The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-05-06
LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE
REPORT or JOINT Special COM
MTTTEE.

The Recommendation win Facilitate
Transaction of Business Engrossing
Private Acts to be Paid For Comptroller
win be Instructed to Make as Good Rates
as Possible for Members,
The joint special committee on joint
| expenses, methods of legislative proceed
ure, etc, made the following report to
the house yesterday
To the Honorable General Assembly of
the State of Connecticut:
| The joint special committee appoint
| ed to inquire into and investigate all
| questions relating to the expense of
| transporting the members OF the gen
| eral assembly, and any other question
or matter of joint expense on the part
| of the general assembly; also the pres
I ent methods of legislative procedure,
with a view to more reasonable eco
nomtcal and expeditions methods; also
any matters relating thereto In any
way which in their judgment Is prop
er subject for inquiry and investigation
beg leave to submit the following re-
| port:
Your committee have had frequent
sessions and have obtained such evil
dence as they were able to procure per-
| tanning to the matters referred to
| them.
In regard to the transportation of
members, we find that the state, under
the present system of communication
| tickets, expends about twenty-five
| thousand dollars for each session of
average length. During the deadlock
the cost to the state was over one hum
| bred thousand dollars,
Members can go home daily through
the session, and the cost to the state
is the same whether they go home once
during the session or daily.
We therefore recommend the passage
of an amendment to Section 3,542 of the
general statutes, which maintains the
present Communication rates, providing
that this act shall not apply to mem
bers of the general assembly.
We recommend an amendment to
Chapter CXCVIII. of the Public Acts of
1889, which provides for the transporta-
ton of members Of the general assem-
bly, at the lowest Communication rates,
tenn so that every railway or street rail-
way company on application shall fur
rish to the comptroller, for the use Of
members of the general assembly, a
coupon ticket-book, each coupon good
for one ride between the members
home station and Hartford; and only
those coupons so used to be paid for by
the state. The price to be paid for
these tickets to be at the lowest rate
for which the comptroller can procure
them.
Nothing Is now paid for the engross-
ing and printing of the private acts In
book form; we therefore recommend
that every application for a charter or
for the passage of a private act or reso-
luton must be accompanied by a fee
of five dollars for every legal page or
fraction of a page to be paid to the
state for it's use if the private act be-
comes a law.
i Every private corporation excepting
those created for religious literary,
benevolent and scientific purposes and
not for pecuniary profit, either directly
4 or indirectly, shall pay before obtaining
it's charter a fee into the treasury of
the state of one dollar for every one
thousand dollars of capital stock per-
nlitted by its charter. For every in
crease of capital stock asked for by
amendment, said corporation shall be
required to pay fee at the same rate
This will pay for the printing of pri-
waite interests and which it seems to
your committee should not be a burden
on the state treasury.
Your committee are convinced that
the present methods of legislative pro-
cedure tend to prolong the sessions of
the general assembly and after careful
consideration of the subject recommend
that committee on bills (perhaps the
committee on engrossed bills) be cre-
ated, the clerk of bills to be clerk of
this committee
The early part of the session Is con-
sumed by the presentation Of bills To
obviate this and enable the assembly
to at once take up the business of the
session we recommend that all bills,
resolutions and petitions, except petit
lions for or against bills already before
the general assembly, shall on or be-
| fore the first day of the session, be filed
| in the office of the secretary of state
and docketed by him and transmitted
to the committee on bills on the first
day of their appointment said commit
tee shall at once recommend the refer
ence of each bill, resolution or petition
to its appropriate committee and shall
file on each to which branch of the as
sembly the author desires the bill, reso-
luton or petition introduced, and shall
at once transmit, or cause to be trans
mitted, such bill, resolution or petition
accordingly.
The committee shall issue a bulletin
for the use of members as soon as all
bills, resolutions or petitions are mum
bered and classified, stating the num-
Der and title of each one and the COM
mittee to whom referred.
The adoption of the plan proposed in
this report, or of some similar one will
shorten the sessions of the general as
sembly and enable any one to quickly
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