Holiday shoppers aren’t the only ones taking a wary look at their credit card balances these days. State government recently undertook its own annual debt review, looking from several perspectives but coming to the same conclusion each time: Connecticut remains one of the most indebted states in the nation. The state entered the fiscal year […]

While a new report shows Connecticut outspends most other states in terms of legislative costs, an East Hartford lawmaker hopes it will breathe a second life into his Quixotic bid to eliminate jobs by shrinking the General Assembly. Sen. Gary LeBeau said that when the next regular session convenes in February he either will re-introduce […]

Pauline Bouffard says her son used to hold his arms out every time she visited him at the state-run residential facility for the developmentally disabled in Meriden, signaling his desire to go home. Now he lives in a private, community-based group home, and she says he’s not in such a rush to leave. “They were […]

With the GOP pressing for advantage and Democrats defending a favorable status quo, a deadlocked redistricting commission missed its court-imposed deadline of noon Wednesday, forcing the Connecticut Supreme Court to take on the job of drawing five new U.S. House districts. Republicans on the bipartisan panel gave up on a radical plan to create a […]

Defending a plan to collect an extra $50 million per year from students by 2016, University of Connecticut officials said Monday that represents the cost of adding nearly 300 faculty. But another way of describing the extra student costs is that they also match a hole punched into UConn finances in recent months by Gov. […]

A nationally known educator who led school reform efforts in Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans will try to turn around one of Connecticut’s most troubled public school systems. The Bridgeport Board of Education was expected late Tuesday to name Paul Vallas as acting superintendent while the school district prepares to find a permanent successor to […]

The recession — and its aftermath — haven’t kept Connecticut’s top wage earners from earning more. Those doing well before the recession saw strong wage growth in the past five years, while those at the bottom lost jobs and made minimal wage gains. In salary terms, according to a new report by the policy group […]

The state’s newly merged higher education system expects to meet a target of $4.3 million in administrative savings over the next two years — money that could be used to hire more full-time faculty, the system’s top official said Tuesday. The projected savings from a reduction of bureaucracy was a central element in the argument […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today outlined six broad principles that he says will guide the debate on education reform next year, including “intensive interventions” by the state in troubled school systems and a lighter bureaucratic touch at successful ones. In a letter to legislators and stakeholders, Malloy hinted at a willingness to take up the […]

Soft and cuddly is not his strong suit, but Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stopped by an event to publicize a program that gathers holiday gifts for residents of the state Veterans Home. “It’s a great honor to be with the elves,” Malloy said, glancing at three children who are helping with the drive. “Any day […]

Everyone feels so generous this time of the year. The new Republican state chairman, Jerry Labriola, called on Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today to suspend the sales tax for a week, because the state is projecting a surplus of $101 million. The projected surplus is one-half of one percent of the $20 billion budget, basically […]