Winner of the Week: Package Store Owners

An association of small businesses can rebuke the ceaseless hand of Connecticut government.  Lobbyist Carroll Hughes and the Connecticut Package Stores Association mobilized and defeated a legislative committee’s proposal for the Sunday opening of liquor stores.  The proposal may be revived, but it will face hard-going.  A point has been made.

The passage of Governor Snow White’s 1995 taxpayer campaign finance bill was supposed to toss the lobbyists out of the temple by stripping them and their family members of their constitutional rights to participate in our democracy.  Whoops, the ethics governor forgot to repeal the right of citizens to organize and petition their government.  Package store owners, operating in a highly regulated business, didn’t want to bear the cost of a seventh day of business, so they mobilized.

Their victory came in a week that ended with a jolt to state government when Greg Hayes, chief financial officer of United Technology, was reported to have told Wall Street analysts that it costs less to do business anyplace other than Connecticut.  The state’s largest private employer fired a warning shot into state as the flutter of candidates for governor strain to avoid facing the calamity of the state budget.

The package store owners should provide inspiration to UTC and all other businesses that they need to be heard in Hartford.  Open up your doors and hurry into the halls of the Capitol.  Call Carroll Hughes on your way and find out how it’s done.