As Democratic legislative leaders scrambled Thursday morning to get a new state budget ready for a vote later in the day, they readied an unusual procedural maneuver to underline the stark choice of passing a compromise spending plan or ceding authority to the governor. The GOP called the move “absurd.”
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Stories about Connecticut’s budget, the federal budget, jobs and employment, state investments and casinos.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Push for new CT budget deal going down to the wire
Democratic legislative leaders insisted late Wednesday afternoon — one day before legislators hope to vote on a new state budget — that they remained close to a deal with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy but continued to struggle over key policy questions.
Posted inEducation, Money
New CT budget could shift teacher pension costs onto future taxpayers
If legislators vote on a new state budget Thursday, it may include a complex proposal from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to restructure skyrocketing contributions to the teachers’ pension program — potentially inflating and then shifting billions of dollars in expenses onto a future generation.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy, Democrats close on budget deal
Democratic legislative leaders and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stood on the cusp of a deal Wednesday morning to end Connecticut’s 10-week budget impasse and avert huge cuts in municipal aid three weeks from now, sources said. But a few key issues remain unresolved. The House speaker’s optimism was evident in a Facebook post: A picture of white smoke swirling from a chimney that others called premature.
Posted inEconomic Development, Money
For CT, strides and stumbles in quest to spur bioscience industry
Connecticut is losing more bioscience jobs than it is gaining, despite a sizable jump in research and development jobs over the last three years. Alexion’s departure is the latest in a line that has undercut bioscience growth. Nonetheless, many say New Haven is nearing a “critical mass” after years of effort by Yale and a new cluster is emerging in Farmington after more than $1 billion in state investment.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Alexion reminds Malloy of the risks and rewards of corporate aid
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy picked the gleaming new New Haven offices and labs of Alexion Pharmaceuticals a year ago to highlight the returns Connecticut was getting on its economic development investments. On Tuesday, Malloy stood outside his office to answer questions about Alexion’s plans to slash jobs, close a Rhode Island production facility and relocate its headquarters to Massachusetts, while keeping a “Research Center of Excellence” in New Haven.
Posted inMoney
CT budget clock winding down with no deal yet
As Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his fellow Democrats in the legislature struggled Tuesday to reach agreement on a new two-year state budget, Republican lawmakers offered one more plan they hope might entice some disgruntled Democrats.
Posted inHealth, Money
CT’s hospitals see huge risk in Malloy’s fix for budget impasse
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s bid to end the state’s budget impasse hinges on convincing legislators to raise taxes on hospitals one more time — and trust supplemental payments to the industry won’t be cut afterward. Hospitals don’t like the gamble.
Posted inEducation, Money
Separating fact from fiction on state school aid
How the state funds public schools is so messy and complicated that dozens of parents, educators, legislators, the governor, and a Superior Court judge have characterized the setup as broken. However, some of the criticism that regularly surfaces is based on skewed perceptions of reality.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Bipartisan CT budget talks run out of steam again
Sputtering bipartisan state budget talks, which hadn’t produced any unified plan over the past four months, appeared Monday to have broken down for good — around the same issues that have plagued them in recent years.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Dems shy from sales tax increase in effort to end budget impasse
Democratic legislative leaders and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy made progress over the weekend toward a new plan to end the state budget standoff by week’s end — one that would abandon efforts to raise the primary sales tax rate of 6.35 percent.
Posted inCities & Towns, Education, Money, Politics
Students urge compromise on CT budget
As state government’s ongoing budget standoff prepared to enter a crucial week, 200 students and teachers from a regional high school in Burlington protested Sunday in front of the Capitol.
Posted inEducation, Money
State aid: See how your town fares under Malloy’s latest budget
In the biggest change, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday offered a much more restrained redistribution of state education aid dollars from better-off communities to impoverished ones. Add all the cuts together, and overall state aid for municipalities would be cut by $198 million – 8 percent.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Malloy would accept sales, hospital tax hikes to restore town aid
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed a major increase in state taxes on hospitals to leverage federal dollars, along with a modest sales tax hike, in a compromise intended to end a budget impasse that’s in its third month and has left Connecticut as one of the last two states without a budget.
Posted inMoney
Malloy would ease cost shift onto towns by nearly $775M
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Thursday he would ease proposed municipal aid cuts and other cost-shifts onto cities and towns by nearly $775 million in an effort to end the state budget standoff that has extended 10 weeks into the new fiscal year.