The state’s largest health-care workers’ union launched a new television ad Wednesday attacking Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s austerity policies and urging state officials to consider raising taxes on Connecticut’s wealthy.
Union ad challenges Malloy’s ‘new economic reality’
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Of Connecticut’s teacher shamers and Zip Code apartheid
With the decision from the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) v. Rell case, we are taking a giant leap forward in Connecticut, but taking an equally giant step backwards as a nation. We’re starting to win the battle of funding equity, but we are still losing to the teacher shamers — which is more a national issue than solely a Connecticut issue. It’s important to remember that teachers are the lifeblood of a school and we’ve been misunderstood for years.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Malloy, a plaintiff and then a defendant, hedges on school appeal
NEW HAVEN — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday he agreed with the “core” of Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher’s finding last week that Connecticut’s distribution of education aid was so irrational as to be unconstitutional, but the ruling raises so many legal and practical complexities that he will defer a decision on an appeal to Attorney General George Jepsen.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money
Census: U.S. middle-class incomes rise; poverty, uninsured rates fall
Median household income increased 5.2 percent between 2014 and 2015 while the percentages of those in poverty and those without health insurance declined across the country, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
Posted inHealth
ConnectiCare will stay on CT health exchange in 2017
ConnectiCare, the single-largest insurer on the state’s health exchange, announced Tuesday it would participate in the exchange in 2017 working with the rate schedule the Insurance Department approved earlier this month. That decision means two of the four companies that have sold policies through Access Health CT will participate again next year.
Posted inEducation, Money
Auditors: UConn improperly used maintenance funds for expansion projects
The University of Connecticut improperly redirected nearly $50 million in state funds earmarked for deferred maintenance to instead expand and upgrade various facilities, the state auditors reported Tuesday.
Posted inEducation
State auditors: UConn improperly continued $200k salary
Updated at 2:15 p.m.
State auditors Tuesday blasted the University of Connecticut for several instances of mismanaging public money, including continuing to pay a departing top administrator his $203,000 annual salary to work part-time and off-site for a year and providing employees hefty separation payments.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Judge correctly identified need for systemic public education overhaul
The ink isn’t yet dry on Judge Thomas Moukawsher’s ruling in CCJEF v. Rell — originally brought in 2005 — and Connecticut must already prepare to defend its educational practices in another court –this time federal. While CCJEF contemplated the state’s constitutional obligation to adequately and rationally fund public education, Martinez v. Malloy challenges the state’s policies on magnets, charters, and open enrollment — asserting that the state is preventing students from accessing minimally acceptable public school seats. It bears remembering that these are not the first major cases to identify an unfair system of public education that is directly responsible for gaps in achievement in our state.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Pleas to save Faculty Row ignored by UConn administration
The nine historic cottages built circa 1890-1930 known as Faculty Row on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs are considered a treasure by many former students, officials, and faculty who have had fond memories of this revered complex. The sign placed at the entrance to this mini-campus enclave tells of its importance in the early […]
Posted inPolitics
Murphy Q&A: Congress ‘is a place that’s fundamentally broken’
WASHINGTON — Freshmen senators, especially those belonging to the party out of power in the chamber, generally keep a low profile in deference to their elders. But Sen. Chris Murphy has clearly broken with tradition. The Connecticut Mirror interviewed the senator about his relatively short, but very busy, time in the Senate and his plans for the future.
Posted inHealth
ConnectiCare’s role in 2017 health exchange stuck in legal limbo
The question of whether the largest insurer on Connecticut’s health insurance exchange would participate in 2017 fell into legal limbo late Monday afternoon. Whether ConnectiCare participates next year could hinge on how the state Department of Insurance resolves a new administrative appeal of its recent insurance rate awards.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Wade faces subpoena in Cigna conflict of interest question
The Office of State Ethics is taking the rare step of seeking authority to subpoena personal financial information that Insurance Commissioner Katherine L. Wade has failed to provide the lawyer responsible for determining if Wade has a conflict of interest ruling on the merger of Anthem and Cigna. Wade’s lawyer says she has been responsive and suggests the conflict question is moot, because the state’s review is suspended until a federal anti-trust suit is resolved.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Municipalities say CT’s property tax system is unsustainable
Just days after a landmark state court ruling found Connecticut’s education funding system to be “irrational and unconstitutional,” the chief lobbying group for cities and towns issued a new research paper calling the municipal property tax system “unsustainable.”
Posted inPolitics
Working Families Party cross-endorses 90 Democrats
The Connecticut Working Families Party announced Monday the cross-endorsements of 92 Democrats and no Republicans for seats in the General Assembly and Congress, a step that gives the candidates a place on two ballot lines this fall.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The minimum wage in Connecticut: We need to look elsewhere
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.