Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday that a $250 million plan to overhaul the aging XL Center in downtown Hartford is a blueprint to modernize an arena that has reached the end of its useful life, not a long-shot bid to bring NHL hockey back to Connecticut -– even if a would-be NHL ownership group is looking at Hartford.
Dannel P. Malloy
Posted inEducation, Money
Education funding reform: More for the cities — or maybe less
As proposed, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s state budget would be a financial boon for Connecticut’s cities, but nothing in it ensures that any additional money headed their way will go to their troubled schools. Here are the major elements of the educational funding plan that state and municipal leaders must address in the weeks ahead.
Posted inHealth
With drug deaths up 44%, an insurer bankrolls a new approach
The charitable foundation of UnitedHealthcare, a major U.S. health insurer with 2,500 employees in Connecticut, is bankrolling a three-year effort in Hartford to test new ways to attack drug addiction before it takes root in teenagers.
Posted inJustice
Malloy’s new pitch for bail and juvenile justice reforms
A year after legislators rebuffed him, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is back with revised versions of proposals that would reform Connecticut’s bail system and expand the jurisdiction of its juvenile courts, issues that have edged closer to the mainstream of criminal-justice thinking in the U.S.
Posted inHealth
CT would protect Planned Parenthood Medicaid funds under Malloy proposal
As Republicans in Congress seek to cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed legislation that would allow the state to make up any federal Medicaid dollars the clinics would lose.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy: ‘The world is upside down in Trump world’
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday that President Trump’s claim that Sen. Richard Blumenthal misrepresented Judge Neil Gorsuch’s discomfort at Trump’s attacks on the judiciary was the latest evidence “the world is upside down in Trump world.”
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Some education aid increases might not be spent on schools
In his new budget Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is proposing to increase state education grants to 52 cities and towns with struggling schools by about $230 million, but it will be up to the municipalities to determine whether to actually spend it on their schools – or use it to close their own local budget shortfalls or make up for other state budget cuts.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Hospitals blast Malloy’s proposal to subject them to property taxes
The governor’s plan would also cut an $11.8 million fund that has provided money to small, independent hospitals. And it would restore the administration’s ability to unilaterally cut funding to hospitals through a technical budgeting change.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Amid cuts and concessions, Malloy promises progress
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy framed what is likely to be his final two-year budget as a call to recast the state’s compact with its neediest municipalities, expanding the tax base of teetering cities like Hartford and Waterbury and maintaining aid to the 30 poorest school districts that educate nearly 40 percent of Connecticut’s children.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy to address Democrats planning strategy in Baltimore
WASHINGTON — Gov. Dannel Malloy will be among the speakers when Democrats gather in Baltimore later this week to plan strategy in the time of Trump. As head of the Democratic Governors Association, Malloy will address the Democratic National Committee’s “Future Forum” as the party that saw its clout shrink in the election regroups this week in the Maryland city.
Posted inEducation, Money
Malloy proposes shaking up state education aid
NEW BRITAIN — Standing in the library of an elementary school that was at the center of a recent school-funding trial, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Monday released his plans for redistributing existing levels of state education aid in ways he said would help the most impoverished school districts.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Brinksmanship at State Capitol over pension deal
Republicans tried Wednesday to scuttle a deal Gov. Dannel P. Malloy struck with state employee unions to avoid spiking pension costs. But the House voted 76 to 72 to ratify the deal, while the Senate followed suit in more dramatic fashion with a tie-breaking vote by Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman.
Posted inJustice
Malloy picks Gregory D’Auria for state Supreme Court
Gregory T. D’Auria of Hebron, who oversees the appellate division of the attorney general’s office as solicitor general, was nominated Wednesday as a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Transportation
A legacy of debt: Squeeze on state’s priorities only getting tighter
State government’s surging retirement benefit costs are likely to have a big impact on programs and taxes over the next two decades. But they already have sapped significant funding from key priorities, including transportation, higher education, health care and social services. Second in a series.
Posted inHealth, Politics
‘It’s a public health crisis:’ Malloy proposals target opioids
The proposals include requiring physicians to prescribe opioids electronically rather than on paper; allowing visiting nurses to destroy unused medication; and allowing patients to direct that they not be prescribed an opioid medication.