Category: Emily Beaver
Educators, Lawmakers Cry for No Child Left Behind Reform
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, April 26-If you ask how the No Child Left Behind Act has affected her district, Dr. Doris Kurtz, superintendent of New Britain Public Schools, will begin by telling you, “Well, that’s a tall order.”
Teachers and students are struggling to improve test scores, a slew of administrators who can’t or don’t want to handle the stress are opting for early retirement, and educators’ overall morale has sunk, Kurtz said.
In an April telephone interview, Kurtz said that at the same time budget cutbacks have forced the district to eliminate administrative jobs and “phase in” textbooks with only some students in a class getting new books, the federal government is asking schools to raise student performance.
“Everything has been cut to raise student achievement,” she said.
Kurtz is one of many educators in Connecticut and across the country who have begun to challenge the law they call an unfunded mandate. Changes to the act have been proposed in Congress and lawsuits challenging the law have been filed in court.
The Connecticut chapter along with nine other state chapters of the National Education Association filed a lawsuit in April against the federal government for what it calls a failure to fully fund No Child Left Behind. And earlier in the month, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced plans to sue over the “unfunded mandates” of the federal education reform act.
The term “unfunded mandates” is sometimes applied to provisions of federal laws that require states to implement costly programs without providing the money to pay for them. The National Education Association lawsuit is based on a paragraph in the No Child Left Behind Act that says no state or municipality will be forced to spend local funds under the law.
Now, three years after the landmark federal education act was passed into law, Connecticut lawmakers and interest groups are pushing to change No Child Left Behind at the state and federal levels.
Local educators like Kurtz say these attempts at reform, including more federal funding to track student achievement and more flexible requirements for certifying qualified teachers, are well-intentioned but don’t address some of the most fundamental problems of the law.
Kurtz said she knows the district needs a better system to assess student and teacher performance, smaller class sizes and more pre-school programs.
“But you need resources for all those things,” she said.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools are required to monitor and report student achievement using standardized tests. All students must meet the tests’ proficiency requirements by 2014. Schools that fail to make “adequate yearly progress” toward those goals must provide services such as tutoring or allow students to attend other schools in the district. Schools that do not comply with the law cannot receive federal education aid.
Two Democratic members of the Connecticut congressional delegation have introduced a bill to change the federal law. Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, 3 rd District, in April introduced the No Child Left Behind Reform Act. In addition to giving schools funds to track students’ yearly progress and increase flexibility in guidelines for teacher qualification, the bill also would allow measures other than testing to evaluate student performance, according to a statement from DeLauro’s office.
Using one test to judge all students is one of the most controversial provisions of the act, especially when testing students with disabilities or students learning English as a second language.
Kurtz said teachers who work with children learning English are physically and emotionally drained from the challenging work, but their students may still be labeled “in need of improvement” under the law.
“It’s very rewarding to me to make a difference in a needy child’s life, but it’s also very demanding,” she said.
Rosemary Coyle, president of the Connecticut Education Association, said the proposed changes address some of the major issues educators have with No Child Left Behind. The association, which represents 35,500 educators in Connecticut, is one of the plaintiffs in the suit filed by the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union.
“We have always supported the goals of the law,” Coyle said. “But we have two issues with the law. It’s an unfunded mandate.and it’s trying a one-size-fits-all approach that says every child’s going to improve at the same rate.”
The lawsuit focuses on the “the unfunded piece,” she said.
A report by the Connecticut State Department of Education in March estimated that meeting the requirements of No Child Left Behind will cost the state $41.6 million by 2008. The report, which is the basis for Attorney General Blumenthal’s promised lawsuit, blames the shortfall mainly on the requirement that Connecticut administer tests in every grade from second through eighth. The state currently tests students only in grades two, four and six.
The U.S. Department of Education, in an April statement, , called the report a “flawed” cost study that “creates inflated projection built upon questionable estimates.”
This kind of bickering between federal and state government over funding issues is typical, said Jay Greene, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
But paying for No Child Left Behind is just one source of the resistance educators are showing to the law, Greene said. The other source is the pressure of being forced by the government to raise student achievement, he said.
