As Connecticut begins its second month without a state budget next week, the cost to cities and towns will take a big leap, topping $100 million.
Cities & Towns
Connecticut has 169 cities and towns. Keep up with their neighborhoods, their municipal governments and regionalization efforts here.
Posted inCities & Towns
In Meriden, there is action near the station as development ramps up
Officials hope the trend toward transit-oriented development, or TOD, will lessen traffic congestion, reduce pollution and create dense and lively town centers that can attract bright young workers – the ones the General Electrics and Aetnas say they want.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money
Bronin hires law firm as decision on Hartford bankruptcy looms
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin announced Thursday his administration has hired an international law firm specializing in financial restructuring as he nears a decision on whether to pursue bankruptcy.
Posted inCities & Towns
Danbury, now hatless, gets a second wind
Danbury – once the Hat City – has parlayed a good location, population growth, a history of economic development efforts, a sturdy tax base and generally efficient administration into a city that is farther along in reinventing itself than a number of other Connecticut cities once dominated by single industries.
Posted inCities & Towns
New Census estimates: Most CT cities losing residents
Town population estimates for 2016, released by the U.S. Census Bureau today, show population declines in 15 of the state’s 19 large cities. A few in southwestern Connecticut had small gains.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money
Coventry town manager Elsesser: Connecticut should consider the commercial activities tax
John A. Elsesser, longtime Coventry town manager, has been one of the leading figures in municipal government for nearly four decades. He understands the varied and intensifying fiscal pressures facing Connecticut and its municipalities, recognizes the need to raise revenue; and sees one possible way to do it fairly — a commercial activities tax.
Posted inCities & Towns, Education, Money, Politics
GOP offers alternative budget — but has much work still to do
Republican legislators unveiled a two-year budget plan that rejected controversial proposals to pass teacher pension costs onto towns and to expose nonprofit hospitals to local taxation. But the GOP plan, which also would eliminate a program to share sales tax receipts with municipalities, is out of balance by more than $1 billion because of recent, massive erosion in state income tax receipts.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Politics
Bronin: CT must do more than avert insolvency in Hartford
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin’s new $613 million city budget needs at least $49 million in extra state and private-sector aid to stave off ugly choices that could include bankruptcy.
Posted inCities & Towns, Health, Money
Independent living centers at risk from state, federal budget cuts
The five centers provide a wide array of training, counseling and referral services to thousands of residents with physical and mental disabilities, the elderly and the poor. Leaders of the centers have watched state funding shrink by 62 percent over the past year and are at risk of losing the rest this spring.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Politics
Looney wants half-penny sales tax option for cities and towns
Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney of New Haven called Friday for an optional local sales tax increase to help cities and towns control property tax rates. This would add a local surcharge of one-half of 1 percentage point to the existing 6.35 percent state sales tax.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money
Jepsen sees ‘not insubstantial’ risk in casino expansion
Allowing Connecticut’s two federally recognized tribes to jointly operate a casino off tribal lands would pose legal risks that “are not insubstantial” to the more than $250 million in slots revenue annually shared with the state, Attorney General George Jepsen wrote Monday in a formal legal opinion.
Posted inCities & Towns
Has regionalism’s time finally come?
While autonomous municipal government — home rule — is the norm and likely to remain so, regional cooperation has been inching ahead. Now with the state and several large cities facing severe fiscal challenges, mayors such as Hartford’s Luke Bronin and others, including the state’s major municipal advocacy group, are pushing for more regional sharing.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Politics
Tribes renew pitch for third casino, say they’ll name site in days
Updated at 2:45 p.m.
The tribes running the state’s two casinos will announce within days where in north-central Connecticut they want to build a satellite gaming facility, casino leaders announced Thursday.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Transportation
Griebel on the business climate: ‘Confidence must be restored’
R. Nelson “Oz” Griebel, longtime chief executive officer of the MetroHartford Alliance, has been active in state, regional and city public policy for nearly two decades. He chaired the state Transportation Strategy Board and ran, unsuccessfully, for governor in 2010. Now, as the governor and General Assembly resume debate on the state budget and massively under-funded retirement benefit programs that threaten Connecticut’s fiscal future, Griebel sat down to talk with The Mirror.
Posted inCities & Towns, Education, Money, Politics
Malloy proposes easing mandates on cities and towns
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled a plan Tuesday to ease municipal mandates, including tighter wage standards on construction projects and greater flexibility in property assessments.