One day after analysts briefed the legislature’s budget panels on surging retirement benefit and other debt costs that could imperil state finances through the early-to-mid 2030s, Comptroller Kevin Lembo peppered his monthly budget forecast with “positive economic indicators that are worth highlighting.”
Lembo says all is not bleak in CT’s fiscal forecast
Posted inMoney
S&P warns CT: Surging debt costs could lower bond rating
While legislators learned Wednesday how surging debt costs would hamper the next state budget, a major Wall Street credit rating agency downgraded its outlook for Connecticut for the same reason.
Posted inHealth
Developmental Services Commissioner to step down
Department of Developmental Services Commissioner Morna Murray plans to leave the job early next year — a time of significant changes for the department serving thousands of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Budget cuts to Judicial Branch undermine access to justice
It is clear that once again lawmakers in Hartford are going to spend much of next year seeking to reduce spending in state government as a means of balancing the budget. A projected shortfall of more than $1 billion means that almost every budget item is vulnerable to spending reductions. In the face of this challenge, it is important for the legislature to decide at the beginning of the process which parts of the budget should be classified as essential to the general public and maintained at current levels. Our state court system surely must be placed in this category.
Posted inHealth
A lot at stake for Connecticut as Trump, GOP eye Medicaid changes
Medicaid is Connecticut’s largest source of federal funding and the largest single line item in the state budget. It covers close to one in five state residents – more than 750,000 poor children, adults and people with disabilities. A major change in federal Medicaid funding is a big worry for the state’s budget director.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Trump pick to run Medicare, Medicaid has red-state policy chops
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Seema Verma, a health care consultant, to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s the part of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and has a budget of just under a trillion dollars in 2016.
Posted inHealth, Politics
House approves mental health and addiction bill championed by Murphy, Courtney
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s Democratic lawmakers split with Rep. Rosa DeLauro and other progressives in their party Wednesday over a bill that included Sen. Chris Murphy’s mental health bill and authorized the spending of $1 billion on the treatment and prevention of opioid addiction.
Posted inPolitics
Lembo challenges charitable deductions for anti-LGBT group
Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo is questioning whether Connecticut state employees should be able to continue directing charitable payroll deductions to the American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss., a Christian charity that the Southern Poverty Law Center monitors as an anti-LGBT “extremist group.”
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics, Transportation
Walker: ‘Devastating’ cuts cannot solve CT’s budget woes
As analysts outlined a grim picture Wednesday that could include further cuts to state social services and reversing recent enhancements in local aid and transportation, one key lawmaker insisted officials must discuss raising revenue in 2017.
Posted inEducation
Feds: East Hartford schools violated rights of non-English speakers
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has found that East Hartford’s public schools have been violating the rights of non-Enligsh speaking families “by unlawfully imposing barriers to enrollment and applying additional registration and enrollment criteria to students based on national origin.”
Posted inPolitics
Linda McMahon: ‘Stay tuned’ on Trump job offer
WASHINGTON – The World Wrestling Federation co-founder and two-time Senate candidate said she discussed the Small Business Administration, among other things, with President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday.
Posted inHealth, Politics
CT business community on watch over ACA repeal effort
WASHINGTON — GOP plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act would affect individuals who’ve been purchasing their coverage on state exchanges or through the expansion of Medicaid the most, but some who receive their health care from their employers are also likely to be affected.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Sale of GE campus to Sacred Heart another ‘poke in the eye’
The sale of the 66-acre GE campus to the university could be construed as a final poke in the eye to the Malloy administration. As the former owner, GE paid the town of Fairfield $1.6 million a year on taxes, but because Sacred Heart is an educational institution it will pay no taxes to the town on this property.
Posted inJustice, Politics
High court milestone in Malloy’s next round of nominees
With Justice Peter T. Zarella retiring in December and Justice Dennis G. Eveleigh reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 next October, the Connecticut Supreme Court soon will be dominated by appointees of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. After filling no vacancies for more than a year, Malloy is considering nominees for the trial, Appellate and Supreme courts.
Posted inPolitics
Congress reduces numbers of F-35s, Black Hawks
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators sharply cut funding for Connecticut-made Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters and trimmed the number of F-35s the Pentagon would buy next year.