The Democrat-controlled state House of Representatives, which caved Friday to Senate pressure to back a new deficit-mitigation plan, likely will cancel its Saturday session to vote on the package now the Gov. M. Jodi Rell has pledged to veto it, House sources said. As the Senate entered session just before midnight to vote on the […]

Majority Democrats in the state Senate broke ranks Wednesday with their colleagues in the House of Representatives, announcing they would vote within a few days on their own proposal to close a $500 million-plus shortfall in this fiscal year’s budget. “The current stalemate is unacceptable,” Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, wrote […]

While state legislators remained divided Wednesday over how to tackle the deficit in Connecticut’s budget, sources said a controversial tax designed to lower consumers’ electric bills now is being considered as a means to bail out state government. “I do believe there is a renewed interest” in a windfall profits tax on electricity generators, said […]

Despite nearly $5 billion in deficits projected for through 2012, the state legislature’s Appropriations Committee will recommend later today adding nearly $350 million in spending to next year’s preliminary budget, according to draft documents released by the committee. The Democrat-controlled Appropriations will be asked to adopt a$19.28 billion spending plan for 2010-11, which also tops […]

With the November elections still to go before they must face a 2011 state budget deficit of historic proportions, legislators admit they aren’t ready to order major tax hikes this spring. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t laying the groundwork. “We need a comprehensive overhaul of the entire tax structure in Connecticut,” House Majority Leader […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell warned legislative leaders today not to let the 2010 session end in six weeks without approving a plan to ‘securitize” or sell $1.7 million or more in future state revenues to help balance the next state budget. “The time for making the difficult choices and for taking decisive action is at […]

Majority Democrats in the state Senate broke ranks today with their Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives, announcing they would vote within a few days on their own proposal to close a $500 million-plus shortfall in the current state budget. “The current stalemate is unacceptable,” Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, […]

Finding $1.3 billion in revenue for next year’s budget by selling future income for pennies on the dollar means weighing a series of unpalatable options. Legislators don’t want to give up their revenue streams for too little, but they also don’t want to sell the blue-chip revenue-raisers, like the income tax, that would fetch the […]

State Rep. James F. Spallone of Essex decided against a campaign for secretary of the state, endorsing fellow Democrat Denise W. Merrill of Mansfield, the state House of Representatives’ majority leader. Spallone, who has visited dozens of Democratic town committees since launching his exploratory effort 14 months ago, said ‘the response has been positive.” But […]

State employee unions have rejected Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s request for a second concession package that would have allowed layoffs under certain conditions, required four more furlough days, deferred one cost-of-living raise and canceled longevity bonuses for senior workers. The proposal, which the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition said showed “cynical disrespect” to state government’s 45,000 unionized […]

After battling Gov. M. Jodi Rell over spending and taxes for most of last year, majority Democrats in the General Assembly are developing their own fiscal rift, a divide that could widen during the session’s final month. While House Democrats were finding common ground against deep spending cuts in a closed-door caucus, their Senate counterparts […]

The late George Carlin had his “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television.” Then there are the “Words You Don’t Use If You’re A Democrat Who Hopes To Become Governor.” So the first televised debate between the six Democratic gubernatorial contenders, which aired live Friday on NBC Connecticut, didn’t include terms like “tax increases,” […]

With time running short to develop a plan for closing $1.2 billion in deficits, the legislature’s budget-writing panels received little help Wednesday from majority Democrats in the House of Representatives. In a closed-door meeting, the 114-member caucus came down strongly against any deep cuts in spending, particularly those aimed at social services and health care, […]

State and local officials representing Rocky Hill insisted they weren’t trying to block a new public health laboratory planned for their town when they outmaneuvered Gov. M. Jodi Rell Tuesday and stalled almost $70 million in state bonding for the project. Rep. Tony Guerrera, D-Rocky Hill, and Sen. Paul R. Doyle, D-Wethersfield, also said election-year […]

Republican gubernatorial contender Michael Fedele pledged today that if elected, he would include no new taxes in the budget he would propose next February to close a nearly $4 billion hole in state finances in 2011-12. Fedele, the lieutenant governor, outlined a plan to shrink government spending that includes: imposing a four-year hiring freeze, capping future state […]