AGENDAS FOR 1999 FOR THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT

"Keep the faith" ought to be the rallying cry for Connecticut as the
millennium approaches.

Keep the faith, that is, with the remarkable initiatives undertaken by
Gov. John G. Rowland and the legislature in the past year. Together,
they took long-needed steps to reinvigorate the cities, protect the
environment and improve education.

Their grand promises must be kept in full.

With economic uncertainty on the horizon, however, 1999 may not be the
time for an encore. While obvious needs must be met, another round of
new spending initiatives and additional bonded debt would not be wise.

Caution must be a watchword. The priorities for any budget surplus
must include paying off debt and keeping the rainy day fund full.
After that, a down payment on the new football stadium in Hartford to
reduce its cost over time would be in order. The temptation to hand
out gaudy but meaningless tax-rebate gifts as the governor and
lawmakers did in 1998 should be resisted. So should meddling with the
income tax, which would be like killing the goose that laid the golden
egg.

Good times allowed the governor and lawmakers last year to address
festering needs. Now they should map out a game plan for hard times.

But, while the state's leaders are cautioned to cast a flinty eye at
new programs and tax expenditures, they must stay on the path they
walked down last year in pledging support for higher education and
public education, for development in Hartford, Bridgeport and New
Haven, and for open-space acquisition. Building up a stock of green
space in this small state is a project that can't wait.

A Biotech Vision

The state must continue its investment in biotechnology. The synergy
of large pharmaceutical companies, universities and major hospitals
makes Connecticut ripe for success in creating useful products and
inventions that spring from the intellect of its scientists and
researchers. In fact, that success has already been demonstrated but
the potential is limitless.

Keep building laboratory space for emerging companies. Put adequate
resources into higher education to train people for high-tech jobs.
Make science education a higher priority in public schools.

The General Assembly should resurrect last year's legislation based on
the Georgia Hope scholarship program, which gives free college tuition
to state residents who earn a B average or better. This would entice
more good students to settle in the state after graduation. An
educated work force is a great economic asset.

The state must not backtrack on its commitment to improve the
infrastructure at the four Connecticut State University campuses and
the 12 community-technical colleges.

Tuition and fee increases at those schools and at the University of
Connecticut, the state's flagship institution of public higher
education, should be held to modest levels if any increase is needed.
That means the state must ensure there is enough money to give
scholarships and loans, run programs and retain a top-notch faculty.
Students should not have to bear a disproportionate burden for funding
higher education.

As for public education, the governor and legislature should not wait
to hear Middletown Superior Court Judge Julia Aurigemma's decision on
whether the state has adequately complied with the Supreme Court's
order to desegregate Hartford schools. No matter what the decision,
the elected officials should expand programs such as regional magnet
schools and voluntary student exchanges that will help achieve the
racial balance sought in the Sheff vs. O'Neill lawsuit.

Steps should be taken this year to put an end to the destructive
policy called social promotion that advances students to the next
grade despite their failure to learn. Measures to reduce the cost of
special education programs should also continue.

A good investment was made last year in early childhood programs and a
greater emphasis on reading in the lower grades. Those programs pay
off and should be expanded. There should also be greater state support
for school systems that use their buildings during the summer and from
3 to 6 p.m. for learning-related activities.

A Boost For Regional Cooperation

This is the time to correct one of 1998's mistakes. Last year,
lawmakers demonstrated a lack of vision in failing to pass legislation
creating regional asset districts. Some feared, wrongly, that the
districts would be a blow to home rule.

This innovative concept has worked well in other areas metropolitan
Pittsburgh, for example as an economic development tool and an
instrument to foster cooperation among municipal governments.

The idea is to split a small portion of state sales tax revenue no new
taxes among districts created by regional planning agencies or
councils of elected officials. Local officials representing towns in
the new districts would together choose specific assets a new stadium
or multitown park system, for example to fund. The assets would have
to have a regionwide benefit. The district would contribute a portion
of construction costs to get a project going or would help meet
operating expenses. This cooperative drive would serve as a catalyst
for economic development.

This is not a disguised bailout for cities. It is not a backdoor route
to county or regional government. It is, rather, a good way to promote
economic vitality with the added benefit of making regions stronger by
bringing towns together.

