Tom Foley insists he can eliminate what effectively amounts to the largest state budget deficit in Connecticut history without raising taxes. To get there, he concedes, will require breaking some new political ground, a polite way of describing what others would call long-shots: repealing binding arbitration; getting employee unions to accept concessions for both current […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell tapped the former head of the state’s homeland security agency, James M. “Skip” Thomas, to serve as acting commissioner of the Department of Public Safety for the remainder of her administration. Thomas, 63, who retired from state service in 2009, replaces John A. Danaher III, who resigned from his post at […]

Connecticut’s soon-to-be-consolidated probate courts now expect to run more cost-efficiently than ever, projecting a deficit for the next fiscal year that’s one-third of what the General Assembly anticipated before it overhauled the 300-year-old system in 2009. The $4.3 million structural deficit built into the $30.4 million system budget also is less than half of the […]

A controversial system for exposing state budget deficits that the Democrat-controlled legislature forced on Gov. M. Jodi Rell last year could come back to bite Democrats this fall – less than three weeks before Election Day. Commonly known as the “consensus revenue” law, the statute requires the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis and the […]

Connecticut, and especially the Stamford metropolitan area, might be a far more attractive site for a new Major League Baseball franchise than state politicians and business leaders might think, according to the latest quarterly economic report from the University of Connecticut. Despite being locked between two of the country’s oldest – and arguably most passionate […]

Former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., who drove the adoption of the state income tax as one of the chief solutions to state government’s fiscal crisis in 1991, will make a rare public appearance later this month to discuss how he would resolve Connecticut’s current economic woes. Weicker, a three-term U.S. senator who was elected […]

State officials recently got their first glimpse of the cost of escaping a pay-as-you-go health insurance program for retired workers, and it wasn’t pretty. But on a long-term basis, the state’s health care consultants said, it’s far less expensive the the current practice of paying the bills out-of-pocket. A preliminary analysis issued last week to […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed a bill today that would have created a new commission within the Office of Policy and Management to review state sentencing policies. The governor argued the legislature’s Judiciary Committee already performs this function, and that the bill would have required an extra $130,000 in spending to provide salaries and benefits […]

Connecticut may be headed for the largest budget deficit in its history in just 13 months, but some consumers will actually be enjoying a state tax cut later this summer. Thanks to a drop in the world price of crude oil and a relatively new system for calculating tax rates, the levy on diesel fuel […]

Though Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration hasn’t had much success to date selling surplus property to balance the budget, the General Assembly is planning to all-but-give some away later this month to help out their districts back home. But House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, and Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, […]

State government’s standing on Wall Street took a hit today when one of the three major credit rating agencies lowered Connecticut’s bond rating, citing the state’s repeated efforts to close budget deficits through borrowing, rather than spending cuts or tax hikes. But the downgrade by Fitch Ratings Services should not have much of an effect […]

Proposals to close prisons and speed up inmate releases have become increasingly popular in recent years as state officials grapple with continuing budget deficits of massive proportions. But while Connecticut’s inmate population has receded from the record mark of nearly 20,000 two years ago, research from criminal justice planners says the number of prisoners the […]

State government’s credit card still carries a large balance, but it’s no longer on pace to shatter its limit. That’s due to dozens of projects being scrapped and modest revenue growth that expanded Connecticut’s borrowing capacity. According to new estimates from state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier, the state will enter the new fiscal year on […]

Despite hopes for an early resolution, state officials are still waiting to to see whether Congress will provide more than $360 million in extra stimulus aid – money already built into the new state budget. A major stimulus expansion bill advanced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday – but only after being stripped […]