning her, Brady had to have major hip surgery. The surgery was needed so that she can walk. Her condition was no fault of Hartford Animal Control.

The legislature is considering protection for residents who purchase a dog or cat from a breeder or a pet store. The proposed law would seek to ensure that cats and dogs sold in Connecticut are healthy at the time of purchase and not subject to inhumane conditions. Check out the text of the bill here.

I’ll take back what I wrote earlier. In no sense is Brady a lemon. She’s lemonade.