Thank You
Below is an email from Greg Sharp, an environmental attorney with the Hartford law firm of Murtha Cullina. Greg is chairman of the CT Fishery Advisory Council and led the effort to keep Kensington Hatchery in the state budget for the next two years. Greg said to Jim Carroll that contacts from teachers and students were important contributors to the total effort. Many thanks to you who helped. -Dick Bell
The Office of Fiscal Analysis recently released the detailed budgets for each agency for FY16 and 17, and the good news is that the Kensington Hatchery budget was fully restored, as proposed by the Appropriations Committee, for both years. As you will recall, we were not able to determine from the actual budget bill what the disposition on the hatchery issue was following the negotiations between the legislature and the Governor’s office, so we had to wait for the detailed OFA document.
We will need to continue to focus on this issue going forward, as the economy is not bouncing back as fast as many would like, and it is obvious that Kensington has become a favorite target of OPM’s to pick up a quick $200K in savings.
Thanks to all who contacted their legislators, and particularly to Vin Ringrose, Jim Carroll, Alicea Charamut, Bruce Rich, Bruce Tolhurst, Tyler Archer, and Dick Weisberg for their yeomanlike (yeowomanlike?) efforts to save this important resource. Thanks also to Ed Parker for joining Vin and myself in several meetings with leadership during the session.
Special thanks to Senator Bye, Co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, who led the fight to put the money back in the budget, and to Rep. Aresimowicz, who was a staunch supporter in the House leadership.
Although it would have been preferable not to have to go through the fire drill again this session, it is nice to know that the system can work, as long as people make it work.
Hope you are all having a great summer. See you in September.
Greg