In December I expect that the Low Wage Board will recommend an increase in the state’s minimum wage. Should that occur, I will not be supporting the board’s decision. Given how the board was legislatively constituted, it is an outcome that should come as no surprise. With the increase to $10.10 in January 2017, Connecticut’s ability to attract and retain businesses will continue to fall and the result of any further increase will result in an explosion in our already unsupportable social service costs.
The minimum wage in Connecticut: We need to look elsewhere
Posted inHealth
ConnectiCare could become third insurer to exit exchange today
It has been a tumultuous year for Connecticut’s state health insurance exchange, but the latest – and most significant – blow could come Monday if its largest insurer decides not to offer plans next year.
Posted inJustice
For David Rosen, 11 years in court just a beginning in school case
“This is a case I feel so privileged to be involved with,” said crusading New Haven attorney David Rosen. “Let’s hope that this case has a very big impact and helps lots of children for years to come.”
Posted inJustice
Malloy: Reforms help shrink prison population to a 20-year low
Connecticut’s prison population briefly fell below 15,000 inmates this month for the first time in nearly 20 years, a drop Gov. Dannel P. Malloy attributes to the bipartisan passage last year of lowering penalties for drug possession, a reform aimed at reducing incarceration without compromising public safety.
Posted inMoney
CT businesses making profits but still wary about adding jobs
About two-thirds of Connecticut businesses made a profit last year, yet fewer than half expect to add jobs at this time, according to the Connecticut Business and Industry Association’s annual survey of businesses.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Destroying UConn’s Faculty Row — a stupid move
My family lived along Gilbert Road when father first came to the Connecticut Agricultural College, a school limited to 500 students by the State Legislature. They moved to a farm just off campus where I grew up. I later worked in industry, in Europe, and began on the Physics faculty in 1971. I served on the University Senate for years, as well serving for years on the Research Foundation and the AAUP Executive Committee, including two years as president of the faculty union. I relate all this in the hope you will have some faith in my recommendation that you institute the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act process to investigate the University of Connecticut’s decision to destroy what remains of Faculty Row.
Posted inHealth
State allows L + M Hospital to join Yale New Haven system
Over the objections of unions opposed to a further consolidation of the hospital industry, state health regulators Thursday approved an affiliation agreement that makes Yale New Haven Health Services Corporation the owner of the struggling Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London. The approval comes a day after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy modified an executive order imposing a moratorium on hospital consolidations.
Posted inPolitics
House GOP grapples with how to punish Larson, other sit-in participants
WASHINGTON — Pressed by the conservative wing of their party, House GOP leaders discussed options this week to punish Rep. John Larson and other Democrats who staged a sit-in on the House floor to protest the lack of action on gun control measures, but they’ve yet to unveil a strategy.
Posted inTransportation
ConnDOT offers a plan, and a mea culpa, for I-84 in Hartford
Can the same state agency that bulldozed vibrant neighborhoods and bisected Hartford with the construction of I-84 a half-century ago knit the city back together? As it designs a replacement for an aging section of elevated highway, ConnDOT insists the answer is yes.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Warren, Sanders demand Aetna explain decision to quit ACA exchanges
Updated 5:27 p.m.
WASHINGTON – In a strongly worded letter to Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and several other Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, have asked the company to explain why it entered into a “risky” merger deal with Humana that now makes it financially unable to sell policies in 11 state health insurance exchanges.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
‘Connecticut needs a school finance system that makes sense’
In his decision on Wednesday in Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) v. Rell, Connecticut Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher made a lengthy, wide-ranging ruling on education and equity in our state. At the heart of Judge Moukawsher’s historic ruling is the affirmation of what educators, parents, students, and community leaders have been saying for nearly four decades—Connecticut’s school finance system is irrational, inequitable, and illogical. We can now add unconstitutional to that list.
Posted inTransportation
Feds’ undisclosed ‘preferred route’ for rail lines sparks outrage
WASHINGTON – While the federal government was spending months soliciting feedback from the public on several alternatives for overhauling the railroads in the Northeast corridor, it had already identified a preferred plan that would dramatically change rail travel in Connecticut.
Posted inEducation, Money
Ruling may end ‘hold harmless’ principle in CT budget politics
Hartford Superior Court Judge Thomas G. Moukawsher’s ruling Wednesday may lead to a major redistribution of state education aid.
Posted inEducation
Text of Judge Moukawsher’s ruling
Here is the entire text of Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher’s ruling on the landmark school funding case.
Posted inPolitics
CT financial industry that backed Romney shunning Trump
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney raised more than $1.5 million from people connected to Connecticut’s financial services industry, but few of those deep-pocketed donors are giving to Donald Trump. An analysis by the Connecticut Mirror shows that, as of the end of July, Trump had only raised about $11,000 from that sector.