Quick quiz: Which governor approved the two largest tax hikes in modern Connecticut history? If you answered Dannel P. Malloy you would be in elite company.
You also would be wrong — by any measure.
Bob Stefanowski made sweeping changes while running a scandal-ridden payday lending company, his last job before running for governor of Connecticut. Now, voters have to decide how impressed they should be about Stefanowski’s role as a change agent for a company whose products, even the ones improved on his watch, are still illegal in the state he wishes to lead.
It is a time of reckoning for Connecticut’s private, nonprofit social services. After two decades of flat or reduced funding from its chief client — state government — community-based agencies are struggling to retain both their programs and the low-paid staff who deliver care for thousands of poor, disabled and mentally-ill adults and children.
GOP gubernatorial contenders Mark Boughton and Bob Stefanowski say they would phase out the state income tax. But their rivals say those claims are false given that Connecticut faces huge projected deficits, skyrocketing pension costs and a controversial benefits contract that runs for nine more years.
Facing years of projected state budget deficits, could a move toward metropolitan regions help save money and spur economic development, as advocates claim? What would a major step look like? And could any effort succeed against Connecticut’s long devotion to localism. First of three articles.
MGM Resorts International spent $3.8 million on lobbying in Connecticut last year, more than three times any other interest group, in a vain attempt to stop the General Assembly from authorizing its tribal competitors to build a casino in competition with MGM Springfield. But MGM had another card to play — a friendly relationship with the Trump administration and its Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke.
Connecticut, once a national leader in clean and renewable energy and energy efficiency, has slipped behind many other states, including its neighbors. Most of the finger-pointing is at the state’s budget problems and questionable choices by the legislature. But the state may have started to lose its energy edge before then. The question is, can it get it back?
The federal tax overhaul may have triggered an automatic state tax break that would allow parents to avoid paying state taxes on some of the money they put aside to send their children to private K-12 schools. Forces already are lining up to back or resist a change.
In Lawrence, a once-booming mill town that Boston Magazine labeled the “City of the Damned” five years ago, schools have shown remarkable improvement since the state intervened in 2011. Last of three stories in a special report.
In both states spending on education has increased greatly over the last 25 years – with one key difference: Massachusetts tied increased state aid to ambitious reforms it credits with spurring remarkable advances in student achievement. Connecticut relied more heavily on local educators to use increased state aid to improve things. Second of three stories in a special report.
Massachusetts over the last 20 years has moved to the top of the national rankings for achievement by students from low-income families while Connecticut has lagged. Here’s how they did it. First of three articles in a special report.
A program pioneered at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital makes a mother the centerpiece of her child’s treatment in a way that improves recovery for both of them.
The state’s public education system has reached a pivotal time. Click to read more stories in charts The Connecticut Supreme Court is set to hear arguments today in a landmark school-funding case. And with the state facing major projected deficits for the foreseeable future, it might take an order from the high court for much […]
Connecticut is losing more bioscience jobs than it is gaining, despite a sizable jump in research and development jobs over the last three years. Alexion’s departure is the latest in a line that has undercut bioscience growth. Nonetheless, many say New Haven is nearing a “critical mass” after years of effort by Yale and a new cluster is emerging in Farmington after more than $1 billion in state investment.
How the state funds public schools is so messy and complicated that dozens of parents, educators, legislators, the governor, and a Superior Court judge have characterized the setup as broken. However, some of the criticism that regularly surfaces is based on skewed perceptions of reality.