“As that vise is being squeezed, some people are not making progress and are upset,” he said. “You can either say, ‘We’re not doing as well as we should, we need to improve,’ or, ‘There is something wrong with this vise that is squeezing me.’”
Although many educators like Coyle said they supported the aim of No Child Left Behind, Greene said it was much easier for educators to support the law “before it starts to squeeze you.”
Connecticut Voices for Children, a children’s advocacy group, surveyed educators across the state about the law. In March, the group recommended changes to the state legislature, such as tracking the progress of one group of students over time and accommodating children with disabilities.
Daniel Fernandez, a Yale University law student who worked on the study, said the feeling that No Child Left Behind isn’t really necessary and that the state’s former testing system was adequate exists among some educators.
“Down deep, a lot of these educators feel the law is doing more harm than good,” he said. “They feel the entire thing is more of a mistake. Most educators would just be as happy to go back to the old system.”
However, the government is unlikely to do away with No Child Left Behind now that a system of testing and reporting is in place, Greene said.
“I can’t see the constituency that says, ‘We no longer want to see how our kids are doing,’ ” he said. “I think it’s hard to go back.”
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Montville Teacher Receives Presidential Award
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, April 14-After a decade of teaching elementary students in Connecticut, a Montville teacher received one of the nation's highest honors in teaching Thursday.
Joseph DiGarbo, a fourth-grade math teacher at Mohegan Elementary School, received the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching at a ceremony in Washington.
"This whole week has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," DiGarbo said before the awards ceremony Thursday. "I'm representing a lot of people from Connecticut and all of their teaching."
DiGarbo, 33 was one of 95 teachers from across the country who received the award and the only one from Connecticut to receive the award for teaching math.
"It's an honor, a definite honor, to be Connecticut's representative," he said before the awards ceremony.
The award was established by Congress in 1983 to honor outstanding math and science teachers. This year's awardees received a citation from President George W. Bush commending them for "embodying excellence in teaching, for devotion to the learning needs of students and for upholding the high standards that exemplify American education at its finest."
DiGarbo, a graduate of the University of Connecticut, has been teaching at Mohegan Elementary since 1996. He is the school's first faculty member to receive the Presidential Award. He said he encourages students to be independent learners and often uses games to teach students math.
"They want to work and try to solve some problems and be able to come out with a solution.if you make the learning fun," he said.
DiGarbo and other recipients spent the week in Washington participating in professional development programs, including meeting Bill Nye, the host of a television science program for children.
"It was an amazing week, and to meet 94 other award winners from across the country was the best experience," DiGarbo said. "It means a lot to the teaching profession."
The awardees also met Bush at the White House Thursday. The president congratulated the group and posed for photos, DiGarbo said.
Presidential awardees receive $10,000 from the National Science Foundation and professional gifts such as overhead projects from corporate donors.
DiGarbo said he wasn't sure what he will do with his award money but is considering "furthering my own education so I can transfer that art over to my students."
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President Thanks Super Bowl Champs
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, April 13 -Returning to the White House as Super Bowl champions for the third time in four years, players, coaches and owners from the New England Patriots were congratulated by President George W. Bush Wednesday.
"The commentators would say, 'well, they're not the flashiest bunch, they're not the fanciest bunch, they just happen to be the best team," said Bush, flanked by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft as he made remarks in the Rose Garden.
"They're the team showed that when you play together, when you serve something greater than yourself, you win," Bush said.
More than 30 players from the Patriots, who defeated the Philadelphia Eagles for a Super Bowl win in February, lined up on risers behind the president as he congratulated the team.
Bush congratulated line backer Tedy Bruschi, who suffered a stroke in February, for showing "courage on the field and off the field."
He also thanked the eight team members, including Bruschi, quarterback Tom Brady, and wide receiver Deion Branch, who had visited injured soldiers in the Bethesda Naval and Walter Reed Army hospitals before the White House press conference.
"I think you saw firsthand the definition of courage when you saw those young soldiers who had been wounded that are working hard to overcome their injuries ," Bush said.
"There's nothing better than a Super Bowl champ encouraging somebody to continue to work hard to recover."
