About 9,500 parents would lose Medicaid, fewer seniors would receive home care, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers would receive millions of dollars less from the state, and school-based health centers would see a 10 percent funding cut under the budget plan Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed Wednesday.
How health care and Medicaid fare in Malloy’s budget
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Some education aid increases might not be spent on schools
In his new budget Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is proposing to increase state education grants to 52 cities and towns with struggling schools by about $230 million, but it will be up to the municipalities to determine whether to actually spend it on their schools – or use it to close their own local budget shortfalls or make up for other state budget cuts.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Hospitals blast Malloy’s proposal to subject them to property taxes
The governor’s plan would also cut an $11.8 million fund that has provided money to small, independent hospitals. And it would restore the administration’s ability to unilaterally cut funding to hospitals through a technical budgeting change.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Amid cuts and concessions, Malloy promises progress
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy framed what is likely to be his final two-year budget as a call to recast the state’s compact with its neediest municipalities, expanding the tax base of teetering cities like Hartford and Waterbury and maintaining aid to the 30 poorest school districts that educate nearly 40 percent of Connecticut’s children.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics, Transportation
Malloy budget hinges on big labor savings, new revenues
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled a $40.6 billion two-year budget Wednesday that seeks $1.5 billion in labor concessions, imposes $400 million on annual pension costs on municipalities and reorganizes the financial relationship between the state, communities and hospitals.
Posted inEducation, Money
See how your town fares in the governor’s proposed budget
Seven impoverished communities stand to gain more than $10 million each, but 145 municipalities would lose aid.
Posted inMoney
Text of Malloy’s budget address to the General Assembly
Here is the text of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget address to the General Assembly, as prepared for delivery.
Posted inHealth, Money
Malloy’s new budget sparks big revenue debate
Updated at 3:30 p.m.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy would rely on new revenues from fees and taxes to close about 40 percent of the projected shortfall in state finances in the next state budget. New revenue sources would include increasing taxes by scaling back credits for the middle class and working poor and adding 45 cents per pack to cigarettes.
Posted inPolitics
CT’s left pushes Trump to deliver on a populist tax promise
Whatever fiscal sacrifice is proposed Wednesday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to close a budget shortfall of $1.7 billion, a liberal coalition will be standing by with an alternative already rejected by the governor — raise more than $500 million by nearly quadrupling the income tax on hedge fund managers. Their message is directed at President Trump, not just Malloy.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
In Fairfield, time to face the glaring racial imbalance in CT schools
When Brown v. Board of Education was passed and public schools across the country slowly trod toward desegregation, many pro-segregation parents enrolled their children in private schools rather than allow them to share a classroom with black students. We can hear echoes of this sentiment in Connecticut School Board Chair Allan Taylor’s opposition to redistricting students in Fairfield.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy proposal today to kick off a grueling budget season
The governor’s new, two-year budget would avert $3.6 billion in projected deficits, seek $700 million in annual labor concessions, redistribute local aid to shield poor cities, require municipalities to cover one-third of Connecticut’s teacher pension costs and allow municipalities to levy the property tax on hospitals.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Trump attempt to rein in drug prices may have limited success
WASHINGTON – The president’s spokesman says Trump still favors a plan to negotiate Medicare prices, but he did not mention it after a recent meeting with pharmaceutical executives, and his plans to speed FDA approval of new drugs may be hampered by his restrictions on new regulations and cuts to the federal workforce.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
GOP, Malloy offer plans to restore stalled local aid
Republicans in the state House and Senate and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy both released proposals Tuesday to restore stalled municipal aid that local officials hoped to receive this fiscal year.
Posted inHealth
CT Obamacare exchange enrollment down 3.9 percent
The open enrollment period for Connecticut’s health insurance exchange ended with 111,524 people signed up for private health plans – approximately 4,500 fewer than last year.
Posted inEducation, Politics
With Pence casting historic vote, DeVos is confirmed by Senate
Updated at 4:45 p.m.
WASHINGTON — With the help of Vice President Mike Pence, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed charter school advocate Betsy DeVos to head the U.S. Department of Education. As a lightning rod candidate, DeVos’s confirmation provoked mixed reactions from school groups in Connecticut. .