While Connecticut’s distressed cities often are perceived as having bloated budgets, the wealthy suburbs easily outspend their urban neighbors on a per capita basis, sometimes by margins nearing two-to-one. Second in a series.
Fairfield County
Coverage of issues affecting residents in Connecticut’s southwestern-most county.
Posted inMoney
Already deep in debt, Connecticut struggles with extremes of wealth and income
The growing gap between Connecticut’s richest and poorest citizens, which already outstrips that in most other states, has widened dramatically since the last recession. First in a series.
Posted inMoney
Himes splits with CT Dems on Dodd-Frank changes
WASHINGTON – Rep. Jim Himes split from other Connecticut Democrats Wednesday in supporting a bill that pares down several restrictions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank bill, a law imposed on U.S. banks and other institutions after the global financial crisis.
Posted inMoney
Connecticut’s attempt to safeguard federal deductions may draw IRS heat
WASHINGTON – Fairfield First Selectman Mike Tetreau hopes to take advantage of a new state law aimed at blunting the impact on his town’s residents of a new cap on certain federal tax deductions. But the bold step the state has taken may face push-back from the IRS.
Posted inMoney
Bridgeport casino, Hartford debt aid complicate CT budget talks
With just five days left in the legislative session, a stubborn wrinkle is complicating efforts to craft a new state budget: regional politics.
Posted inMoney, Transportation
CT DOT pitches ‘astounding,’ cheaper plan to break I-95 gridlock
Connecticut could implement a “strategic and incremental” widening of Interstate 95 to relieve congestion along the state’s shoreline without having to take huge swaths of private property by eminent domain, a game-changer for breaking gridlock in Fairfield County, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday.
Posted inPolitics
Arora puts up big money in bid to unseat Himes
WASHINGTON – With his base in wealthy Fairfield County, Rep. Jim Himes is a top campaign fundraiser, but the Democrat has a new Republican challenger who says he plans to rival the incumbent in raising political money.
Posted inCities & Towns, Energy & Environment, Housing, News
Sandy + 5; Irene + 6: Coastal resilience still elusive and expensive
More than six years after Irene, five years after Sandy, and tens of millions of dollars later, Connecticut’s shoreline communities have been slow to embrace resiliency and now look much as they did before the storms hit. But there are exceptions.
Posted inTransportation
Northeast rail plan stymied by lack of funding, concerns in Fairfield County
WASHINGTON — An ambitious — and to some in Connecticut controversial — plan to overhaul the railroad in the Northeast Corridor has come to a full stop, a victim to lack of funding. There also has been pushback to the plan from Fairfield County residents who fear the impact of laying down new high-speed-ready tracks and other development near their neighborhoods.
Posted inEducation
Greenwich attorney is new UConn Board of Trustees chair
The governor Friday named Thomas E. Kruger as the next chair of the University of Connecticut’s governing board.
Posted inTransportation
In CT’s battle with feds over rail, a new front in Fairfield County
STAMFORD — Fresh off a recent victory in southeastern Connecticut, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and activists have begun organizing opposition to a second federally proposed rail bypass. This time, the fight is in lower Fairfield County.
Posted inHousing, Politics
Legislature musters enough votes to override Malloy housing veto
The General Assembly dealt a blow to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s housing agenda Monday after legislators voted narrowly to override his veto of a bill that loosens the state’s affordable housing standards.
Posted inHousing
Southwestern CT housing prices strain owners and renters
Rents in Fairfield County are among the highest in the nation, with median rents higher than those in the New York and Boston metro areas.
Posted inMoney
Connecticut’s biz ranking bumps up as a tech company expands
STAMFORD — In a state with an aging workforce and an outmoded employment infrastructure of suburban office parks like the one famously abandoned by General Electric, the expansion of a thriving web company called Indeed was sufficient cause for celebration Wednesday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. Oh, and CNBC bumped the state up 10 places to 33rd in its business rankings.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Himes tells town hall meeting Trump is playing to public’s fears
WESTPORT — Though he began the night expressing hope in the fight against Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, fear worked its way to the forefront later in the evening as several successive speakers asked questions about crisis in government.
