Despite a warning this week that the loss of federal stimulus money could blow a gaping hole in school budgets across Connecticut, leading lawmakers say the legislature is prepared to fill that gap. The state has relied on federal stimulus money to prop up state school aid to municipalities, but projections by the legislature’s Office of Fiscal […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell has signed into law a bill intended to streamline issuance of state permits and licenses. Rell’s office said the bill, a compromise between industry and environmental groups, will “expedite job creation by breaking through bureaucratic backlogs without undermining environmental protections.” The relatively uneventful passage of the bill was an unexpected conclusion […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell has vetoed a bill that would have barred state hiring managers from asking applicants their criminal background or researching their background until the last step of the hiring process. Current law allows the question, “have you ever been convicted of a felony” to appear on the application for both private and […]

It’s not every day that a campaign shares internal polling showing its candidate trailing by 13 percentage points. That’s what Republican Linda McMahon’s U.S. Senate campaign did Tuesday, in an attempt to discredit polls that give Democrat Richard Blumenthal an even bigger lead. It’s a page from the same playbook used two weeks ago by […]

Connecticut State University trustees will begin a review next week of a controversial policy that allowed Chancellor David G. Carter to dismiss Southern Connecticut State University President Cheryl Norton last fall. The trustees have scheduled a special meeting Monday to name a committee to review the policy, which critics contend puts too much authority in […]

WASHINGTON – The federal government is preparing to dole out $400 million in extra Medicare money to low-spending hospitals around the country, thanks to an 11th hour provision added to the sweeping health reform law to win over a handful of wavering lawmakers. Connecticut hospitals won’t see a dime of that money, but other hospitals […]

The two Democrats vying to become the state’s next comptroller clashed today following Waterbury Mayor Michael Jarjura’s announcement that he will force a Democratic party primary against Kevin Lembo, the state health advocate. Jacqueline Kozin, Lembo’s campaign manager, criticized Jarjura for hiring former Gov. John Rowland, a Republican forced to resign by a corruption scandal, and […]

Former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., who drove the adoption of the state income tax as one of the chief solutions to state government’s fiscal crisis in 1991, will make a rare public appearance later this month to discuss how he would resolve Connecticut’s current economic woes. Weicker, a three-term U.S. senator who was elected […]

Connecticut, and especially the Stamford metropolitan area, might be a far more attractive site for a new Major League Baseball franchise than state politicians and business leaders might think, according to the latest quarterly economic report from the University of Connecticut. Despite being locked between two of the country’s oldest – and arguably most passionate […]

With Gov. M. Jodi Rell‘s signature over the weekend, a new law will put a searchable database of the state’s checkbook and employee payroll online for public review next year. But some lawmakers are asking, why stop there? Why not put everything online: applications, payments for services, regulations, anything the public needs? Some state agencies […]

The state’s top education official made a plea Monday for a renewal of federal stimulus funds to avert the loss of thousands of teaching jobs. Connecticut has received $785 million in federal stimulus money for schools, but that money is scheduled to dry up in 2011, potentially resulting in massive layoffs for the 2011-12 school […]

A controversial system for exposing state budget deficits that the Democrat-controlled legislature forced on Gov. M. Jodi Rell last year could come back to bite Democrats this fall – less than three weeks before Election Day. Commonly known as the “consensus revenue” law, the statute requires the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis and the […]

Candidates have come and candidates have gone in the run-up to one of the most active election seasons in years, but today is a final deadline: Those planning to petition their way onto the Aug. 10 Democratic or Republican primary ballot have until 4 p.m. to submit the required signatures. Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Peter […]