Connecticut Legislator Balances Fiscal Necessity With Human Need

NORTHEAST

For Connecticut State Senator Bill Aniskovich (Flemming Fellow ’99), the political process exists to improve communities.

The search to identify workable solutions to real problems is something Aniskovich, the Deputy Senate Minority Leader, confronted during the budget process last session. Many Connecticut families who care for mentally retarded "children" — most of whom are adults — at home are on a waiting list for space in a professional care facility. Traditionally, the state hadn’t been willing to commit the resources necessary to speed up the process by which these individuals are placed. Aniskovich, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of a behavioral health care provider, successfully worked for a balanced, compromise solution to this problem: a "phase-in" to eliminate the wait list was passed, allocating $10 million more to the issue with a four-year goal of decreasing at a higher rate the number of people still waiting, and the long term objective of eliminating the list entirely.

Pragmatism with a strong dose of personal conviction also led Aniskovich, a Republican, to back a complete ban on the sale of military-style semi-automatic assault rifles in 1993.

"It was a flag-planting moment in my political career," Aniskovich says of his decision to go against what some felt was the party line in a district with many rural constituents who are gun supporters. "There’s a constant tug between what legislators want to accomplish and what we can accomplish. We won’t achieve a healthy balance between those if we retreat into ideology."