After the ceremony, Brady said he admired the recovering soldiers he had seen earlier that day.
"To go in to Walter Reed and see those soldiers.makes what we do seem so unimportant," he said.
Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy attended the ceremony. After the press conference, Kerry said the team was a group of "down-to-earth" guys who spent four hours visiting soldiers in the hospital.
"They're just a good bunch of guys," he said.
New Britain Improvement Projects Called “Pork”
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, April 6 -Federal grants that may be used to improve computer records at New Britain General Hospital and replace the water tank on Elam Street are "pork-barrel" spending projects, according to a report released Wednesday by Citizens Against Government Waste.
The group dedicated to eliminating government waste listed a $300,000 grant for facilities and equipment at New Britain General Hospital and a $300,000 grant for city water infrastructure improvements in its 2005 Congressional Pig Book.
The Pig Book, which CAGW calls an "expose of pork-barrel spending," names nearly 14,000 projects throughout the country earmarked for federal funding. CGAW president Thomas Schatz said the Pig Book aims to hold members of congress responsible for spending on local projects, which is rapidly increasing.
"We want to ask members of Congress if their parochial project is more important than our nation's financial security," Schatz said at a press conference Wednesday.
Although the book highlights what it calls some of the "most egregious and blatant examples of pork," like $70,000 granted to the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Wisconsin, New Britain organizations said the grants they receive are necessary to fund important programs.
Gilbert Bligh, director of the city's water department, said a $300,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency would be used to replace a 67-year-old water tank on Elam Street. The federal grant is "a key part" of funding the project, which has a $2.7 million estimated cost, Bligh said.
"We're a distressed city and the money is needed so we can replace the water tank," he said.
New Britain General Hospital plans to use its grant for new computer software that would allow the Emergency Room to obtain patients' medical documents, said Larry Tanner, the hospital's Chief Executive Officer.
Tanner said it was "irresponsible" of CAGW to call a new information system for the hospital a pork-barrel project.
"If someone thinks that's pork-barrel money, then tell them not to get sick," he said.
All of the "pork-barrel" grants listed in the Pig Book met at least one of seven criteria. Those criteria included grants that were requested by only one chamber of Congress, grants that were not requested by President George W. Bush and grants that "greatly exceed" the President's budget request or the previous year's funding.
The book named a total 107 pork projects in Connecticut. The state ranked 36 th in the country for "pork per capita," spending $25.26 per person on pork-barrel projects.
Connecticut Republicans in Middle of Social Security Debate
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, March 24 -The AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one its largest affiliates, have been leaving voice mails for Connecticut residents in the 4 th and 5 th districts, urging them to ask their congressional representatives to oppose the White House plan to "privatize" Social Security.
Meanwhile, a Progress for America television ad running in the 2 nd District shows the Social Security program careening into bankruptcy. The ad instructs residents to contact their representative to "help President Bush save Social Security."
"It's just like the middle of a campaign," Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-5 th District, said at the National Press Club in March. "I've gotten two calls to my own home telling me to call myself."
Neither Johnson nor Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4 th District, has publicly supported any proposal "privatizing" Social Security, but both have said that individual savings accounts may provide benefits for future generations. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2 nd District, said he has opposed "privatizing" Social Security but that since he first ran for Congress in 2000 he has supported individual accounts as a "second tier" of retirement security.
"Both sides are pressing vulnerable candidates," said Jeffrey Ladewig, an American politics professor at the University of Connecticut. "Bush is pressing vulnerable Democrats and these interest groups are pressing vulnerable Republicans."
Simmons, Johnson and Shays and were all named "mavericks" by National Journal magazine in February, ranking them among the 10 most liberal-voting House Republicans.
These moderate Republicans, who fill the majority of House seats in Connecticut, could be key players in passing measures to overhaul Social Security, Ladewig said.
Republicans do not have enough support in Congress to pass measures that would overhaul Social Security, so they will have to compromise with Democrats, Ladewig said.
"As a moderate Republican, Simmons is well-suited to lead a compromise," he said.
AARP, an interest group representing people aged 50 and older, is confident it can convince Connecticut Republicans to preserve Social Security without resorting to a system of private accounts, said John Erlingheuser, AARP Connecticut associate state director of advocacy.
