Senate Democrats break ranks with House, will vote on their on deficit bill

Majority Democrats in the state Senate broke ranks today with their Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives, announcing they would vote within a few days on their own proposal to close a $500 million-plus shortfall in the current state budget. “The current stalemate is unacceptable,” Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell warned legislative leaders today not to let the 2010 session end in six weeks without approving a plan to ‘securitize” or sell $1.7 million or more in future state revenues to help balance the next state budget. “The time for making the difficult choices and for taking decisive action is at […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell informed legislative leaders today she intends to fill 10 vacant seats on the Superior Court, setting the stage for a rare clash involving all three branches of government. Quoting court officials, some key legislators have asked Rell to refrain from naming the 10 judges, saying the court system cannot afford the […]

Justice Christine S. Vertefeuille has notified Gov. M. Jodi Rell of her intention to take senior status on the Connecticut Supreme Court, creating a vacancy on the state’s highest court. (UPDATE: Rell has picked Superior Court Judge Dennis G. Eveleigh of Hamden to succeed Vertefeuille.) Vertefeuille, 59, who was appointed to the trial bench by […]

Eighth-graders in Connecticut improved their reading scores significantly and fourth-graders held steady as the state posted some of the nation’s highest scores on results of a national test released Wednesday. However, minority and low-income students continued to lag farther behind white and wealthier students than in most other states on fourth- and eighth-grade reading tests […]

With the November elections still to go before they must face a 2011 state budget deficit of historic proportions, legislators admit they aren’t ready to order major tax hikes this spring. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t laying the groundwork. “We need a comprehensive overhaul of the entire tax structure in Connecticut,” House Majority Leader […]

Two of every five Hispanic high school freshmen fail to graduate on time from Connecticut’s public high schools, part of a bleak record of graduation rates among minority students, state officials said Tuesday. Overall, about one of five freshmen who entered high school in 2005 failed to graduate four years later, according to a new […]

It was billed as “Municipal Action Day,” a time to “let your voice be heard” at the state Capitol. Instead, stunned town officials heard legislative leaders bickering over the state’s budget crisis, leaving them with little confidence they’d get any relief for their own fiscal problems. “We talk, talk, talk, but we never act,” said […]

Now that an overhaul of the national health care system has been signed into law, state officials and the health care industry are scrambling to determine what it means for Connecticut. “We are still digging through it,” said State Health Care Advocate Kevin Lembo. He estimates 260,000 people in Connecticut will gain coverage by 2014 […]

State employee unions have rejected Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s request for a second concession package that would have allowed layoffs under certain conditions, required four more furlough days, deferred one cost-of-living raise and canceled longevity bonuses for senior workers. The proposal, which the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition said showed “cynical disrespect” to state government’s 45,000 unionized […]

State Rep. James F. Spallone of Essex decided against a campaign for secretary of the state, endorsing fellow Democrat Denise W. Merrill of Mansfield, the state House of Representatives’ majority leader. Spallone, who has visited dozens of Democratic town committees since launching his exploratory effort 14 months ago, said ‘the response has been positive.” But […]

A bill backed by 19 Senate Democrats that would tax executive bonuses is “likely constitutional”, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said today. The bill would affect employees who earned bonuses in excess of $1 million from eight firms in Connecticut that received money from the federal bailout last year known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Critics, […]

A landmark state Supreme Court ruling Monday gave renewed hope to a coalition of municipal officials and education leaders hoping to force the state to pump billions of dollars more into its public schools. But with the state already facing years of massive budget deficits, the price tag for the coalition’s effort to overhaul the […]

The race for governor intensified Monday as Dannel P. Malloy pitched himself to the Connecticut AFL-CIO as labor’s strongest ally and repeatedly jabbed at Ned Lamont, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination. On Friday, Malloy smiled and shook Lamont’s hand at a televised debate. On Monday, no small talk passed between them, even though […]

Finding $1.3 billion in revenue for next year’s budget by selling future income for pennies on the dollar means weighing a series of unpalatable options. Legislators don’t want to give up their revenue streams for too little, but they also don’t want to sell the blue-chip revenue-raisers, like the income tax, that would fetch the […]