With partisan feuding providing the final push Thursday, the state legislature now will come into session between between Christmas and New Year’s Day to reverse an unpopular cut to a social services program for poor seniors and the disabled.
Connecticut General Assembly
Posted inHealth
Medicare Savings Program cuts delayed by two months
Updated at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday
Lowered eligibility limits for the Medicare Savings Program, which uses Medicaid money to help low-income residents pay medical costs Medicare doesn’t cover, were supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1, but the Department of Social Services said Wednesday it will slow down implementation of the changes in response to concerns raised by the enrollees, advocates and legislators.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
As the 2017 legislative session opens: What to know
The 2017 legislative session begins today, kicking off a five-month frenzy as lawmakers work to craft a budget in the face of bleak fiscal problems and debate topics ranging from school funding to legalizing pot. Here’s a look at what to expect.
Posted inPolitics
Murphy, other CT Democrats, working to empower state’s Latinos
WASHINGTON– Connecticut’s growing Latino population is not increasing its political clout, so Sen. Chris Murphy and members of the state legislature’s Hispanic Democratic Caucus are trying to do something about it. They have established the Latino Leadership Academy.
Posted inHealth, Politics
EpiPen lobbying campaign targeted Connecticut
WASHINGTON – Connecticut, one of 11 states that approved a law requiring schools to stock EpiPens, is on drug maker Mylan’s sizable lobbying list. According to the center, Mylan, under fire for its steep price hikes of the EpiPen, expanded its lobbying presence in state houses to Connecticut and 35 additional states between 2010 to 2014.
Posted inPolitics
CT House gives retiring speaker Sharkey a video sendoff
The state House of Representatives offered a fond farewell Thursday to retiring Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey through a video that was part roast, mixed with moments of gratitude and a little advice.
Posted inPolitics
New Haven’s Megna won’t run, becomes 21st to exit legislature
Rep. Robert W. Megna, D-New Haven, who adopted a consumer advocate’s role as co-chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, added his name Saturday to the list of legislators who will not seek re-election to the General Assembly this fall.
Posted inPolitics
After a tough term in Hartford, a spate of legislative retirements
One is 32, recently married and looking for a job that pays more than the $28,000 salary of a Connecticut state legislator. Another is 81, ready to retire from the battles in Hartford. Others are weary of having to explain a chronic fiscal crisis. For reasons personal and political, at least 20 members of the Connecticut General Assembly marked the end of their last regular session Wednesday.
Posted inPolitics
Outside budget spotlight, one of Malloy’s key bills languishes
Updated 1 a.m. Tuesday
The Senate delayed a vote Monday on Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s major criminal justice initiative, An Act Concerning a Second Chance Society, raising questions about whether it had sufficient Democratic votes to pass before the session ends at midnight Wednesday. Other bills were being held as leverage in budget talks.
Posted inPolitics
A quick guide to the 2016 Connecticut General Assembly
It’s opening day of the Connecticut General Assembly’s three-month session. If you can’t tell the players without a program, if you want a little history of an institution that has dramatically changed in the past 50 years, this is your quick guide to the session – with links to bios and contact information on every lawmaker and constitutional officer. Play ball.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
New seats for charter schools not the answer for Connecticut
Can you imagine a neighborhood in West Hartford in which two or three of the children on the cul-de-sac attend a charter school, funded with $11,000 per student per year of taxpayer money and promoted as a superior school, while all the other children in the neighborhood attend what is said to be an inferior school also funded by taxpayer money? Can you imagine New Canaan parents sending their children to an elementary school in which 23.78 percent of the children are suspended? The answer to these and many others regarding charter schools is: Of course not.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Connecticut legislators in 13th year without a raise
While nearly a fifth of the nation’s state legislatures increased their salaries last year, Connecticut’s General Assembly members are in the midst of their 13th year without a pay hike.
Posted inEducation, Politics
Sen. Stillman will not seek re-election
State Sen. Andrea Stillman: “I feel immensely proud of the work I have done for my constituents.”
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
Tara Cook-Littman: GMO activist becomes candidate
No one quite captured the zeitgeist at the State Capitol last year like Tara Cook-Littman. The founder of GMO Free CT used social media to rally foodies, environmentalists and consumer activists behind a successful crusade to require the labeling of genetically modified foods. Now, she wants to try public policy from the inside — as a legislator.
Posted inPolitics
Senate leader Williams not seeking re-election
Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, told Democratic senators Wednesday he will not seek re-election this fall, heralding a turnover in leadership in three of the General Assembly’s four caucuses.