Whether the General Assembly will return before the holidays to adjust a budget that has fallen out of balance was uncertain Wednesday after legislative leaders met with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. The governor was under the impression they were coming back, while lawmakers said nothing is certain.
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Stories about Connecticut’s budget, the federal budget, jobs and employment, state investments and casinos.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Politics, Transportation
CT transportation system at risk of dramatic contraction
Connecticut’s cash-starved transportation program would need to scrap some rail services, drive up fares, suspend 40 percent of planned capital projects and defer major highway rebuilds like the Hartford Viaduct, to remain solvent over the next five years, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration has warned Wall Street.
Posted inMoney, Politics
MGM, tribes open new fight over casino expansion in Connecticut
TRUMBULL — The chief executive officer of MGM Resorts International courted a business audience Tuesday night, asking them to join him in lobbying the General Assembly next year for legislation ending the gaming monopoly enjoyed by two Indian tribes and allowing MGM to provide Bridgeport with the “life-changing opportunity” of a waterfront casino.
Posted inPolitics
Laffer prescribes tax cuts, and his friend Bob, to the CT GOP
Arthur Laffer, an amiable pitchman for supply-side economics in Washington under Ronald Reagan and now Donald Trump, expanded his portfolio Monday by taking on the twin causes of Connecticut’s anemic economy and the gubernatorial ambitions of a friend and political newbie, Bob Stefanowski.
Posted inMoney
Lembo seconds Malloy’s claim of need for deficit-mitigation plan
Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo made it official Friday: In a letter to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, the comptroller says the state is on pace for a $207.8 million deficit that exceeds the one-percent threshold requiring the administration to prepare a deficit-mitigation plan. The Malloy administration made a similar prediction last month.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Realtors say value of CT homes would drop under tax bills
WASHINGTON — The nation’s Realtors say Connecticut homeowners may lose as much as 10 percent of the value of the equity in their homes – and maybe more – if Congress approves a GOP overhaul of the federal tax code.
Posted inMoney
Lengthy CT budget debate leaves capital program low on cash
Connecticut’s long-running battle to adopt a new state budget has left the capital program used to build schools, roads and bridges low on cash.
Posted inMoney, Politics
A fight to frame ’18: Trump & taxes vs. Malloy & budget
State Senate Democrats introduced President Trump and federal tax policy as issues in the 2018 race for control of the General Assembly on Tuesday with a withering dissection of how tax plans crafted by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress would hit middle-class taxpayers in the Northeast. A Republican leader countered that the legislature has bigger issues closer to home.
Posted inMoney
Malloy signs budget bill, but there’s this one other thing…
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a bill Tuesday that makes technical budget revisions he forced through a line-item veto, but he also raised a new complaint: The legislature improperly transferred a $2.9 million children’s health program to an account funded by assessments on the insurance industry.
Posted inMoney, Politics
CT budget deficit crosses emergency action threshold
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy intensified pressure on the legislature Monday to come into special session to repair the new state budget, projecting a $203 million deficit that exceeds a key risk threshold.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Malloy dishes out legislature’s big mandated cuts
Connecticut got a clearer picture of the painful cuts in the new state budget Friday when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy imposed more than $880 million in spending cuts mandated by the General Assembly.
Posted inMoney, Politics
State, Foxwoods scuffle over tax status of new gaming machines
The unheralded arrival of 100 electronic bingo games at the Foxwoods Resort Casino is raising concerns at the State Capitol that the casino’s owner, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, is testing the market for gambling machines that appear to fall outside the tribe’s longstanding revenue-sharing deal with the state of Connecticut.
Posted inMoney, Politics
GOP approves tax bill over opposition of CT lawmakers
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House on Thursday approved a wide-ranging overhaul of the federal tax code that will lower taxes for many in Connecticut, while hiking them for some, especially in middle-class tax brackets. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy said 305,000 Connecticut households earning less than $197,000 would see a tax increase under the bill.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Lawmaker says keep CT-N independent — or kill it
A legislator who helped create CT-N, the public affairs network that provides gavel-to-gavel coverage of the General Assembly, accused legislative leaders from the House floor Wednesday of turning the network into a staff-operated “political propaganda” instrument.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
House gives final approval to CT budget fix
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly gave final approval Wednesday to a measure fixing technical flaws with the hospital tax, a renters’ rebate program and other aspects of the new state budget.