In The Loop – July 9, 2021

Another Task Force…

This week Paddi will be taking a break from her weekly newsletter, as she celebrates her sister’s wedding! But, “Paddi’s Desk” this week features an article from our VP of Government Affairs, Mike Johnson:

A state representative that served the towns of Tolland and Willington from 2013 – 2019 had a quirky interest on a topic in Hartford that began after his first year in office

Former State Representative Sam Belsito (R-Willington) noticed in his first year a lot of legislation mandating the creation of task forces, work groups and studies on topics that, by design, sets a conversation on a topic up for the next legislative session. Soon enough, Sam would find himself on the floor of the House and would speak on every single task force legislation introduced.

He would lament about the abundance of task forces with many “not again” sentiments cited by the Hartford Courant who even wrote an article about his obsession with not passing task forces. Every time a bill creating a task force was introduced, Rep. Belsito wouldn’t disappoint the public and always offer some comments like, “Once again, we have another study. Number 14,536.” There was even one year where past Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey introduced an amendment as a joke to create a task force to study task forces which would be co-chaired by Rep. Sam Belsito!

This story isn’t intended to talk about Rep. Belsito’s witty and charming tactics to illustrate a point (although some would argue he did so pretty stealthily) but rather to highlight the fast-approaching task force season that we believe are full of pretty meaty topics and not necessarily “paper tigers”.

You’ll begin to receive updates from S&L during the fall on task forces that we monitor and engage in for clients but remember that these task forces do almost always have a charge to issue recommendations for the next legislative session.

Governor Lamont will conclude the bill signature process next week and at that time we’ll share a list of every task force, study and work group created and passed from the 2021 session. Take some time to review this list when we send it and if there’s a task force you’d like S&L to cover, raise it to your point person from our office to ensure we’re getting you all the information you need.
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