State legislators sparred for the second day in a row Wednesday over whether to give communities more time to adopt their local budgets — a fight that left the extension issue in limbo after a 90-minute Senate debate.
2017 State Budget
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics, Transportation
Malloy asks CT businesses to push for transportation ‘lockbox’
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy urged business leaders Wednesday to help him convince legislators to safeguard transportation funds. The governor also said cities and towns must shoulder some of the burden of surging teachers’ pension costs.
Posted inMoney
Democrats push CT income tax cut for seniors – but aren’t sure how to pay for it
House and Senate Democrats called Thursday to exempt all Social Security from the state income tax, a move that could save seniors $45 million per year.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
Advocates push to ban under-the-radar sales of state property
Conservation advocates hope to clear a crucial hurdle this spring toward establishing tougher standards for the sale or transfer of state property.
Posted inMoney
Nonpartisan analysts cite eroding CT income tax receipts
Nonpartisan analysts are tracking eroding state income tax receipts that could push the current state budget – and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s plan for the next two fiscal years – modestly into deficit.
Posted inHealth, Money
Hospitals say they face hidden, $156M tax hike in Malloy budget
Connecticut hospitals would pay $156 million more in state taxes over the next two years under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new budget — an increase Malloy did not report to legislators when presenting his biennial plan on Feb. 8, the Connecticut Hospital Association says.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Transportation
Griebel on the business climate: ‘Confidence must be restored’
R. Nelson “Oz” Griebel, longtime chief executive officer of the MetroHartford Alliance, has been active in state, regional and city public policy for nearly two decades. He chaired the state Transportation Strategy Board and ran, unsuccessfully, for governor in 2010. Now, as the governor and General Assembly resume debate on the state budget and massively under-funded retirement benefit programs that threaten Connecticut’s fiscal future, Griebel sat down to talk with The Mirror.
Posted inHealth, Money
CT hospitals launch TV ad to protest new tax proposal
Connecticut’s hospital industry launched a new television ad Thursday to protest Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to end nonprofit hospitals’ exemption from local property taxation.
Posted inJustice, Money, Politics
Pistol permit fee hikes prompt NRA, others to rebuke Malloy
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to bolster state pistol permitting fees drew a sharp response from the National Rifle Association, a Connecticut-based advocacy group and top Republican officials.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics, Transportation
Legislators begin to push back on Malloy’s new budget
The General Assembly began its review of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new two-year budget Friday with a strong, bipartisan pushback from the Appropriations Committee.
Posted inMoney
Malloy says intellectually disabled winners in new budget
It’s a budget laden with cuts, but Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s first event after Wednesday’s rollout of his fiscal plan for the next two years was to highlight what he says are significant improvements in services to individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Amid cuts and concessions, Malloy promises progress
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy framed what is likely to be his final two-year budget as a call to recast the state’s compact with its neediest municipalities, expanding the tax base of teetering cities like Hartford and Waterbury and maintaining aid to the 30 poorest school districts that educate nearly 40 percent of Connecticut’s children.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics, Transportation
Malloy budget hinges on big labor savings, new revenues
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled a $40.6 billion two-year budget Wednesday that seeks $1.5 billion in labor concessions, imposes $400 million on annual pension costs on municipalities and reorganizes the financial relationship between the state, communities and hospitals.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy proposal today to kick off a grueling budget season
The governor’s new, two-year budget would avert $3.6 billion in projected deficits, seek $700 million in annual labor concessions, redistribute local aid to shield poor cities, require municipalities to cover one-third of Connecticut’s teacher pension costs and allow municipalities to levy the property tax on hospitals.