After the House passed their version of the budget on Wednesday, the Senate passed that version along the same vote lines on Thursday, and within hours Governor Rell vetoed it. One of the provisions, according to the Courant, that I found odd about the budget was the addition of a sales tax on funeral expenses under $2500. I guess dead people or people grieving don’t hire lobbyists or something.

Lobbyists have had much to do with the legislature’s reluctance to get rid of zone pricing. From the Courant:

In zone pricing, a longtime practice used by the major oil companies, retailers in different communities are charged different prices - even when the gasoline is delivered by the same truck on the same day. As a result, a truck could deliver gasoline to a station for one price and then drive farther down the same street that day and charge a different price to another retailer.

Some legislators and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal have decried this practice for years, but the oil companies have responded that chain hotels and other businesses act in the same way by charging different prices in different locations.

Lawmakers in Fairfield County have harshly criticized the practice, saying it drives up prices, particularly in the state’s southwest corner.

“It’s not fair that in my communities that the prices are 10 to 20 cents higher than in other areas of the state,” said Sen. Robert Duff, a Democrat who represents Norwalk and Darien. “This is a first step.”

But Sen. Sam Caligiuri, a Waterbury Republican, said proponents of the bill were simply relying on anecdotes and could not prove the benefits of banning zone pricing, even as pump prices have soared to about $3.25 per gallon and beyond.

“There is not a shred of evidence in the record - credible evidence - that banning zone pricing” would cut prices at the pump, Caligiuri said. “You don’t have a single bit of evidence it will help - just a hope.”

The senators debated sharply over a report issued by a Quinnipiac University professor earlier this year that said gasoline prices would not be reduced by eliminating zone pricing. Opponents of the ban said the report - paid for by the major oil companies - was a solid and reputable academic report unswayed by the oil companies.

But Sen. Andrew McDonald, a Stamford Democrat, ripped the report as a useless piece of propaganda.

“That’s not science. That’s paid-for advocacy,” McDonald said on the Senate floor. “That study is worth nothing, except for the petroleum industry that paid for it. … It lacked credibility when it was brought to this General Assembly.”

Zone pricing basically just increases the profit margin of the wholesale gas distributors, not the retail gas stations. It’s an artificial market price at wholesale and it should be banned. House speaker Amann let a similar bill die without coming to a vote on the floor last year. Let’s see what he does this year. Lieutenant Governor Fedele cast the tie-breaking vote. This was the high-point of drama for political reporters.

source:, The Courant, Lt. Governor Tips Tie: Senate Votes To Bar Gas Price Tactic; House Mood Unclear
By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, June 1, 2007