Erlingheuser, who coordinates meetings between AARP volunteers and members of Connecticut's congressional delegation, said no Democrats support private accounts, but some Republicans have indicated support for accounts as an "add-on" to the program.
"It's a mixed bag in Connecticut," Erlingheuser said.
In March, Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joe Lieberman signed a letter along with 40 other Senate Democrats urging President Bush not to use Social Security dollars to fund private accounts. However, investment accounts separate from Social Security deserve "serious consideration," if they do not put benefits at risk, the letter said.
Establishing personal savings accounts is a "viable and responsible solution" to the challenge of preserving Social Security for future generations, Shays said after the president's State of the Union address in February.
However, in a March statement, Shays said he is reserving judgment on a Social Security overhaul until more details are available. He scheduled Social Security town hall meetings on April 2 and 3 with AARP President Marie Smith and Jim Lockhart, deputy administrator of the Social Security Administration.
"Add-on" accounts are a likely compromise in overhauling Social Security, Ladewig said, adding that investment accounts "carved in" as a central fixture of the program have less chance of passing in Congress.
"Congress members are backing off, and it has dismal support," he said. "It would be very electorally risky for members to vote for a plan for that."
Groups on both sides of the issue, such as the AARP and the conservative advocacy organization Progress for America, which supports personal accounts, have launched national advertising campaigns to get their message out.
Bush has held town hall meetings of his own to rally public support for his proposal. He began touring states immediately after his State of the Union speech and has visited almost two dozen states and initiated a "60 stops in 60 days" tour for administration officials to tout his Social Security ideas.
Keith Miller, an economic policy adviser from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, said creating ownership is a driving principle behind a Social Security system with personal accounts.
Miller said investing in personal accounts would not be as risky as critics claim because individuals could choose from "good, conservative" stocks and bonds selected by the Social Security Administration.
"You couldn't just take your account and buy all shares of Enron or all shares of Wal-Mart," he said. "The only significant risk to the system would be if the entire economy entirely collapsed . and then Social Security wouldn't be your biggest problem."
While some Republicans have criticized Democrats for opposing individual accounts and not proposing another solution to the problem, Democrats do have a plan: traditional Social Security, with some minor adjustments, said Barbara Kennelly, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
"Democrats aren't going to sit at the table [to negotiate] until they [Republicans] get personal accounts off the table," the former Democratic Connecticut congresswoman said.
Rep. Johnson has said that she believes reform is possible but that reforming Social Security "at a time when our debt is very high is hard, and maybe unwise."
Most Democrats, including Sen. Dodd, have said the Social Security system needs to be strengthened, but not through individual accounts that may involve investing in stocks.
"What [seniors] don't deserve, however, is a risky roll of the dice on Wall Street," Dodd said in a statement after the State of the Union address. "The president shouldn't monkey with a safety net for our seniors that for decades has provided them peace of mind in their twilight years."
Boston University Washington News Service reporter Liz Goldberg also contributed to this story.
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Fallen Norwalk Soldier Portrayed in Washington Exhibit
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, March 21 -With his dark eyes peering out from under his camouflage hat, the portrait of Army Pfc. Wilfredo Perez Jr. now rests in a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery alongside the images of the other military men and women who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Perez's portrait appears in the Faces of the Fallen exhibit, opening Wednesday in the Women In Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The exhibit consists of more than 1,300 portraits of American military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Perez, a 24-year-old soldier from Norwalk, was killed in July 2003 when a grenade was thrown from the window of the Iraqi hospital he was guarding.
Annette Polan, the Washington portrait artist who conceived the project, said the portraits are intended to honor military personnel who died serving their country and to provide comfort to their families.
"I wanted to give the families something more permanently than 20 seconds in your memory," she said. "That was my hope, that these men and women won't be forgotten."
The idea for the exhibit came from pages of thumbnail-sized photos of military personnel killed in Iraq printed in The Washington Post last spring, Polan said. Nearly 200 artists, both professionals and students, created the eight inch by six inch portraits from published photographs.
