Democratic candidate for the 5th District Elizabeth Esty announced Friday morning that she raised over $250,000 in the second quarter, raising a total of $423,653 in four months. Esty’s finance director, Brian Weeks, said the sum comes from 700 contributions from individuals. “It is exciting to see momentum building for our campaign,” Esty said in […]
Esty raises over $250,000 in the second quarter
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Malloy lays out scaled-back plan to cut state workforce
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy now plans to eliminate about 1,100 fewer state jobs than the 7,675 he targeted in an earlier budget-balancing plan, according to a summary of the latest proposal he will submit Friday to the General Assembly. The proposal includes 6,060 jobs in the Executive Branch, including 4,328 currently filled permanent positions, 1,599 […]
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Controversial ‘provider tax’ being scrutinized in debt talks
WASHINGTON–One of the most contentious elements of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s recently-passed budget was a new tax on Connecticut hospitals, which won legislative approval despite fierce opposition from the industry. Now, policymakers in Washington may restrict the ability of states to enact such taxes–and they could even force Connecticut to scale back or eventually repeal […]
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Real estate developer takes second crack at 5th District seat
In his first run for Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District seat, real estate developer Mark Greenberg took an unconventional route: He bypassed the Republican Convention, petitioned onto the primary ballot, and lost with 28 percent of the vote. He’s not doing that again. “It’s a whole different feel this time,” he said. “We definitely won’t be […]
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Malloy signs bill inspired by Rockville birthing center closure
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has signed a bill requiring hospitals to get state approval before eliminating inpatient or outpatient services, reversing a change made last year. The bill was inspired by the closure of the birthing center at Rockville General Hospital last year, which occurred without a public approval process. Previously, hospitals seeking to terminate […]
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Former WSJ owners shocked–shocked–at Murdoch scandal
Several key members of the Bancroft family, which sold the respected Wall Street Journal to global news mogul Rupert Murdoch in 2007, are having second thoughts in light of the phone hacking scandal engulfing Murdoch’s News International in Britain, Richard Tofel reports at ProPublica. “If I had known what I know now, I would have […]
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CT gets almost $2 million for school-based health centers
Connecticut is slated to get nearly $2 million in federal grant money for school-based health centers, according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The funding is part of the health reform law, which authorized a total of $200 million over three years for the School-Based Health Center Capital Program. The program awards […]
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Report: Millions lack access to basic dental care
Millions of people miss their annual check up at the dentist because they can’t find a dentist, Kaiser Health News reports this morning. The Kaiser story looks at a new Institute of Medicine report on how to improve access to dental care. One contentious suggestion from the IOM: give dental hygenists and other lesser-trained professionals […]
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CT AARP joins debt ceiling lobbying fray
A phalanx of AARP staffers and volunteers, including two from Connecticut, fanned out across Capitol Hill yesterday to lobby lawmakers against making changes to Social Security or Medicare in any debt-ceiling deal. The goal was straightforward, if not a political bank shot: “To get Social Security and Medicare off the table in the discussions about […]
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One way House Dems are spending (or wasting) time as debt talks drag on
House Democrats apparently have a lot of time on their hands as the debt negotiations drag on and on. And on. So what have they been doing while waiting to see if House Republicans, Senate leaders, and President Barack Obama can work out a deal to trim the federal deficit and raise the nation’s borrowing […]
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Budget-strapped schools confront persistent achievement gap
Low-income and minority students continued to lag on statewide achievement test results released this week, but financially-strapped public schools may have less help to attack the problem this year. Many of the state’s public schools expect to lay off teachers, increase class sizes and scale back academic programs as they struggle with rising costs and […]
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SEBAC plans Monday meeting on changes to voting bylaws
State employee union leaders will meet Monday to consider changing labor bylaws regarding future votes on contract concessions, according to a letter posted Wednesday on one union website. State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition spokesman Matt O’Connor declined to discuss any meeting dates or proposals under consideration. But a source said the coalition’s governing board hadn’t […]
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Downsizing continues as unions work on concessions
As state employee unions plan a preliminary vote next week to lay the groundwork for a new concession deal, the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says it still is intent on meeting a legislative deadline of Friday to produce a plan to downsize state government. Benjamin Barnes, the secretary of the Office of Policy […]
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Transportation fund pays the price for failed concession deal
The state’s transportation system is the latest fiscal casualty as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the legislature scramble to replace savings that were supposed to come from employee givebacks. Originally poised to receive more than $78 million in additional aid from the General Fund this fiscal year, the Special Transportation Fund lost that fiscal boost […]
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Fledgling UConn Health Center union caught in concession turmoil
Bruce Mayer never had grand ambitions of becoming a union boss, as he calls it. But since the research biologist was elected president of the new faculty union at the UConn Health Center in January, he’s gotten something of a crash course in labor relations. “Anything that can happen to your union will, in the […]