Connecticut’s municipal leaders are watching closely to see how swiftly —if at all — lawmakers and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy release $30 million in promised-yet-withheld capital improvement funds for cities and towns once the new legislative session gets underway.
Towns watching grant cut as harbinger of things to come
Posted inPolitics
Kane, Coleman would resign from Senate under tentative deal
Democrats and Republicans negotiated a tentative deal Tuesday night in which Sen. Rob J. Kane, R-Watertown, and Sen. Eric Coleman, D-Bloomfield, would resign Wednesday morning in a carefully choreographed arrangement that would free each legislator to accept new jobs while maintaining the balance of power in an evenly divided Connecticut Senate.
Posted inPolitics
Subtle GOP protest expected as House elects Aresimowicz speaker
Rep. Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, can expect to be elected speaker of the House on the first day of the 2017 legislative session Wednesday without either opposition or support from the growing Republican minority – a calculated, if subtle, protest of Aresimowicz’s continued employment by a major public-sector union, AFSCME Council 4.
Posted inPolitics
Reacting to Larson ‘sit-in,’ House imposes fines for protests
WASHINGTON — Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday beat back Democratic attempts to quash new rules for the chamber that include punishment for lawmakers who break “decorum” by using cell phones to record protests on the chamber floor.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal, CT House members, sworn in on fractious first day of Congress
WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Blumenthal was sworn in to his second six-year term in the U.S. Senate, and all five Democratic House members from Connecticut began a new term as well, as the 115th Congress was gaveled in on Tuesday.
Posted inPolitics
Dargan resigns House seat, accepts nomination to pardons board
The Democrats’ slim majority in the state House of Representatives grew slimmer at 1:31 p.m. Tuesday when Rep. Stephen D. Dargan, D-West Haven, handed in a resignation letter, a precursor to accepting an appointment to the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
‘News Year’ resolutions for Connecticut TV in 2017
We’re going to see a lot of changes in Connecticut television news in 2017. New Haven’s ABC affiliate, WTNH, is getting a new owner for the second time in two years. WFSB, the state’s top-rated news station, is reportedly cutting back on sports coverage – eliminating dedicated sportscasts at 6 p.m., and instead only giving sports a few minutes of coverage at 11 p.m., and only on Wednesdays through Sundays. And News 12 Connecticut plans to begin broadcasting its shows from studios in New Jersey, starting in March.
Posted inHealth
5 health care stories to watch in the 2017 legislative session
From an ailing state budget to potential changes in the way the state oversees what services hospitals deliver, state lawmakers will be dealing with a variety of health-related issues during the upcoming legislative session. Here are five to keep an eye on.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
State should not cut the military funeral honors program
As we come to the conclusion of another calendar year, we face the elimination of the State of Connecticut’s participation in funeral honors for our military fallen. Again, it’s a budget line item that exemplifies insensitivity and callousness toward the providers of our freedom and our way of life in this country.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Three news laws top his list of state legislation effective today
Most of the legislation the General Assembly passed in 2016 has already taken effect, but there are a handful of laws that go into effect on Jan. 1, 2017. Here’s a look at some of the most important legislation that will ring in the New Year:
Posted inPolitics
Ethics opinion: Aresimowicz can be House speaker, union staffer
The Office of State Ethics has advised Rep. Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, that nothing in the state ethics code bars him from continuing his job with AFSCME, an influential public-employee union, as he becomes speaker of the House of Representatives next week. Labor costs are certain to be a major issue in 2017.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Additional cuts to public education will hurt our students
The Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) and the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) are very concerned about the mid-year cut of $20 million in education aid to municipalities announced by the Office of Policy and Management yesterday. These cuts are schedule to take effect immediately and will result in diminished educational opportunities for the students who attend Connecticut’s public schools.
Posted inHealth
Home care agencies warn new system could cause major problems
Starting Jan. 1, the state will begin requiring home care workers to use a new electronic system for reporting the time they spend caring for certain clients – a change forecast to save the state millions of dollars. But home care providers worry problems could leave them unable to make payroll. And one major agency says it will refuse to use the new system.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CT prison education cuts likely to hurt rehabilitation effort
Just this month, The Crime Report – a publication out of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York – congratulated Connecticut as a model of prison reform, saying the rates of imprisonment in the state are the lowest they’ve been in 20 years. The party seems premature, even undeserved when one knows what’s really happening inside the state’s prisons. As a part of Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget cutting frenzy, Connecticut’s correctional education – the programming most likely to aid a prisoner’s rehabilitation – is disappearing.
Posted inEducation, Justice
State appeal of education ruling: 5 things to know
State attorneys have submitted a brief to the Connecticut Supreme Court in an effort to persuade the justices to throw out much of a Superior Court order deeming the state’s educational funding system unconstitutional. Here are five things to know about the state’s case as it moves forward.