Sen. Beth Bye, D-West Hartford, conceded the failure Thursday of an effort to pass a bill that would have regulated but not prohibit a plan by Niagara Bottling to bottle up to 1.8 million gallons of Metropolitan District Commission water a day in Bloomfield.
Beth Bye
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
Niagara bottling plan prompts Senate vote on water regs
The Senate passed compromise legislation Tuesday that would regulate but not prohibit a plan by Niagara Bottling to treat, bottle and sell up to 1.8 million gallons of tap water daily at a plant planned for the Hartford suburb of Bloomfield.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Bye urges colleagues, Malloy to scale back town aid cuts
The Senate chair of the General Assembly’s budget-writing panel challenged her colleagues and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Thursday to ease the municipal aid cuts they are seeking — or watch one budget be rejected after another. Sen. Beth Bye also fears many cities and towns already are making plans to increase property tax rates based on the state budgets proposed over the past week.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics, Transportation
Struggle to balance current budget could help with future deficits
While legislators and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy scramble to close yet another hole in the current state budget, the exercise could help them solve a much larger problem. Depending on how they solve this fiscal year’s $220 million deficit — a task lawmakers have pledged to complete Tuesday — the $900 million hole built into 2016-17 finances could be whittled down by nearly one-quarter.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
Public water, private profits: A fight over MDC’s tap water
Niagara Bottling’s plan to buy and bottle lightly treated tap water in Bloomfield is high octane fuel for a debate at the Connecticut General Assembly and the Hartford region’s water authority about the ethics and environmental impact of what is projected this year to become the most popular packaged beverage in the United States – the ubiquitous, single-serve, plastic bottle of water.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Malloy seeks to cut legislative authority over Medicaid changes
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration is seeking to eliminate legislators’ authority over certain attempts to make changes to Medicaid and other federally funded assistance programs – an authority legislators recently used to block a controversial administration proposal.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
There is more to Connecticut life than business taxes
Since the state budget was finalized, all we have heard in the media is that major corporations and Connecticut citizens are threatening to leave the state because of the increasing taxes. But I would like to ask my fellow citizens and these large companies to consider that this budget offers a real lifeline to some Connecticut children and young adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
Posted inEducation
Aggressive charter school campaign descends on the Capitol
Legislators are being bombarded with emails informing them every time a student applies to a charter school that the state has yet to agree to fund. And when they turn on the television, they see advertisements warning that thousands of students will be trapped in failing schools unless state lawmakers spend millions more to expand enrollment in charter schools.
Posted inEducation, Politics
In suburban schools, student poverty growing faster than education aid
The number of low-income, high-need students attending school in the suburbs is rising, putting new strains on local budgets. That’s why their municipal leaders are pressing the legislature to adjust the state’s system of aid to local schools.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy’s fitful search for a ‘new normal’ on budgets
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy talks about his push for a “Second Chance Society” for ex-offenders and his intention to somehow coax the General Assembly into putting the state on a path to spend $100 billion on transportation over 30 years. But the reality of governing in the first months of his second term is less about big ideas than the prospect of a protracted and painful conversation with a restive General Assembly about what kind of government Connecticut can afford.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Is it a gag order or the Malloy administration speaking with one voice?
Key legislators say a directive from budget director Benjamin Barnes restricting what agency heads can tell legislators about Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget proposal is hindering lawmakers in doing their jobs and will push more of the budget-writing process behind closed doors. Barnes says the administration simply works together “as one administration, with all our commissioners and agency heads.”
Posted inEducation
The charter debate: More schools, transparency and oversight?
Legislators are grappling with whether to fund new charter schools in Bridgeport and Stamford, put a moratorium on new charters while existing schools are assessed, or demand more transparency and oversight in the wake of financial and management failures at a charter school in Hartford.
Posted inMoney, Politics
For now, Malloy says this budget problem is the legislature’s
Exactly four years ago, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was in Norwich for the fifth of 17 town-hall meetings to pitch Connecticut on the labor concessions and record tax increase he proposed to erase the nation’s largest per-capita state deficit. Today, he is vacationing in Puerto Rico. There is no tour this year to sell the public on his plan to resolve a smaller shortfall with business taxes and spending cuts that fall heavily on the poor, elderly and disabled.
Posted inPolitics
Maynard’s unexpected return upstages an inauguration
The General Assembly opened its 2015 session Wednesday on an emotional note as the Senate welcomed the surprise return of Sen. Andrew M. Maynard, D-Stonington, who was re-elected without campaigning after sustaining a traumatic brain injury last summer.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
One political party rules Connecticut, period
Of the hundreds of votes that make state government run, there are dozens that determine Connecticut’s direction. On these, the philosophical divide between Democrats and Republicans is profound. And in Connecticut, the Democratic votes control.
