Bantam Banter

Despite the state of the world due to COVID-19 restrictions, neither phone fees for inmates nor fees for commissary items have been decreased in the state of Connecticut, even though these fees have been decreased in other states such as  Arkansas due to the pandemic. There is no excuse as to why Connecticut is unable to compromise these fees for inmates and their families during these difficult times.

It is no secret that the current COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down. Among one of the greatest concerns of this new global reality is rising unemployment rates. In Connecticut, the dramatic increase in unemployment has left the state’s Department of Labor overburdened with requests for unemployment benefits. In response, Gov. Ned Lamont invoked his emergency powers in late September to contract with two private companies, Protiviti and Maximus, to help manage the increased number of requests.

As someone who grew up in Connecticut and someone who rode the big yellow school bus for years, I can’t imagine those big yellow buses out of business. When students were transitioned to remote learning, buses remained idle for months. Even though the virus created a budget deficit, state and local governments should have required all Connecticut public schools to pay private bus companies.

Throughout the global pandemic, many Americans began to understand the magnitude and impact of the United States Postal Service within their daily life. Many Americans experienced drastic mail and package delays during this pandemic. The biggest critiques faced by the USPS concern the agency’s accountability and true efficiency. However, the USPS cannot operate efficiently amid the loss of funding.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, charter schools in Connecticut accepted loans from the Small Business Administration Payment Protection Program (PPP). The paycheck protection program is a federal program, implemented during the coronavirus pandemic, that provides loans to small businesses to incentivize them to keep their workers on payroll. They come with low interest rates, two to five years to pay back the loan, and no small business fees. None of these loans were available to traditional public schools, as they are not considered businesses.

School boards around the country may be trying to save public funding due to budget cuts made during the pandemic, but in return, are not paying all of their contractors who provide services to the schools.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac perform a significant role in the housing market, controlling nearly half of the $10 trillion U.S. home loan market. The Trump administration has vowed to end the Fannie and Freddie conservatorship relationship, directly causing mortgages to become more expensive and harder to receive. This will destabilize the economy and pause any improvement in the racial wealth gap.

If you received an absentee ballot application in September for the upcoming  election, it may have come from New York. Mine was mailed by a private mail house, Fort Orange Press in Albany, NY. For the August primary, the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s office contracted with a private mailing house to send out absentee […]

An individual’s right to vote in the upcoming national elections may be compromised if the Trump Administration’s push for privatizing the United States Postal Service (USPS) succeeds. Millions of Americans, including Connecticut residents, will send their ballots by mail this year to avoid any unnecessary and potential exposure to the coronavirus, but undermining the USPS may delegitimize crucial votes.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization where corporate lobbyists and legislators co-write model bills, works in direct opposition to the accountability ideal as it strives to protect corporations from COVID-19 related lawsuits.