The photographs used to generate the portraits were mainly from Military City, a military Web site, and the Post Web site. When no photo was available a mounted silhouette was displayed.
The only specifications for the project were the size of the portraits, and requirement that the portraits "honor and respect" the memory of the soldiers, Polan said. The portraits, attached to rows of metal posts, are arranged chronologically by the date of death.
Perez's portrait, painted by Carole Bosley, shows the soldier in uniform in front of an American flag. Other artists used wood, glass and images of flowers for the portraits.
Those involved with the creation of the exhibit said it was not a political statement about war but a statement about grief and sacrifice. Peter Hapstak, a Washington architect who developed the exhibit's design, said at a press conference Tuesday that the exhibit was "beyond politics."
"I wasn't for the war, but it didn't matter. We were honoring men who had served us," he said.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Warner (R-Va.) were chosen as honorary chairs for Faces of the Fallen. Warner also spoke to the family members of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan at a private reception Tuesday.
However, she said, sponsors of the exhibit decided not to extend a general invitaqtion to politicians to the opening of the exhibit, Polan said. "We did what we could do to keep it as apolitical as possible," she said.
The exhibit will be on display in Arlington until Nov. 11, Veterans Day. The exhibit may go on tour, said Anne Murphy, co-chairwoman of the exhibit. The families of the military personnel depicted in the exhibit will eventually receive the portraits, she said.
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Lawmakers Denounce Move to Cut Block Grants
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, March 15 -A bipartisan majority of Connecticut lawmakers don't want funds to be cut from a community development program that provides federal grants for affordable housing and neighborhood clean-up projects.
"Keep it the same and add money. Don't cut, add money," Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4 th District, said at a press conference Tuesday organized by the National League of Cities.
The Bush administration's budget proposal for 2006 would combine the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program with 17 other domestic spending programs, cutting total funds for the program and providing financial aid to fewer regions.
City officials, in town for the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference, lobbied members of Congress Tuesday. The main item on their agenda was saving the block grant program.
Earlier this month, Shays and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., wrote a letter to House Budget Committee chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, and senior minority member John Spratt, D-S.C., opposing the move that would cut funds for the block grant program and move it from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Department of Commerce.
In the letter, Shays and Frank wrote that communities across the nation would lose access to affordable housing resources if CDBG funds are cut. Last year, 116,000 houses were rehabilitated and 11,000 houses were purchased with CDBG money, they said.
"CDBG is a program that works," the letter said. "Therefore, we support full funding of the program,"
The Bush administration is aiming to slice the budget deficit in half by 2009, but a majority of Connecticut lawmakers don't want to see funds cut for the community development program.
Along with Shays, Reps. Nancy Johnson and Rob Simmons were among the 16 House Republicans to sign the letter. Rep. John Larson, a Connecticut Democrat, also signed the letter.
Shays, at the press conference Tuesday, said Republican President Ronald Reagan had argued for block grants for "programs where one size does not fit all."
"Unfortunately, my party has a tendency to use that argument to combine block grants together," he said.
Frank, also speaking at the press conference, said that he was wary of combining a number of programs into large block grants.
"If block granting is such a wonderful solution, then why are we putting CDBG on the chopping block?" he asked.
Speaking at a House Budget Committee hearing earlier this month, Shays said he was aware of the need to trim the deficit but was concerned that urban areas would be hurt by domestic spending cuts.
Norwalk, a city in Shays' district, used $1.4 million in CDBG funds for residential rehabilitation and other community development programs, according to Shay's press secretary, Sarah Moore. More than 97 percent of the money was used to benefit individuals with low to moderate incomes, she said.
Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., said at the press conference the administration was cutting spending on programs like CDBG while continuing to cut taxes.
"There's a huge deficit, so we come down on these programs," he said. "One would think you wouldn't be so quick to give tax cuts."
Earlier this month Sarbanes offered an amendment in the Senate Budget Committee to keep CDBG spending levels intact , but it was defeated, 12-10.
Connecticut Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman, both Democrats, oppose combining the CBDG program with other programs and cutting funds, according to a joint statement on March 2.
