The State Board of Education backed away Wednesday from a volatile dispute over seniority for Hartford schoolteachers facing potential layoffs. The board decided not to step into the dispute, urging the Hartford Board of Education and the district’s teachers’ union to attempt to resolve the issue themselves. The Hartford school board last month asked the […]

The State Bond Comission today approved funding for a new public health laboratory in Rocky Hill–an action opposed by neighbors and area legislators. “It should be in a more isolated location,” said Sen. Paul R. Doyle, D-Wethersfield. “If it’s not OK for New Britain”–one of a dozen other sites considered– “then why is it OK […]

Lisa Wilson-Foley, a Simsbury businesswoman, announced her candidacy late Tuesday for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Wilson-Foley has owned 10 small businesses in the past 20 years, half of them in the health-care field. She currently owns the Blue Fox Run golf course in Avon. “It is time for me to step forward and […]

Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, the front-runner in the race for attorney general, admits in a deposition released Tuesday that she never has appeared in court as a lawyer. A lawsuit she filed to settle questions about her qualifications instead has produced 10 hours of videotaped testimony in which Bysiewicz acknowledges that in 24 […]

The General Assembly’s tax-writing committee wrapped up a plan Tuesday to bring an extra $180 million to $200 million in tax revenue and federal aid into the state’s coffers next fiscal year. The Democrat-controlled Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee endorsed a dramatic hike in the estate tax, a new levy on hospital gross revenues designed […]

Nearly $1.8 billion slated to come off most Connecticut consumers’ electric bills over the next decade would remain in place to help balance the state budget under a plan adopted Tuesday by the legislature’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. The Democrat-controlled panel voted 37-19, largely along party lines, to approve the so-called securitization bill, which […]

Democrats and a local union from Rocky Hill were successful last month in stalling funding for a public health laboratory in Rocky Hill, but the project’s chances look better when Gov. M. Jodi Rell brings it up for a vote again today. Democrats on the State Bond Commission last month blocked release of $69.4 million […]

Republican gubernatorial candidate Oz Griebel has raised $300,000 since declaring his candidacy two months ago, his campaign announced Tuesday. Griebel was the only candidate to release fundraising results for the first quarter, which ended March 31. No reports have to be filed with the State Elections Enforcement Commission until April 12. Republican Mark Boughton said […]

Transcripts of the testimony of Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, being questioned under oath about her qualifications to be attorney general, have been released by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s office. The daily transcripts, covering 10 hours of testimony over three days, can be seen here, here and here. A video of her deposition is […]

There are no legal grounds to keep private a video of Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz being questioned under oath about her qualifications to be attorney general, her lawyer said today. Wesley Horton, who is representing Bysiewicz in a legal proceeding she hopes will resolve questions about her qualifications to serve as attorney general, […]

Chamber of commerce leaders are calling on the legislature to reject the 15 different bills that mandate increased health insurance coverage for various medical conditions. “We need a moratorium on new health care mandates,” said JoAnne Ryan, president of Northwest Connecticut’s Chamber of Commerce. Chamber leaders say the costs imposed on insurance companies will be […]

The legislature’s tax-writing committee adopted a revised plan this afternoon to boost the tax on wealthy estates, and to add a 5.5 percent levy on hospital gross revenues. The measure adopted by the Democrat-controlled Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee continues to exempt estates valued at less than $3.5 million. But the bill, which now heads […]

The legislature’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee is expected to approve selling future revenues tied to monthly electric bills for pennies on the dollar to provide $1.3 billion to help balance next fiscal year’s budget, sources said this afternoon. The committee, which began meeting 10 minutes ago, also will not back an alternative securitization plan, […]

It wasn’t the fiscal lifeline that town leaders were hoping for, but they said they will happily take the small amount of money an increase in the hotel tax and town fees will generate. The Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee on Monday passed two bills — one increasing the hotel tax from 12 to 15 […]

Despite the reams of test scores, enrollment figures, attendance records and other data it collects on public schools, Connecticut falls woefully short in trying to make sense of it all, a noted state economist says. Lawmakers are writing legislation to design a new statewide data collection system to meet requirements of the federal Race to […]