I want to make structural changes to the way our government runs this state, because it’s our prized community at home that’s suffering. The way our businesses and schools are being treated is not acceptable. This is not the reality that our taxpayers deserve; I won’t accept another deficit in six months, and I wouldn’t expect you to accept one either.
Connecticut’s budget priorities couldn’t be more backwards
Posted inEducation
UConn shifts toward more fiscal transparency
The university’s practice of barring the public from budget discussions ended this week – and other changes are in the works that will make the fiscal habits of UConn and its fund-raising foundation more transparent.
Posted inEducation
UConn and UConn Health pitch $50 million in budget increases
But UConn said there would still be pain because it would have had to increase spending more to maintain current services and provide pay raises.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Murphy presses for action on mental health bill despite obstacles
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chris Murphy and Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have bipartisan support for a bill that would reform the nation’s mental health system and are pressing for Senate action on the legislation. But they are facing hurdles common to those who push for change on Capitol Hill.
Posted inNews
Senate appropriators OK federal funds for Coast Guard museum
WASHINGTON — Senate appropriators for the first time on Thursday approved federal funding for efforts to build a Coast Guard museum on New London’s waterfront. Although the money, $5 million, is a small fraction of the projected $100 million cost of the museum, supporters hailed the move.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
State handing towns responsibility for unclaimed human remains
State budget cuts mean Connecticut municipalities now must take responsibility for disposition and, in some cases, storage and transportation of unclaimed human remains, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Posted inPolitics
CT approval of Aetna-Humana merger draws fire
Updated at 5:30 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Opponents of the proposed Aetna-Humana merger on Thursday blasted the state insurance department for approving the deal, saying it was “rubber stamped” without public input, and asked the department to reopen the case.
Posted inHealth, Money
CT to assist 18,000 parents losing state Medicaid coverage
Leaders of the Connecticut’s health insurance exchange announced Thursday that they would work in partnership with three other state agencies to assist up to 18,000 low-income parents who would lose their state-sponsored Medicaid health coverage on Aug.1 because of budget cuts.
Posted inJustice
High Court reaffirms the end of Connecticut’s death penalty
The state Supreme Court declined Thursday to reverse its 2015 decision eliminating the last vestige of capital punishment in Connecticut – the sentences facing 11 men on death row when the legislature repealed the death penalty for future crimes. The 5-2 ruling means an end to the death penalty, a punishment the General Assembly repealed for future crimes in 2012.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Two big Connecticut egos jockeying for recognition
Connecticut voters have every right to be proud about recent political events. Less than a week after Gov. Dannel Malloy received the prestigious “John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage” award, for “courageously defending” U.S. settlement of Syrian refugees, USA Today announced that our own junior senator, Chris Murphy, is being vetted by the Clinton campaign as a possible vice presidential candidate for the Clinton ticket. Hard to believe our luck: one small state and two YUUGE political egos battling for recognition…
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut — where there is less for every student
For nine years, Connecticut was one of the very few states in the country that did not reduce state funding for public education. In 2016, that very praiseworthy policy ended. The impact of reduced state funding for education will be felt in one way or the other by every child who attends a public school in the state.
Posted inNews
GE part of a national move away from big, suburban office parks
Among other lessons, the move provides further evidence that large, isolated, one-tenant suburban office parks, such as the sleek but aging campus that GE has occupied since 1974 on 68 arboreal acres in Fairfield, have seen their day.
Posted inMoney
Connecticut middle class losing ground, as in most of the nation
Connecticut has seen some of the sharpest declines in the size of its middle class over the past decade and a half, according to new research
Posted inHealth, Politics
CT signs off on Aetna-Humana merger, but other hurdles remain
WASHINGTON — The Connecticut Insurance Department has signed off on Aetna’s proposed merger with Humana, but other hurdles remain for that deal and another merger proposed by Cigna and Anthem.
Posted inHealth
State tentatively OKs hospital purchases in Manchester, Vernon
The consolidation of the hospital industry progressed Wednesday as state regulators gave tentative approval to the $105 million purchase of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals by Prospect Medical Holdings, a for-profit hospital chain based in Los Angeles.