“I’ve had legislators say to me, ‘Pat, every year you come to me and you tell me how difficult it is, but you’re still in business,'” said Patrick J. Johnson, president of Oak Hill, which serves people with disabilities. “And I think as long as we continue to provide the services on the backs of our employees, because that’s how we’re doing it, then the world goes on.”
Nonprofits try again to make their case: ‘We’re at a breaking point’
Posted inNews
DEEP facing both federal and state budget cuts
Facing potentially dramatic budget cuts on two fronts, Connecticut’s commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection says the agency will need to remake its business model to continue to do its job. In a particularly sobering presentation to an annual gathering of environmental advocates, Daniel Esty made it clear that the pain from […]
Posted inNews
Connecticut’s Transit Woes — Where’s the $$$?
My story in today’s Mirror and on WNPR does not paint a pretty picture for transportation in Connecticut — or really anywhere, for that matter. Below is a graph of the sources for Connecticut’s transportation budget, a total of about $1.2 billion. That federal piece of the pie could be drastically reduced in the next […]
Posted inPolitics
Jokes to a business audience? Humbug!
Cromwell — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy reinforced today that there’s a new tradition at the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce’s annual holiday breakfast: Expect a serious speech reviewing the challenges facing Connecticut, not a comedy roast. “I don’t do poems,” Malloy said. “I don’t do humor well.” As was the case a year ago in his […]
Posted inNews
Municipal leaders think Malloy overstepped in cutting their aid
Municipal leaders are asking the governor’s budget director for an explanation of how he was able to cut state funding they were expecting mid-year since they believe state law forbids such a move. “I’ve never seen so many cuts to categories we see as municipal aid,” said James Finley, the executive director of the Connecticut […]
Posted inNews
As transit funds grow shorter, the call for tolls grows louder
Transportation advocates and officials across Connecticut gathered in the State Capitol on Monday to face a sobering fact: In an age of soaring deficits on both the state and national levels, the funds available for transit improvements are shrinking fast. Funding on the federal level remains uncertain not only because of the slow negotiations to […]
Posted inNews
The Lieberman farewell tour comes to Hartford
U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman brought his farewell tour to the State Capitol on Monday, a visit to where he began 42 years ago as a state legislator, the first rung on a ladder that took him to the heights of national politics. “It’s a sentimental time, but the most persistent emotion I feel is […]
Posted inNews
Malloy defends his plan to collect more revenue from businesses
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy defended his plan Monday to seek an extra $22 million in revenue from businesses and power plants to help close the current budget deficit, arguing this doesn’t break his pledge not to raise taxes. “We never said that we wouldn’t look at revenue,” Malloy told Capitol reporters following the State Bond […]
Posted inNews
Occhiogrosso departs at mid-term
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today announced the long-planned departure of his senior adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, a move that deprives Malloy of his public voice and closest confidant as he begins the two-year march towards the 2014 campaign. Occhiogrosso, 47, who has been framing issues and political messages for Malloy since the governor’s first unsuccessful run […]
Posted inNews
An uncertain future faces those who ‘age out’ of foster care
Vincent Espino was removed from his home by the state’s child welfare agency almost five years ago. He has bounced around to four different foster homes and a group home since then. He has never paid rent or a bill himself. He has to ask his social worker when he needs money for things like […]
Posted inEducation
State to track how its municipal aid is being spent
Lawmakers and the public are soon going to be able to see how the $2.6 billion in education aid they provide each year to districts is being spent. The State Bond Commission on Monday approved $450,000 to help pay for the state to develop a system to monitor and track how state aid is being […]
Posted inHealth
Feds approve CT’s exchange application in first batch
Connecticut has received conditional approval from the federal government for its plan to develop a health insurance exchange, making it one of six states to achieve the designation, officials announced Monday. The exchange will be a virtual store for people to buy health insurance as part of the federal health reform law. It’s tentatively scheduled […]
Posted inEducation
Ratings released. How does your school stack up?
Parents can now see for themselves if the school their child attends is the among the best or worst in the state. A new website with school-by-school ratings — based on a 100-point scale — was published by the State Department of Education Monday afternoon. As expected, many of the schools in urban districts scored […]
Posted inEducation
West Hartford public schools told to fix racial imbalance
West Hartford has been informed by the State Department of Education that too many of its black and Hispanic students are being sent to two of its schools. State law requires districts to report their student demographics for each school. If any school has 25 percent more minorities than the district average, the community must submit […]
Posted inEducation
What Connecticut’s private college presidents were paid
Several presidents at Connecticut’s private colleges were paid much more than their couterparts at similiar universities, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports in its annual compensation analysis. Yale University’s Richard Levin, who retired this year, made $1.6 million in total pay and other benefits last year. The median pay at universities the Chronicle determined were […]