To offset new taxes that have rankled business groups, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed trimming up to 1.5 percent of discretionary spending in the new state budget. But the administration’s proposal shows the bulk of the cuts would likely fall on education, municipal aid, health care and social services. And a key legislator has warned that most of those areas could face even deeper cuts once the new fiscal year is underway.
Arielle Levin Becker
Arielle Levin Becker covered health care for The Connecticut Mirror. She previously worked for The Hartford Courant, most recently as its health reporter, and has also covered small towns, courts and education in Connecticut and New Jersey. She was a finalist in 2009 for the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists, a recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the third-place winner in 2013 for an in-depth piece on caregivers from the National Association of Health Journalists. She is a 2004 graduate of Yale University.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Hartford HealthCare cutting 335 jobs, citing state, federal funding cuts
Two weeks after legislators passed a budget that hospital officials called devastating, Hartford HealthCare, the parent company of five hospitals, announced plans to eliminate approximately 335 positions.
Posted inHealth, Politics
As Medicaid cut looms, critics warn of more uninsured
A controversial budget cut expected to cause 23,700 parents to lose Medicaid coverage comes less than two years after a much-touted expansion of coverage under the federal health law. Will those parents find other sources of insurance, or end up uninsured?
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
5 Things you may have missed in the new state budget
Once a month The Mirror addresses five points about a key element of the state budget process. Today’s story looks at some of the lesser-known aspects of the new $40.3 billion biennial state budget adopted last week by the General Assembly and expected to be signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Senate Dems threaten ‘nuclear option’ to pass budget, $2B tax hike
Senate Democrats took the extraordinary step in the final hour of the 2015 session Wednesday of threatening to cut off debate to ensure passage on a 19-17 vote of a new state budget that raises tax revenues by $2 billion.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Play-by-play: The budget debate
After months of wrangling over the next state budget, lawmakers took up a controversial tax and spending plan on the last day of the legislative session. Here’s how it went down.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
House adopts controversial state budget
Connecticut’s long-running budget drama began drawing to a close early Wednesday as the House of Representatives adopted a $40.3 billion, two-year package that largely restores deep cuts to social services and expands municipal aid while bolstering tax revenues by almost $2 billion.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Budget would cut health, social services, but less than gov’s plan
Updated at 6:40 a.m.
The budget deal between legislative leaders and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration calls for millions of dollars in cuts to programs that serve seniors, poor families, and people with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses. But compared to the deep reductions Malloy proposed in February, many of the cuts are relatively modest.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Democrats modify tax proposals, but business unimpressed
Democratic legislators are using a two-stage, 50-cent increase in cigarette taxes to lessen — but not to eliminate — controversial income and data processing tax hikes, with the goal of passing a $40.3 billion, two-year state budget plan on Tuesday. The state’s chief business lobby quickly decried the changes as woefully inadequate.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Cheat sheet: What’s in the big health care bill
The state Senate passed a wide-ranging health care bill Monday that could have significant implications for hospitals, insurance companies, doctors and patients. Here’s what it would do.
Posted inHealth
Former CT insurance official Dowling to lead Illinois agency
Anne Melissa Dowling, a former top official in Connecticut’s insurance department, has been picked to lead the Illinois Department of Insurance.
Posted inMoney, Politics
New budget includes $200 million income tax hit on middle class
A last-minute component of the new two-year state budget deal includes a $100 million-per-year income tax hike on Connecticut’s middle class, according to budget documents released early Monday. The hit comes in the form of a reduced credit for local property tax payments.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Revised health care bill passes House, despite hospital opposition
Many individual provisions of the 87-page proposal could have been controversial bills on their own; together, they represent a set of changes that could have significant ripples through major industries undergoing rapid change.
Posted inHealth, Politics
House nearing deal on massive health care bill
Legislators are closing in on a final version of a massive, heavily lobbied health care proposal that could have significant implications for hospitals, doctors, insurers and patients.
Posted inHealth
Access Health increases fee on insurers
The board of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange approved a 22 percent hike in the fee it charges insurers to help fund its operations, a cost that’s likely to be passed on to insurance customers.