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Bill could give $45 million to Eastern Connecticut
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, March 2 -A House committee approved a $284 billion highway and mass transit spending authorization bill Wednesday that would provide $45 million for Eastern Connecticut projects, including $16 million for the extension of Route 11 in Salem.
The proposed spending program also would allocate $3 million for the Montville-Preston Mohegan Bridge Expansion, $2 million for New London streetscape and safety improvements and $3.44 million for improvements in Stonington and Mystic Village.
The bill also would provide $380,000 for Groton bicycle and pedestrian trails and facilities, $100,000 for the Salem Greenway and $1 million for the Madison Shoreline Greenway Trail.
Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2 nd District, is a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, which approved the bill by voice vote.
"These dollars are an investment in eastern Connecticut's infrastructure and will create much-needed jobs in the area," Simmons said in a statement Wednesday.
The funding for Connecticut projects is part of a six-year highway spending program, which has been running on temporary extensions since the last program ended in 2003. The latest extension will expire May 31.
A number of Simmons' funding requests for Connecticut projects, like improving the Norwich harbor and widening Route 82 in Norwich, were removed from an omnibus spending bill last year. Todd Mitchell, Simmons' chief of staff, said those requests were not related to the requests in this year's highway bill.
"They are different requests and they're different amounts of money," Mitchell said Wednesday.
Simmons' staff is "still talking to the Appropriations Committee about an appropriate vehicle" to restore those lost requests, Mitchell said.
The new bill must be approved by both the House and Senate before local projects will be eligible for federal transportation funds. The bill is expected to go to the House floor for a vote next week.
"There are those in both the House and the Senate that want to redistribute federal transportation dollars at the expense of Connecticut," Simmons said. "While passage of the bill out of the Transportation Committee is good news for eastern Connecticut, there will be many battles ahead."
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A Budget is Nigh
WASHINGTON, March 1-The Senate Budget Committee could vote on a spending proposal for fiscal year 2006 as early as the end of next week keeping the Senate on track for meeting April's budget deadline, Sen. Judd Gregg, the committee's chairman, said Tuesday.
The spending in the budget will be in line with President Bush's recommendations, the New Hampshire Republican said in a telephone interview.
"The president has written the initial memo here, and I think he sets responsible goals, which is to have fiscal responsibility and reduce the rate of growth of the entitlements and basically freeze non-defense discretionary spending," Gregg said. "That's been our goal."
In addition to asking Congress to freeze funds for programs that are neither defense-related nor mandatory, Bush also slashed 150 programs. Some senators may try to save those programs, which include 48 education programs, Gregg said, but he would not comment on which ones, if any, he would personally try to preserve.
"We have to set priorities. We're like a family that has an income and we're spending a lot more of that income," he said. "To keep that up, we're going to have a bankruptcy in the family, and we don't want to go in that direction."
One priority the president set in his Feb. 7 budget proposal was to reduce the costs of the Medicaid program.
"I think what we should do is basically what the president suggests, which is reduce rate of growth, use the money we have for Medicaid for delivering services for people who need health care who are poor and give governors a lot more flexibility," the former governor said. "With more flexibility, the governors, I suspect, can do a lot more, even if they may not be getting as much money."
He added: "You are talking about a program that will spend.next year.approximately $190 billion and talking about reducing the rate of growth by less than $500 million. That's not radical surgery, that's a reasonable reduction of the rate of growth, especially when you consider that so much of the money in Medicaid doesn't actually end up in health care, it ends up in the general operating accounts of the state governments."
Not on the to-do list for 2006 is Medicare, in part because of the planned Social Security overhaul, Gregg said.
"The reason we're not doing them together is because even getting Social Security done has become a major problem, and Social Security is a much more solvable problem," Gregg said. "The substance of the issue of fixing Social Security is fairly simple; it's the politics which are very difficult. Whereas in Medicare, the complexity of the Medicare issue is exponentially larger than the Social Security issue because there are so many moving parts to our health care system."
New devices, procedures and medications cost more but add health benefits, which Gregg said makes them difficult things to balance. In addition, he said, "unlike Social Security there is no clear way to resolving the problem."
