Analysts say state’s revenue recovery is tenuous at best

State legislators enthusiastically touted more than $220 million in projected tax revenue growth as a sign that Connecticut’s economy is on its way back from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. But while that $220 million helped the Democrat-controlled General Assembly and outgoing Gov. M. Jodi Rell balance their last budget without tax increases, […]

An arrangement that keeps Southern Connecticut State University’s president on the payroll even after she has been dismissed from her job is standard procedure, university officials have told state legislators. Departing President Cheryl Norton is entitled to an additional year’s pay and a sabbatical leave under existing university policies, Connecticut State University System officials said […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell has vetoed sweeping energy legislation passed on the final day of the 2010 session after a late-night debate, attacking the path the bill followed to passage as vehemently as she did the measure’s content. Rell, whose administration was not consulted on the bill as it was drafted, called the process “disrespectful […]

Democratic state Rep. Tom Reynolds of Ledyard announced today he would not force a primary for the nomination for state comptroller. Reynolds received 24 percent of delegate votes at Saturday’s Democrat convention, well above the 15 percent minimum needed to guarantee a spot on the Democratic Aug. 10 primary ballot. “I have concluded that the interests of […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell has signed into law a bill aimed at improving the state’s vocational-technical schools. Rell, who announced she signed the bill Monday, said the law will “strengthen” the schools “in many critical ways.” Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, co-chairman of the Education Committee said, the law “will resolve the inequity that had evolved” at […]

Lisa Wilson-Foley, a Simsbury businesswoman, said today she will pursue a Republican primary for the nomination for lieutenant governor. “I am ready for a primary so the voters can decide,” she said during a phone interview. “I think once you get out of the cozy relationships people have at the convention things can change.” Without […]

NEW LONDON — Rob Simmons ended his campaign for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, comparing a run against Linda McMahon’s money to the futility of Pickett’s Charge during the Civil War. “As somebody interested in military history, it was a foolish waste of people and resources, with a tremendously demoralizing outcome,” said […]

A Republican source says Rob Simmons told his staff Monday he will end his campaign for U.S. Senate at a press conference today in New London. On Monday night, Simmons called a press conference for 9 a.m. in New London to make an “announcement on the future of the campaign for U.S. Senate,” immediately prompting […]

Fresh off his back-to-back victories on health care reform and financial overhaul, U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd is weighing his options for what’s next. Will he become the next president at the University of Connecticut? Will he take a job with the Obama Administration? Or will he fulfill his 5-year old daughter’s wishes and open an […]

Faculty members at Southern Connecticut State University issued a vote of “no confidence” in the university system’s chancellor and Board of Trustees chairman Monday, accusing them of reckless financial behavior and poor judgment. In a letter to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, the SCSU Faculty Senate asked for a state investigation into actions by CSU Chancellor […]

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Bloomfield attorney Corey Brinson announced Monday evening he will not force a primary for the Republican nomination for secretary of the state, and asked his supporters to vote for Jerry Farrell Jr., commissioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection. “I look forward to campaigning for Jerry this summer and through Election Day because I […]

Richard Blumenthal’s U.S. Senate campaign gave mixed messages Monday about the damage inflicted by a week-old controversy over characterizations of his Vietnam-era military record. The previously defiant Blumenthal abruptly apologized for telling audiences he served in Vietnam, while his campaign advisers said that days-old internal polling shows that he is weathering the storm. “There wasn’t […]

Money talks in politics, and it spoke loudly over the weekend at Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, where Republicans endorsed two rich neophytes for governor and U.S. Senate. But the Republican losers didn’t complain as much about the prospect of being outspent as did a Democratic winner, Dan Malloy, who was endorsed for governor across […]

When Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr. tried to put the best face on the majority Democrats’ work in the 2010 General Assembly session, he took aim at a criticism leveled by Republican gubernatorial contender Tom Foley. Foley’s oft-stated charge that state government is “broke and broken” has been “blown out of the water,” Williams […]