One of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s most familiar refrains on the campaign trail last fall was that while “everything is on the table,” his administration would not “shred the safety net” to close the state budget deficit. But when Malloy unveils his plan Wednesday to close a $3 billion-plus shortfall for the coming fiscal year […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed biennial budget will rely on about $2 billion in state employee concessions and other labor savings over the next two years, his senior media adviser said Tuesday. The Malloy administration’s statement it will seek deep concessions follows by a day its announcement the governor will propose a $1.5 billion tax […]

WASHINGTON–Connecticut’s House Democrats were troubled enough when Republicans last week proposed slashing $390 million from an emergency fund to help the poor with home heating costs. Then came the announcement that President Barack Obama was calling for even deeper cuts to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. The White House said Monday […]

State lawmakers and child care advocates are proposing creation of a new state agency to fix what they call a confusing, expensive and burdensome hodgepodge of preschool and child care programs. State Sen. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, is drawing up legislation to establish a Department of Early Childhood Education that would consolidate programs currently operated […]

Ted Kennedy Jr. told reporters after a speech in Bridgeport tonight he will not run for U.S. Senate in 2012. It’s pretty much the same answer he’s given me twice, beginning in October, when he said before a campaign event for Richard Blumenthal in New Haven that he has no interest in running while he […]

Insurance brokers already are feeling a pinch in their paychecks because of health care reform, Christine Vestal reports at Stateline.org, and many are uncertain about their futures. State officials say insurance agents will continue to play an important role, but just what that role will be is unclear. And whatever it is, it will come […]

Dominion, the owner of the Millstone nuclear power station in Waterford, joined Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today to announce the company’s $1 million contribution to Operation Fuel to subsidize energy-conservation training for small businesses owned by minorities and women. The announcement comes a day after the Malloy administration said it would tax the generation of […]

The conventional wisdom is that, despite President Obama’s lackluster popularity ratings, the Republican Party hasn’t assembled a particularly strong field of potential challengers. And going by the polling numbers, Nate Silver says at FiveThirtyEight.com, the conventional wisdom is right. At this point in the last three presidential cycles, Silver says, both parties had potential candidates […]

WASHINGTON–Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that he would use “all available legal options” to kill the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, unless Congress moves definitively to save the program in the next few weeks. Gates called the extra engine, in development by General Electric and Rolls Royce, “an unnecessary and extravagant expense, […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy intends to propose one of the largest tax increases in state history Wednesday, seeking $1.5 billion in new annual revenue from income tax hikes on the wealthy and middle classes, and new sales taxes on clothing and other long-exempt products and services. In a plan outlined Monday to The Mirror by […]

A bipartisan coalition is pushing for an elections reform package that includes a constitutional amendment to allow early voting by mail. “We are not on the forefront of this,” Secretary of the State Denise W. Merrill said while announcing the reform package with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers standing behind her. She said 35 states […]

At every opportunity since his inaugural, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has reassured business that it has nothing to fear and much to welcome from the first Democratic governor in a generation, even one who owes a paper-thin victory to organized labor. Malloy, 55, who comes to the office after 14 years as the mayor of […]

WASHINGTON–Even as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy finalizes his proposal to close next year’s projected $3.67 billion budget deficit, lawmakers in Washington might open a new hole in the state’s current fiscal blueprint. The House is poised to take up a bill this week that would slash domestic spending by $100 billion, compared to the president’s […]

Ex-Sen. Chris Dodd may still be job hunting, but one of his top aides, Bryan DeAngelis, has landed a plum gig with a top political PR firm. DeAngelis served as Dodd’s communications director until the 30-year veteran’s very last day in office-and he was even fielding press calls for the senator last week, amid reports […]

Everybody wants a better transportation system, but nobody wants to pay for it. That’s the gist of a Rockefeller Foundation survey being released this week, The Washington Post reports. Maintenance and improvement of roads, bridges and transit systems is a high priority for a large majority, but by an even greater margin they don’t want […]