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.
GOP, Malloy offer plans to restore stalled local aid
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. .
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut Democrats embrace Trump as organizing tool
The Connecticut Democratic Party has averaged an email “alert” every other day since Donald J. Trump’s inauguration, using the president’s pronouncements on Obamacare, voter fraud, abortion, financial regulation and immigration to expand and energize the Democratic base. So far, Democrats say, Trump has produced results.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Mr. Ryan, the Affordable Care Act saved my husband’s life
Dear Mr. Paul Ryan, I am writing you about the proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I write to you as a mom, wife, daughter and friend of those whose lives have been helped in many crucial —several life-saving– ways by the ACA, and who stand a lot to lose by its repeal, whether or not they even know it.
Posted inMoney
Labor savings is the big unknown in Malloy’s new budget
The new budget Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will propose Wednesday will be based partly on a big assumption — that ongoing talks with state employee unions will produce concessions. But some are worried that to get them, the state must promise to maintain a costly retirement benefits system beyond the current 2022 expiration date.
Posted inJustice, Money
Big pot of money waiting if CT legalizes marijuana, analysts say
Connecticut could bring in $45.4 million to $104.6 million a year in revenue if the legislature legalizes marijuana in the same way Massachusetts or Colorado have, Connecticut’s nonpartisan fiscal experts say.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy to address Democrats planning strategy in Baltimore
WASHINGTON — Gov. Dannel Malloy will be among the speakers when Democrats gather in Baltimore later this week to plan strategy in the time of Trump. As head of the Democratic Governors Association, Malloy will address the Democratic National Committee’s “Future Forum” as the party that saw its clout shrink in the election regroups this week in the Maryland city.
Posted inNews
Connecticut supports challenge of Trump’s immigration order
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen joined 15 counterparts Monday in filing an amicus brief in support of Washington state’s lawsuit challenging President Trump’s executive order temporarily banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
Posted inEducation, Money
Malloy proposes shaking up state education aid
NEW BRITAIN — Standing in the library of an elementary school that was at the center of a recent school-funding trial, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Monday released his plans for redistributing existing levels of state education aid in ways he said would help the most impoverished school districts.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Jewish leaders oppose Trump’s executive order on immigration
We, the undersigned Jewish Federations throughout the State of Connecticut, along with JFACT (Jewish Federations Association of Connecticut) and the Anti-Defamation League of Connecticut, oppose President Trump’s Executive Order barring many refugees and immigrants from entering the United States. President Trump’s Executive Order, issued on Friday, January 27, bans any refugees from entering the United […]
Posted inEducation
School funding reform: Ideas and challenges aplenty
With the governor set to lay out his proposals for education aid this week, numerous advocacy groups, rank-and-file legislators and a group suing the state over school funding have been pitching changes they would like to see. The bulk of the ideas are not new – but most would be controversial or expensive.
Posted inMoney, Politics, Transportation
Transportation funding debate still centered on ‘lockbox’
While Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has released no transportation-related details from his next two-year budget plan, he also hasn’t backed away from his demand that legislators first back a constitutional ‘lockbox’ amendment to safeguard transportation revenues.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy: Pension bills for CT towns part of a larger plan
The shift of $400 million in teacher pension costs onto municipalities is part of a much larger plan not only to close a significant projected state deficit, but also to address long-ignored inequities in municipal funding, the governor said. More details of that plan are expected today.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
A century later, America’s values are betrayed again: A new ‘Asiatic Barred Zone’
History echoes in the Trump administration’s ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries. Our nation of immigrants has withstood periodic spasms of xenophobia – including creation of the “Asiatic Barred Zone” 100 years ago today. We must recall these errors to endure this era, too.