Much has been said and written about the state of nonprofits in Connecticut and the impact on services being provided to many of our must vulnerable citizens. Nonprofits providing human service exist to partner with government – the one of the people and by the people and for the people– to look out for those most in need, helping government and our society to fulfill one of its most basic obligations. I know we can parse around the edges about what being “in need” means. Some have more restrictive definitions than others, but in the end it’s our collective sense of common humanity that brings most of us together in solidarity and collaboration to be there for folks who, often through no fault of their own, turn to nonprofits for help.
February 2018
Posted inEducation
Board rejects legislature’s budget for more charter school funding
Frustration over the state’s funding of charter schools boiled over Wednesday when the State Board of Education rejected on principle the state budget’s allocation of the additional $613,500 to three charter schools so they could enroll an additional 57 students.
Posted inNews
After Florida shooting, renewed calls for Congress to act on gun control
After at least 17 people were killed Wednesday in a high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Connecticut Democrats and Sandy Hook activists renewed calls for Congress to act on gun control.
Posted inPolitics
Merrill proposes privacy protections for voters
Are people wary about registering to vote for fear of identity theft? Do victims of domestic violence refuse to register once they move to escape an abuser? Secretary of the State Denise Merrill raised those concerns Wednesday as she outlined a proposal for narrowing the information available in the state’s electronic voter database, barring its use for commercial purposes, and providing special protections for abuse survivors.
Posted inPolitics
Once reticent, Erin Stewart visits Trump in Oval Office
New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, a Republican who had kept her distance from President Trump, accepted an invitation Wednesday to the Oval Office to publicize the administration’s new “Opportunity Zones.” She quickly found herself attacked by Democrats and sighing loudly as the president delivered a zinger over General Electric moving its headquarters from Fairfield to Boston.
Posted inNews
Blumenthal writes FBI over White House security clearances
WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Wednesday joined five other Democratic senators in asking the FBI to provide them with the name and status of all individuals who currently hold interim security clearances at the White House, and asking the agency whether any of them have access to classified information.
Posted inMoney, Politics, Transportation
Speaker: Legislature should turn transportation over to a new authority
After failing for years to properly invest in highways, rail and bridges, the legislature should relinquish oversight to a transportation authority immune from the pressure of election-year politics, House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz said Wednesday.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Regional governance: Not an option, but a necessity
The issue of regional cooperation, regionalism, regional governance is gradually rising from a faint whisper to an almost audible level of tone in the Land of Steady Habits where the myth of municipal home rule reigns supreme. I have been involved with issues of regional cooperation for close to 30 years in various capacities. I have observed the concept progressing in symbolic or fragmented ways, a little here, a little there; but not in the systemic ways that can achieve a more dynamic economy, and overcome the many constraints we now experience in our current mode of state/municipal governance
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Sovereign immunity and Connecticut’s pension obligations
For those who have been following its economic and tax fortunes, Connecticut has been lagging behind other states and has a millstone of unfunded pension liabilities around its neck. Depending on whom you ask, the unfunded pension liabilities for the State Employee Retirement System and the Teacher’s Retirement Fund are $39 billion, if government standards are applied, they are in excess of $100 billion if private sector accounting standards are applied. While Connecticut has contributed more to these pensions in the last few years, Connecticut at the same time has been losing population; seen more capital and high earners leave the state than enter the state; and the budget shortfalls continue unabated.
Posted inEducation
A demand for lots more detail on community college consolidation
Officials of the state’s 12 community colleges must answer a long list of questions from the schools’ accrediting body before their plan to shed hundreds of administrative positions can move forward.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money, Politics
Lawmakers urge reversing clean-energy cuts, but lack budget fix
A coalition of legislators and energy-efficiency advocates pledged Tuesday to work to restore at least some of the roughly $175 million stripped from green programs in the new two-year state budget. But none identified offsetting spending cuts or revenue increases.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Our failure to achieve educational equality is an embarrassment
The provision of an adequate education for all young people living in Connecticut is a requirement, and access to quality education should not be dependent on a child’s family income or zip code. As reported by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas in her June 2, 2017, piece for the CT Mirror, in the 20 years since the landmark Sheff vs. O’Neill case ordering an end to the racial isolation of Hartford’s public school students, the state has enlisted 42 themed regional magnet schools in an attempt to integrate white suburban youth into minority Hartford student classrooms.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Advocates for marijuana sales point to big economic boost
Advocates for legalizing recreational marijuana use in Connecticut — and taxing its sales — are hoping a holistic, economic argument will win the day this year. Supporters say the potential to bolster the state’s tourism industry, create jobs, and even encourage young professionals to locate here, should attract votes for an issue that couldn’t get a vote in the House or Senate in 2017.
Posted inHousing, Money, News, Politics
Trump budget calls for huge increases in CT-made subs, ‘copters
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s new budget would dramatically boost spending on the Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarines built by Electric Boat in Connecticut and sharply increase the Pentagon’s purchase of Sikorsky helicopters in the next federal fiscal year. While those increases may be approved by Congress, much of Trump’s budget was considered DOA.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money, Politics, Transportation
CT Dems pan Trump infrastructure plan
WASINGTON – President Donald Trump rolled out his long-awaited infrastructure plan on Monday, which was quickly panned by Connecticut’s Democratic lawmakers, who are backing a rival proposal. Both plans face major challenges on the road to becoming reality.