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REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2012

BILLS: Less than month to finish PLACE: 5-year mark for project nears
Continued from Page One Continued from Page One imum wage, utility standards and, of course, the state budget. There is a lot of work to do and not much time to get it done because the General Assembly adjourns on May 9. Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said the situation is manageable. This is the way the legislature usually heads into its final stretch. The short session this year only tightens the timeframe. Lawmakers only meet three months in even-numbered years. Yet, there has been little visible progress on some of the biggest pieces of legislation of the session, due in no short measure to differences between the Democratic governor and the legislatures Democratic majority. Malloy is saying the talks on education reform are making no headway. The Education Committee watered down the sweeping bill that the governor proposed, including changes to teacher tenure that he recommended. Looney said Democratic leaders and the co-chairs of the Education Committee met last Thursday with administration officials. He called it the first formal, high-level meeting of its kind, and more are planned. There have been staff-tostaff meetings, Looney said. Malloy continues to say that he will not sign legislation that does not more closely resemble the provisions of the 163-page bill that he submitted in February. He also says he expects an acceptable compromise can be reached. I think well come to a consensus on all of these issues in order to have a bill that reflects a significant movement in education reform, Looney said. There have been no negotiations regarding liquor law changes, including a proposal to deregulate pricing that the General Law Committee dropped from the governors original bill. Malloy has reacted coolly to a proposed increase in the minimum wage. His commissioner of economic and community development is publicly speaking out against it. For the time being, the governor is not saying what he will do if the legislation passes. A second committee voted Friday to advance the bill. The governor is a long-time supporter of the minimum wage, said Andrew Doba, Malloys director of communications. He said Malloy is watching how the debate plays out and reserving judgment until he sees a finalized bill. House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, is backing the proposed increase. The bills supporters believe that he can shepherd legislation through his chamber. The Senate is considered the harder sell. Looney did not offer a ringing endorsement when asked where the Senate would stand on the wage increase. Some of us have an interest in it , Looney said. The House will vote first on the proposed increase. BOTH MALLOY AND THE LEGISLATURE ARE PROPOSING to establish standards for power companies for restoring service after emergency outages and emergency planning and management. Both bills set hefty fines if utilities miss restoration deadlines. The governor and lawmakers are responding to the record outages that Hurricane Irene and a freak October snowstorm caused and the public outrage that followed. The administration testified against the legislation that the Energy and Technology Committee proposed. The committee leaders found the governors bill light on specifics. The panel reported out a bill that directs the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to take into account 17 specific considerations in developing the standards. The legislature and Malloy will be making changes to the second year of the two-year, $40.5 billion budget that was adopted last year. Democrats and the administration have differences to work out on the budget, too. Yet, the gulf there does not appear as wide compared to some other legislation Malloy proposed a $329 million increase to the adopted $20.4 billion budget. The Appropriations Committee recommended a $328 million increase. Despite this slight discrepancy, there is some parting on budget priorities between the administration and legislative Democrats. The Department of Revenue Services requested the only tax change that the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee recommended. The revision would designate roll-your-own tobacco shops as cigarette manufacturers. This would require shops to obtain a state license that costs $5,250 a year and charge customers the same taxes that apply to prepackaged cigarettes. The change is expected to affect a handful of businesses. The legislatures budget office is estimating the move will raise upward of $1 million a year. Visit rep-am.com to comment on this story. economic environment that hit us, said CEO David O. Prendergast. I think he tried his best in a very difficult economy to put the pieces together. Despite the tough circumstances, Conroy invested some money in personnel and design studies and kept working to get the project started, Carlson said. If he was just sitting on the sidelines, not spending a dime, then we would have terminated the agreement a long time ago, Carlson said. Conroy did not return messages last week seeking comment. For almost two years, the borough and Conroy have been working to kick-start the project with a medical office building and a parking garage on a former brownfield at the corner of Maple and Water Streets. Saint Marys Hospital in Waterbury announced its intention to lease medical office space, but representatives have been caught up in negotiations with Conroy over how much the hospital needs. Saint Marys only wants 15,000 square feet, an amount that reflects the size of its walk-in clinic on New Haven Road combined with other affiliated doctors offices throughout the borough. Conroy, however, would have to build a 30,000-square-foot building to justify the parking garage, which the borough hoped to build with state grant funding, according to borough officials and NEDC members. The hospital cannot fill more office space while the rest of Renaissance Place remains inactive because the offices would not be supported by the demand the other components, such as condominiums, were supposed to create, said Joseph T. Connolly, a spokesman for Saint Marys Hospital. Saint Marys always saw ourselves as one part of a much larger project, but not the only part of the project, Connolly said. An end to the agreement would mean Conroy would lose exclusive rights to the project, but the NEDC could still entertain any of his development proposals, Carlson said. Although it would mean more work for borough officials, they said pieces of the boroughs downtown could be parceled out to multiple developers who would build toward the same vision of a transitoriented, energy-efficient downtown with all the same components as Renaissance Place. The borough and the NEDC, however, cannot begin discussions with other devel-

opers while under contract with Conroy, members said. Another developer is not likely to win exclusive rights without demonstrating the financial ability to get the project done quickly, Carlson said. Multiple developers could succeed by investing their own money in smaller portions of the project, whereas Conroy had to try to entice third-party investors for the larger sums he required, Carlson said. The entire reason that we gave Alex the development rights is, he had the vision that we wanted to see and, at the time, had every indication that he could make it happen, Carlson said. In the five years since the agreement was signed, the borough has completed many of the necessary plans, studies and zone changes to begin redeveloping downtown. Those requirements are now in place for any future proposals, officials said. I think my board is committed to the concept of a transportation-oriented multiscope project in the downtown, Prendergast said. I think a lot of the work thats been accomplished up to this point has moved us in that direction. Visit rep-am.com to comment on this story.

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HOMES: Mild winter gave market head start

Continued from Page One uncommonly warm January and February a winter that was the best for sales of previously occupied homes in five years. Permits to build houses and apartments rose in February to their highest level since 2008. People feel much more confident, said Steve Brown, coowner of real estate company Irongate Inc. of Dayton, Ohio, who says sales jumped more than 16 percent for the first two months of 2012 over the same period last year. Theres no question theres a good feeling in the marketplace. Some analysts detected a slight uptick in prices for February and March. CoreLogic, a real estate data firm, says prices for homes not at risk of foreclosure about two thirds of the market rose 0.7 percent

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in February. It was the first increase in four years. Price gains occurred both in some hard-hit areas, such as Phoenix, and some still-thriving areas like New York and Washington. In Miami, the average sales price has surged 14 percent in the past year, according to Trulia, a real estate data firm. In Phoenix, the average is up 13 percent, in Pittsburgh 9 percent. Earnings reports Friday from two big banks suggested that

more people are taking out mortgages. JPMorgan Chase issued 6 percent more mortgages from January through March than it did a year ago and got 33 percent more applications. Wells Fargo issued 54 percent more mortgages and received 84 percent more applications. Still, few think the housing industry is nearing a return to full health. For that to happen, a robust job market would be needed. More hiring would give more people the money and job security to buy. That would help boost sales and prices. Such areas as Atlanta, suburban Las Vegas and central California show few signs of recovery. And in some others from Seattle to Cleveland home prices have continued to slip. The average has dropped 9 percent in Seattle over the past 12 months and 7 percent in Cleveland.

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