Passing enabling legislation this year could get the concept off the
ground in Connecticut.

Toward Better Health

A looming crisis in health care for the elderly needs attention on
both the federal and state levels. Medicare HMOs are losing money,
threatening to drop thousands of old people in Windham, Tolland and
New London counties.

Federal subsidies for managed-care patients need to be increased.
Likewise, lawmakers should consider holding HMOs to their overblown
promises and prohibiting them from refusing service for a designated
time period.

The legislature must make problems confronting the Department of
Children and Families a priority particularly the untenable situation
at Long Lane School in Middletown. A new facility must be built next
to the Connecticut Valley Hospital grounds. But a building alone will
not solve system problems.

Many in DCF's care are suicidal and about three-quarters have
addiction problems. A quarter of the children are on psychotropic
medication. There is a 50-person waiting list at Riverview, the only
state mental health facility that takes adolescents. DCF needs more
money for staff to provide adequate care for those who need mental-
health and substance-abuse treatment.

Senate President Kevin Sullivan's proposal to guarantee patients the
right to keep their medical records private should be at the top of
the legislature's health agenda.

Other items on the 1999 agenda:

* Hartford's renaissance is the perfect opportunity for state
officials to come up with a regional transportation plan that includes
light-rail service. It will take time to wean commuters of their
dependence on cars, but the rail beds are in place and the congestion
sufficient to convert die-hard drivers.

* The disgraceful shenanigans in last year's election for Hartford
County sheriff were more evidence, if any was needed, that the office
should be abolished and its legitimate duties parceled out. The
governor and legislature should act this year to put the archaic
position of county sheriff out of its misery.

* Whatever revisions a task force recommends for the education
cost-sharing formula, it should continue to ensure equity for cities
and towns with growing low-income enrollments. Also, the cap should be
lifted.

* The state should come up with creative ways to use the tobacco
settlement money, and not by squandering the money on non-education
and non-health-related programs.

* Promote needle-exchange programs as a way to stop AIDS infections.
Evidence shows that such programs do not contribute to more drug use.

* The legislature took a big step toward campaign finance reform last
year by outlawing soft-money contributions from national party
organizations to their state counterparts. But if lawmakers want to do
the job right, they'll finally have to adopt public financing of campaigns.

* Open primaries also belong on the agenda. How much longer will
rank-and-file party members be second-class citizens when it comes to
picking nominees for office?

* How about more support for the humanities in Connecticut as well as
for the arts?

* An audit of state government to determine which laws are not being
enforced would be a good idea. The state then would have to decide
whether to beef up enforcement or rescind meaningless laws. There's no
sense in wasting taxpayers' money through ineffective, partial regulation.

* Megan's Law needs more tinkering. It will take more manpower to
ensure that changes of address and names of sex offenders get recorded
on the Internet in a timely manner, and that neighbors of someone on
the list know who's potentially dangerous.

The Department of Adult Probation should be given responsibility for
tracking sex offenders in their charge, and for educating and
notifying the community.

* What else can be said about the need to improve Route 6 from Bolton
to Columbia? Maybe this would be a good time for the DOT to look into
a light-rail alternative to relieve congestion and reduce the
fatalities that continue to occur because of state and federal inaction.

* Even the Department of Environmental Protection agreed that it has
to clean up its act after a legislative committee found bad morale and
a culture of going easy on some polluters. The DEP should quickly
implement the committee's recommendations.

* Mr. Rowland, who has not always chosen well in personnel decisions,
will have several key vacancies to fill as his second term opens. May
he find appointees of the high caliber of outgoing Social Services
Commissioner Joyce Thomas and Public Safety Commissioner Henry Lee.

* The state police must finally solve the long-running crisis with
their inadequate radio network. If anyone needs a reliable
communications system, it's the troopers.

* Members of the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities should
waken from their slumber and expeditiously move to find an executive
director for this important state civil rights agency. The position
has been vacant since July.

* The state should take a stronger leadership role in ensuring that
adequate funding is available over the next 25 years to meet
wastewater-treatment needs.

* All those in the public and private sectors who say they've solved
or nearly solved their Year 2000 computer problems had better be
right. They had best hurry up. The clock is ticking.