If state officials were hoping for a last-minute silver bullet to solve their budget crisis, they didn’t get it Friday when revised revenue estimates made almost no dent in the $3.7 billion deficit for 2011-12. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy spent much of his first week-and-a-half in office urging legislators not to “sugar-coat” the scope of […]

A proposal to cut state legislators’ pay by 10 percent stalled as soon as it was raised Thursday. The Compensation Commission for Elected State Officers and Judges, an obscure legislative advisory panel that typically meets only once or twice at the start of each, two-year legislative term, quickly dispatched the proposal, which came from one […]

Connecticut judges say they don’t expect a raise this year given the budget crisis. But after fiscal conditions improve, it’s time for a new system with annual raises that match those given to managers across state government. The Compensation Commission for Elected State Officers and Judges, a legislative advisory panel, unanimously endorsed the proposal it […]

State legislators, who spent much of the past campaign pledging to make job growth a top priority, now have to decide how often they want to be reminded of that. The legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis, which analyzes every bill to determine its potential cost to state government, recently filed a plan outlining how […]

With Connecticut businesses facing a General Assembly session fraught with proposed mandates and tax hikes, advocates say the legislature’s relative lack attention to an expensive new unemployment assessment is not a good sign. As the legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee voted Tuesday to again raise a controversial measure to mandate paid sick leave for […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s transition team presented more than 1,800 pages worth of policy recommendations Monday, including sweeping proposals to overhaul education funding, institute universal pre-kindergarten, find new transportation revenues and end the regional tourism district system. And while Malloy thanked his team’s Policy Committee for developing a report that offers guidance his administration will use […]

HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy warned businesses Friday they will face sacrifices to help close the state budget deficit, but added that a new emphasis on smart investments and cooperative government offers light at the end of Connecticut’s dark economic tunnel. “There is no cavalry — except us,” Malloy told nearly 600 business leaders […]

If state government hopes to finance a robust capital program that creates jobs, it has to stop using its credit card to cover day-to-day operating costs, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday. Chatting with Capitol reporters one day after taking the oath of office, Malloy again insisted that Connecticut must maintain a “substantial competitive advantage” […]

While Gov. Dan Malloy used his first executive order Wednesday to begin whipping Connecticut’s finances into shape, state legislators warned they aren’t ready to go cold turkey when it comes to budget gimmicks. And though Malloy kept a campaign pledge to begin the conversion to generally accepted accounting principles on Day One, he stretched that […]

Despite a record-setting budget deficit, the state should consider creating a new agency to resolve a growing backlog of employee complaints of corruption, mismanagement, waste and unsafe behavior, Connecticut’s retiring state auditors proposed Monday. Robert G. Jaekle and Kevin P. Johnston also used their final annual report to recommend closing a loophole in the state […]

Connecticut’s cities and towns made it clear Monday they’re guarding against the traditional shell game state government has employed in past fiscal crises – shielding assistance in high profile programs while stripping funding from lesser ones. And this year’s game has a new wrinkle after many state officials campaigned this past fall on a pledge […]

Gov.-elect Dan Malloy has spent the better part of the last year trying to navigate between a political rock and a fiscal hard place. On one side there’s a general public wary of the next major state tax hike, state employee unions still smarting from 2009 concessions, and a host of other special interests fearful […]

Connecticut and most other states have watched for much of the past decade as Internet retail transactions increasingly have cut into their sales tax collections. Though consumers here always have been required to pay tax on their online purchases, political pressures, a lack of direction from the federal government and even legal challenges from Internet […]

Gov.-elect Dan Malloy tapped West Hartford Democrat Kevin B. Sullivan, a former longtime state Senate leader and lieutenant governor, to lead the state’s tax agency. Sullivan, 61, will assume control of the Department of Revenue Services as the new Malloy administration prepares to address what effectively amounts to the largest budget shortfall in state history–a […]

Gov.-elect Dan Malloy and his nominee for public safety commissioner, Reuben Bradford, announced two top appointments Wednesday for the upper command within the department. Malloy and Bradford named Danny R. Stebbins to serve as deputy commissioner and colonel of the state police, and Robert Corona as lieutenant colonel and commanding officer of field operations. “Reuben […]