Securitization leaves Rell in a quandary

According to her Democratic critics, Gov. M. Jodi Rell has spent much of the past 15 months dodging difficult budget decisions while piling up deficits for the next governor to close. But when a legislative committee recommended Tuesday that Connecticut consumers pay $1.8 billion on their monthly electric bills over the next decade to balance […]

The State Board of Education backed away Wednesday from a labor dispute over seniority for Hartford schoolteachers, avoiding for the moment an issue that is part of a volatile debate over school quality. Is seniority a hard-won union right that protects experienced teachers against indiscriminate layoffs or arbitrary dismissals? Or is it a roadblock to […]

With an anemic 28-percent approval rating, the General Assembly has been a handy target in the race for governor. Republican candidates have blamed the Democratic majority for Connecticut’s stagnant economy and its staggering deficit projections, and some Democrats have mildly chimed in. Now, with Gov. M. Jodi Rell and legislators struggling over how to even […]

The state House of Representatives voted unanimously Wednesday for a bill that would extend group health insurance benefits for the unemployed from 18 to 30 months under the state’s “COBRA” law. It now goes to the Senate. The federal COBRA law, named for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, allows workers at businesses with 20 […]

A new poll shows Republican businessman Tom Foley taking single-digit leads over the top two Democratic candidates for governor, Ned Lamont and Dannel P. Malloy. The Rasmussen Reports’ telephone survey of 500 likely voters has Foley leading Lamont, 44 percent to 37 percent, and besting Malloy, 44 percent to 35 percent. In February, Foley trailed Lamont, […]

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, […]