A final, negative footnote to the failed effort to ratify the state employees’ concession deal: two more unions rejected the tentative agreement in voting tallied Sunday, leaving a final vote of 11 unions in favor and four opposed. A labor source said the 1,150-member Connecticut State Police Union and IBPO/SEIU, a union representing 750 judicial […]
Last two unions reject a deal already dead
Posted inEducation
National report finds achievement gap persists for Hispanic students
Although reading and math test scores have improved for Hispanic students and their white, non-Hispanic peers over the last two decades, the achievement gap between them remains substantially unchanged, a new national report says. The study, based on National Assessment of Educational Progress test results from 1990 to 2009, looked at scores of 4th and […]
Posted inNews
How a controversial bill becomes law
If you want to know, then read this account by Michael Barbaro in The Times about how Andrew Cuomo helped get gay-rights groups to buy into a unified strategy, brought wealthy GOP donors into the mix, and switched key votes in the state Senate. It is a classic story of how it takes an inside […]
Posted inNews
Donovan: Legislators want details before giving Malloy budget power
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is offering legislators a deal: Expand his authority to unilaterally cut the budget next week, and he will take the political heat for fixing a $1.6 billion problem caused Friday by the unions’ rejection of a concession deal. House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, said Malloy has no deal with legislators […]
Posted inNews
There’s money to help fill budget gap, but an obstacle to using it
As they scramble to deal with rejection of the union concessions deal, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislative leaders are in the position to having money to fill at least part of the $700 million hole it leaves, but a big constitutional obstacle to using it. The state is looking at more than $150 million […]
Posted inNews
Judge rejects lawsuit challenging budget based on union concessions
A Superior Court judge today dismissed a lawsuit challenging the state budget on grounds that it depends on an unreliable $1.6 billion in savings from union concessions–just hours after officials from the state employee unions announced their members had rejected the givebacks. “This is a changing landscape,” Judge James Graham told the lawyers representing the […]
Posted inNews
Labor deal rejected; Malloy wants authority to cut budget himself
An AFSCME local representing correction officers rejected the concession deal in voting tallied today, formalizing what has been apparent for days: the unions’ tentative agreement with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for $1.6 billion in savings over two years is dead. Malloy said he will ask the legislature in a special session Thursday to authorize him […]
Posted inNews
Greenhouse gas compact challenged by changing energy landscape
Supporters of the 2½-year-old Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative like to remind those who would criticize, if not outright kill, this first-in-the-nation carbon dioxide trading and reduction program of two things. First, the idea for it came from a Republican, former New York Gov. George Pataki. And second, it was modeled on a federal program to […]
Posted inNews
Gay marriage vote in NY draws electoral threat from Connecticut conservative
An old nemesis of gay rights advocates in Connecticut now has a national platform, and Brian Brown is using it to threaten four Republican state senators in New York whose votes were pivotal in passing a gay marriage law Friday night on a 33-29 vote. Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged passage. “The Republican party has torn […]
Posted inNews
There is one more thing…
No decent obituary of Peter Falk, who died Thursday night in California, is complete without this tidbit: the actor started his working life as an efficiency expert for the Connecticut state budget bureau.
Posted inMoney
Delegation divided over Libya funding, authorization
Connecticut’s all-Democratic U.S. House delegation split in this afternoon’s vote on whether to authorize the American military campaign in Libya. Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Joe Courtney, of the 2nd and 3rd districts respectively, both supported a resolution Friday to authorize the “limited” use of American armed forces to support the NATO mission in Libya. Reps. […]
Posted inNews
Facing uncertainty in state funding, UConn cuts its budget
Faced with continued uncertainty over its funding from the state, the University of Connecticut Thursday approved a $30 million reduction in its budget for next year–the first cut in more than two decades. School officials had initially proposed maintaining next year’s budget at the current level of $1.04 billion, but decided on the cut shortly […]
Posted inNews
Malloy: Layoffs will be ‘large scale’ and quick
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said today he will outline spending reductions and mass layoffs next week in response to the apparent collapse of his $1.6 billion concessions deal with state employees. A special session of the legislature has been called for June 30 to approve a revised budget that Malloy says will be ready Monday. […]
Posted inNews
First report card on DCF under Katz: Potential, but little progress
The new leader of the agency responsible for the care of abused and neglected children in Connecticut has received her first report card, and it says that while the problems that have kept the troubled agency under federal court supervision for 20 years persist, there is reason to believe things may change. “It is acknowledged […]
Posted inNews
Special session called for Thursday
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy called a special session for Thursday at 10 a.m. to deal with the budget revisions. His statement: “It was always my hope that the SEBAC Agreement would be ratified and we could move forward with the process of getting our state’s fiscal house in order and creating new jobs,” said Governor […]