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Legislators to hear tentative budget plan today: The choices are ‘ugly’

After hearing for the past three months about “ugly” budget-balancing options like imposing surcharges on electric bills and raiding clean energy programs that sustain thousands of jobs, state legislators could be asked as early as today to approve them. Sources said Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the legislature’s Democratic majority reached a tentative deal late […]

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Tentative budget counts on less crowded prisons, restores funds for courts

The tentative state budget deal presented to legislators this morning relies on more than $15 million in savings tied to reduced prison populations, as well as additional cuts targeting tourism programs and an already-delayed state contract review agency. According to draft documents obtained by The Connecticut Mirror, the plan would reduce overall spending by $171.8 […]

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Frustrated with Rell and Democrats, GOP legislators quit budget talks

The gulf between Gov. M. Jodi Rell and fellow Republicans in the legislature tore open this afternoon as House and Senate GOP leaders accused the lame duck governor of abandoning any effort to alleviate the multi-billion-dollar deficit she is on pace to hand off to her successor next year. Rell’s office declined any immediate comment, but […]

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Republicans quit budget talks, accuse Democrats and Rell of ‘Band-Aid’ fix

Republican legislators’ hopes for a pre-campaign season debate on the mammoth-sized deficit facing state government in 14 months were dashed this weekend, prompting GOP leaders to accuse Gov. M. Jodi Rell of ducking the problem. And while majority Democrats in the General Assembly dismissed the minority’s objections as mere posturing, the Republican governor took a […]

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Senate agrees to tighten the state’s credit card

In a rare move of bipartisan frugality, the state Senate unanimously adopted a bill this afternoon that cancels $422 million in planned borrowing to keep state government’s credit card under its statutory limit. The measure, which now heads to the House of Representatives, cancels dozens of community and regional projects in legislators’ home districts and […]