Connecticut Local Politics

Capitol Watch notes that the CT State Employees Association is actually joining with the House Republicans in favor of telecommuting. The union seems to have been a little taken aback at the rather nasty reception the idea got amongst Democrats.

“If Larry Cafero came up with it, the knee-jerk reaction ought not be: it’s automatically bad,” [CSEA spokesman Matt] O’Connor said. The idea should be considered in a sober fashion “rather than reacting blindly because it came out of the mouth of Larry Cafero.”

Also, astute commenter pintofguinnessdraft in the earlier thread on this topic cleverly dug up this bill which Williams supported (as in, he voted for it) that would have, according to the bill analysis:

This bill requires, rather than allows, the administrative services commissioner to develop and implement guidelines authorizing telecommuting and work-at-home programs for state employees where this is found to be cost effective.

So it looks like Williams has supported the idea in the past. In fact, Williams says in the Capitol Watch piece that he supports telecommuting. Spokesman Derek Slap clarifies:

But Slap clarified that the Senate Democrats are not against the concept of telecommuting – only the plan unveiled by the Republicans that would benefit their caucus members and staff.

“We’re not anti-telecommuting,” Slap said Wednesday night. “Senator Williams is by no means against telecommuting. It doesn’t make sense with just the two partisan Republican offices participating.”

So…. why not do the same for your own employees? Why not explore actually implementing telecommuting for state employees? Dems may not like what the Republicans are doing (for some reason), but at least they’re doing something.