Connecticut’s tolls debate is over, yet millions of dollars in town aid remains in political limbo.
Connecticut Council of Small Towns
Posted inMoney
Action unlikely on transportation, local aid until January
Gov. Ned Lamont suggested Tuesday that long-delayed state grants to municipalities would be delivered by Christmas. That is unlikely to happen.
Posted inMoney
State bonding gridlock stalls summer repaving funds
Gov. Ned Lamont and Democratic legislative leaders repeatedly trumpeted their adoption of a new state budget “on time” in June, noting it gave cities and towns certainty about the grants they could expect. But for the second time in three years, Connecticut cities and towns haven’t received state funding crucial for scheduled summer road repaving work.
Posted inEducation
Gov. Lamont drops “redistricting” from controversial bill to get schools to share services
Some residents and advocates expressed relief about the revisions, while others said they still could not support the governor’s plan.
Posted inNews
Lawmakers renew teacher pension cost-sharing debate
Should the state bill towns for teacher pension costs? Former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy first raised the idea of sharing the fastest-growing cost in the state budget with cities and towns. But while Malloy failed to win legislative support before he left office, the debate over whether to bill communities for a share of municipal teacher pension costs is not over.
Posted inMoney
Despite snowstorms, town road grants remained stalled
After facing Connecticut’s third nor’easter in less than two weeks, municipalities are reminding state officials that strained local snow removal budgets badly need overdue state aid. But the prospects for immediate release of the stalled $30 million in Town Aid Road grants seem dim.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Town leaders: Further reform needed for pensions, school funding
Municipal leaders urged a state study panel Tuesday to support further restrictions on public-sector pensions, ending collective bargaining for retirement benefits and aggressively redistributing education aid from communities losing students to those gaining them.
Posted inMoney
Budget fight threatens credit for a third of CT municipalities
Moody’s Investors Service announced measures that could lead to lower bond ratings — and higher interest costs — for 51 municipalities and six regional school districts, affecting nearly $7 billion in outstanding debt.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Speaker: Mid-September vote is last chance to avert budget disaster for towns
As municipalities brace for a massive hit in state assistance this fall, absent a new budget, House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz said Wednesday his chamber may vote on a fiscal plan next month — even if it acts alone.
Posted inMoney
With municipal aid on chopping block, a cordial chat
Evidently resigned to a shrinking pool of state aid, leaders of two municipal associations pressed Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday about granting Connecticut’s cities and town flexibility in dealing with public employees to achieve off-setting efficiencies, long a politically fraught topic at the State Capitol.
Posted inMoney, Politics
House leaders wary of withholding $19M pledged to towns
Leaders from both parties in the House of Representatives said they are wary of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to withhold $19 million in outstanding municipal aid to help close a last-minute state budget deficit.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Towns ask why CT officials won’t touch teachers’ pensions
Connecticut towns are asking why state officials are not reducing retirement benefits nor deferring another income tax cut for retired teachers, given the state’s huge budget crisis.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money
Coventry town manager Elsesser: Connecticut should consider the commercial activities tax
John A. Elsesser, longtime Coventry town manager, has been one of the leading figures in municipal government for nearly four decades. He understands the varied and intensifying fiscal pressures facing Connecticut and its municipalities, recognizes the need to raise revenue; and sees one possible way to do it fairly — a commercial activities tax.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Small towns want teachers’ pension bills ‘off the table’
Connecticut’s small towns pressed the General Assembly on Thursday to take the governor’s proposal to shift a third of teacher pension costs onto communities “off the table” in state budget deliberations – but administration officials held firm on their plan.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
No one wants a share of CT’s teacher pension bill
Municipalities and hospitals both fear the new cost burdens they would assume in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget would grow quickly as state retirement benefit costs surge in the coming years.