After tightening its capital projects budget over the last two years, state government will borrow more than $4.6 billion during the next biennium to build schools, roads, clean water projects and a new technology park, based on the bonding package passed in the House and Senate on Saturday. The bill, which also preserves an expiring 80 […]
New bonding would restore capital program to pre-recession level
Posted inHealth
Health insurance exchange clears House, heads for Malloy’s desk
State Representatives have voted to establish a quasi-public agency to launch and run a health insurance exchance that will play a key role in expanding coverage under the federal health reform law. The exchange will have a wide range of responsibilities. It will offer a choice of health plans–all or most are expected to be […]
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Community colleges should help students keep hope alive
The Connecticut Mirror last week reported Higher Education Commissioner Michael Meotti’s belief, seconded by Gov. Dannel Malloy, that Connecticut’s community colleges might need to turn away people who, as Meotti put it, “have no ability to be successful in a college classroom.” Our campuses are crowded, Commissioner Meotti said, and there is little funding expansion. […]
Posted inEducation
Community colleges should help students keep hope alive
The Connecticut Mirror last week reported Higher Education Commissioner Michael Meotti’s belief, seconded by Gov. Dannel Malloy, that Connecticut’s community colleges might need to turn away people who, as Meotti put it, “have no ability to be successful in a college classroom.” Our campuses are crowded, Commissioner Meotti said, and there is little funding expansion. […]
Posted inNews
Robert Hohler, leader of social justice efforts, dies in England
Robert Hohler, the executive director of a Boston-based charitable trust whose projects included broad efforts in Connecticut to end homelessness and shape public policy, died Thursday while hiking in England with his family. Hohler, 78, was a civil rights activist who marched on Selma, Ala., with Martin Luther King, then helped produce an acclaimed television […]
Posted inNews
Democrats, Republicans find rare moment of unity with jobs bill
In a move rarely seen this legislative session, Democrats and Republicans united on major legislation Friday when the Senate overwhelmingly adopted Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s incentive plan to create 1,000 new full-time jobs in the next two years. The Senate voted 32-4 to adopt the “First Five” measure, which now heads to the House of […]
Posted inNews
Senate postpones plan to raise age for children entering kindergarten
The state Senate has put off for at least two years a proposal to raise the minimum age for children to start kindergarten–a move that would have delayed enrollment in public school for almost 7,000 students. Instead, they have opted to have a task force figure out how to close the large age disparity in […]
Posted inNews
No Weinergate here: State delegation plays it safe on Twitter
WASHINGTON–Here’s a tweet, the likes of which you will almost certainly never read from anyone in Connecticut’s congressional delegation: “Sorry for all the unwanted attention on #WeinerYes follows. I didn’t mean to make you famous. #CollateralDamage.” Sure, the younger Connecticut lawmakers, like Reps. Jim Himes and Chris Murphy, try to be edgy and real with […]
Posted inNews
With no negotiated limits on debate, House to tackle paid sick days
The General Assembly is staggering toward the final weekend of the 2011 legislative session with unfinished business that includes the nation’s first state mandate on private companies to offer paid sick days. Debate began this afternoon. Ten days after the Senate passed the bill by a single vote, the House of Representatives today opened today […]
Posted inNews
As session end draws near, massive energy bill is on the table
SB1 – the massive omnibus energy bill that establishes Connecticut’s first energy department in three decades, creates new energy programs, alters old ones, sets ambitious policy goals and overhauls parts of the energy business – is headed for a vote in the Senate as early as today, even as its final details are unresolved. “It’s […]
Posted inEducation
Bill waiving charter school teacher certification heads for governor’s desk
Legislators in both chambers have approved a bill waiving the certification requirements for many of the teachers and administrators in the state’s charter schools. Charter schools, like regular public schools, are allowed to hire teachers who lack state certification, but the teachers must get certified within two years. Meeting the certification requirement has been a problem at […]
Posted inNews
They shoot horses, don’t they?
Yowza, yowza, yowza. The House GOP is considering talking and rocking around the clock on the paid sick days bill. The question is how many times around the clock? Debate got under way at 3:41 p.m. Rep. Arthur O’Neill, R-Southbury, says the GOP minority has been told to be ready for at least a 24-hour […]
Posted inNews
Wyman’s note to her fellow state employees
Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman has written to state employees, trying to knock down a rumor that the concessions deal is setting them up to be forced into a non-existence SustiNet insurance program. Dear Fellow State Employee: Whether an employee chooses to support or oppose the pending SEBAC agreement is an individual decision, but it should […]
Posted inNews
Larson, Himes only “yes” votes on resolutions critical of U.S. role in Libya
With two notable exceptions, the Connecticut delegation voted against twin resolutions critical of the U.S. military involvement in Libya. After an impassioned House debate Friday about the U.S. role in that conflict, the House approved a resolution stating that President Barack Obama had “failed to provide Congress with a compelling rationale” for the U.S. military […]
Posted inNews
DNA bill passes, dividing Black and Puerto Rican Caucus
The House of Representatives voted 127 to 20 Thursday night for a bill that will allow law enforcement authorities to take DNA samples from convicted felons who are arrested for a subsequent felony. Opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the bill was narrowed from an original version that would have required DNA samples of […]