Despite there being a "clear solution" to Social Security in Gregg's mind, there is still disagreement on Capitol Hill over the president's desire to introduce personal savings accounts. The transition from the current system to the account system could add more than $1 trillion to the deficit. At the same time the government is attempting to cut the $427 billion deficit in half, something Gregg highlighted as a key goal of the budget in a speech to the Senate on Monday.
"It's as if you were starting a restaurant and you had to put some money down to get it started, but you knew in four or five years you were going to make that money back, plus a lot of money. That's the way you look at the Social Security fix," he said Tuesday. "You put money down to fix it today, but in the long run you will be getting that money back as you will have resolved your liability."
Despite the contentious debates sure to follow the proposed entitlement changes this year, Gregg said he hopes to pass a budget for 2006. "We haven't had a budget two out of last three years, so I think it's fairly obvious that getting a budget is not an easy exercise. I don't know that we'll be able to pass one, but I certainly hope to," he said.
"But I see no point in passing a budget that is superficial," he added. "I think it's got to be substantive and has to be willing to control spending, and so I'm going to push for a strong, fiscally responsible budget. And if I don't get it, so be it, but I am not interested in window dressing."
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Supreme Court Hears Arguments for Connecticut Eminent Domain Case
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 -An economy motel could be razed to build an upscale Ritz Carlton hotel if the Supreme Court upholds the state of Connecticut's ruling that property can be seized for economic development, lawyer Scott Bullock argued before the Supreme Court Tuesday.
"Can you take a Motel 6 and give [the land] to a fancier hotel?" Bullock asked during arguments. "Their answer is yes."
The Supreme Court heard arguments for Kelo vs. City of New London, a case that questions whether the government can seize private property for economic development projects like office complexes and hotels.
"This case is about whether there are any limits on the government's use of eminent domain," Bullock said.
Bullock, a lawyer from Washington's Institute for Justice, argued the case brought by New London resident Susette Kelo.
Since January 2000, Kelo's home and the homes of her neighbors have been threatened by a project to build upscale housing, office space, a hotel and a marina.
Kelo and seven of her neighbors refused to sell their homes to New London Development Corp., the private, non-profit corporation developing the Fort Trumbull project. New London city council and approved the project and allowed the development corporation to use eminent domain, the government's power to seize private land for "public use."
Eminent domain, granted by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, may be used to clear land in order to build a highway or rail system intended to serve the public. In 1954, the Berman v. Parker case ruled that eminent domain could be used to clear "blight" or economically-depressed neighborhoods.
Lawyers for the New London residents' have argued that the "trickle-down" economic benefits of development projects do not justify taking private property.
In March 2004, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that eminent domain may be used to produce economic benefits.
Wesley W. Horton, a lawyer representing the city of New London, argued on Tuesday that New London is an economically depressed city with little space available for economic development.
"There's five to six square miles of town to build in," Horton said. "I think if a person does not have a job and needs a job.that's just as important as the train running on time or getting rid of blight."
Bullock failed to acknowledge New London's economically-depressed condition in his argument, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said.
Eminent domain can be used to take land only if there is a public benefit, Justice Stephen Breyer said, but "there almost always is some public benefit attached to economic development."
The Fifth Amendment states that private property should not be taken for public use without "just compensation." Justice Antonin Scalia asked Horton how a development corporation could properly compensate a homeowner who only wants to keep their home.
"You're paying for it, but you're paying someone who doesn't want to sell their property, who wants to live in the house she's lived in her entire life. Does that count for nothing?" Scalia asked.
The Justices also questioned whether eminent domain could be used to transfer private property from one owner to another because the second would be able to generate more tax revenue, providing economic stimulus.
"You can't take from A to give to B, if B pays more taxes-do you agree?" Justice Anthony Kennedy asked Horton.
"The city thinks, if we had a Ritz Carlton, we'd get more taxes," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said.
Not all neighborhoods are rich and produce a lot of tax revenue, Bullock said in his closing statement. Therefore, poor neighborhoods are more likely to be wiped-out by big earning corporations if eminent domain can be used to bolster tax revenue.
"You're going to put poor neighborhoods in jeopardy if the court affirms this decision," he said.
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