The CT Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/)
Huge questions over how state aid for schools and state colleges ultimately will fare will be a critical focus of Democratic and Republican leaders as they grapple with reconciling their vastly different state budgets. Here are the critical differences in funding for schools and colleges that Democrats and Republicans must resolve.
Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, says she is grateful that she never ran for state office in the days before Connecticut’s public financing system, when a major portion of fundraising took place in Hartford and was geared to collecting checks from lobbyists and their clients. But that didn’t stop her from voting Friday for a budget that would repeal the system.
Attorneys general from 39 states, including Connecticut, have broadened an investigation into whether pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors have played a role in the opioid epidemic. Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen called it a “dramatic expansion and coordination of the investigations.”
MGM Resorts International launched a glitzy new campaign Monday to expand into Connecticut, an effort that curiously coincides with the Trump administration, at least temporarily, halting the state’s two federally recognized tribes’ from building a casino in East Windsor to compete with a new MGM resort in Springfield, Mass. MGM is backed by mayors of New Haven and Bridgeport.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy reaffirmed his opposition to the new state budget Monday and urged all sides to compromise on a new one. The Democratic governor said he probably would have to accept some proposals he opposes — and the Republicans would, too.
Because candidates of color are less likely to get over the certification hurdles, states that have bet on improving education by “raising the bar” for entering teaching risk excluding teachers of color even as there has been heightened attention on the lack of diversity in the teaching profession.
It was a week of suspense and anxiety, followed by a flurry of more suspense and more anxiety, followed by a night of high political drama — and promise of a veto — yet Connecticut is still waiting to see what a feverish effort to pass a state budget will produce. Continue Reading →
Many experts say the disasters around Houston and along the crowded coasts of Florida reinforce the urgent idea that resilient infrastructure is needed more than ever, particularly as human-driven climate change helps drive extreme weather. Continue Reading →
Republican legislators sent their first state budget proposal to the governor’s desk in decades early Saturday morning, capping a strange day that didn’t move Connecticut any closer to a new fiscal plan, but raised new questions about the balance of power at the Capitol. Continue Reading →
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has boosted the chance for permanent protection from deportation for 10,000 undocumented youth in Connecticut, but those youth are still wary because their future depends on a fractured Congress. Continue Reading →
Connecticut’s state budget crisis grew exponentially more complicated Friday as three moderate Senate Democrats bolted their caucus and teamed with 18 Republicans to pass a GOP budget plan that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy vowed to veto as unbalanced and gimmick-ridden. Continue Reading →
A two-year political odyssey by Dominion Energy to convince the Connecticut General Assembly that its Millstone nuclear station needed new rules for selling electricity to remain economically viable neared an end Friday. Continue Reading →
Legislators arrived at the State Capitol on Friday with the opportunity for the first time to see the details of a $41.4 billion, two-year budget proposal that the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Democratic legislative leaders hoped would end Connecticut’s summer-long budget impasse. Continue Reading →
On the second try to pass a compromise budget, the House Democratic leadership was counting Friday on the evenly divided Senate, where three conservative Democrats have been in open revolt, to pass the bill first and increase pressure on recalcitrant House members to fall in line. But the trio remained uncommitted to the budget at 1 p.m., and the House lacked a firm majority. Continue Reading →
A compromise to end Connecticut’s summer-long budget impasse dramatically unraveled Thursday night as House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, brusquely acknowledged to reporters he was postponing a vote after a day of cajoling reluctant Democrats. Early today, Senate and House Democrats said they would make another attempt this afternoon and evening. Continue Reading →