Windfall tax has new life–but as consumer break or budget bailout?

While state legislators remained divided Wednesday over how to tackle the deficit in Connecticut’s budget, sources said a controversial tax designed to lower consumers’ electric bills now is being considered as a means to bail out state government. “I do believe there is a renewed interest” in a windfall profits tax on electricity generators, said […]

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 […]

Majority Democrats in the state Senate broke ranks Wednesday with their 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 this fiscal year’s budget. “The current stalemate is unacceptable,” Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, wrote […]

Getting into the University of Connecticut’s highly competitive business school just got a lot easier for students at the state’s community colleges. On Wednesday UConn president Michael J. Hogan and Marc S. Herzog, chancellor of the state’s 12 community colleges, announced an agreement guaranteeing admission for community college graduates with a 3.3 GPA who have […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell has nominated Superior Court Judge Dennis G. Eveleigh to the Connecticut Supreme Court, one of 11 judicial nominations the governor announced Wednesday. Eveleigh, 62, of Hamden would succeed Justice Christine S. Vertefeuille, who formally notified Rell two days ago of her intention to take senior status June 1. Vertefeuille’s decision was made public […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she will veto any proposal that includes a tax on executive bonuses, a key component in the Democrat’s jobs bill. Rell wrote lawmakers Wednesday saying launching the tax would be “irresponsible” because there are questions whether it is even legal. If a court throws out the tax, the deficit would […]

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 […]