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.
Gov. Dannel Malloy
Posted inNews
CT beat out S.C., Florida, others for billions in helicopter work
WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin was considering South Carolina, Florida and other states as places to build Sikorsky’s new CH-53K King Stallion helicopter – a Defense Department program expected to cost at least $25 billion – when the company and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy struck a deal to keep the work in Connecticut.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Don’t blame Malloy for transit fare hikes
Sure, it was sleazy of Gov. Dannel Malloy and the Connecticut Department of Transportation to release news of a proposed 5 percent fare hike on Metro-North on a Friday afternoon in July, hoping nobody would notice. But the more I dig into the proposal, the more I realize the governor and CDOT are not to blame. It’s the Connecticut legislature that’s really responsible for this fare hike.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut — where there is less for every student
For nine years, Connecticut was one of the very few states in the country that did not reduce state funding for public education. In 2016, that very praiseworthy policy ended. The impact of reduced state funding for education will be felt in one way or the other by every child who attends a public school in the state.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut needs a rational, fair, school funding system
Three weeks ago, in his sixth State of the State Address, Gov. Dannel Malloy laid out his five “budget principles” and called for a “more predictable, more sustainable, and more transparent” Connecticut budget that “prioritizes funding for core services.” Rightfully, one of the core services Malloy listed was public education. However, for Connecticut to prioritize education and achieve the governor’s budgetary goals, the state must fundamentally change the way it funds its public schools.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy: Speed DMV lines by shedding ‘collection agency’ role
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to help the beleaguered Department of Motor Vehicles by getting the agency out of the municipal debt collection business and by expanding transactions that can be done at private businesses like AAA offices.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
GE aftermath: Have the governor and Dems learned their lesson?
Missing from Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget address on this year’s opening day of the legislative session was any mention of GE’s departure from the state. Of course, a leader must focus on the future and direct attention away from the negative. But why ignore reality? The only thing I can say for his speech is that at least pointing out the few companies that are investing in our state was more convincing than again spouting the “need for transportation and a high-tech atmosphere” as the reason for GE’s relocation.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Malloy gun proposal NOT about terrorism
No one wants terrorists to have guns. However, Gov. Dan Malloy’s recent proposal to ban gun purchases from those who appear on a nebulous terrorist “watch list” is a step too far. There is no doubt that Gov. Malloy is not a big fan of the Second Amendment. Unfortunately, this plan also guts the 14th Amendment due process clause by suspending the right to purchase and potentially confiscating legally owned property without providing ANY evidence to do so.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
No lock on Connecticut’s transportation lock box
Yesterday, the legislature voted to implement a “transportation lock box” to presumably protect funding to repair and replace our state’s crumbling roads, rails and bridges that we travel daily. While this sounds like a noble idea, we of the Southeastern Connecticut delegation – and many of our colleagues – saw the serious flaws in this bill that compelled us to vote against it.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CSCU president could have addressed protest instead of breezing by
Last Thursday, this year’s President of the Connecticut’s Board of Regents for Higher Education, Mark Ojakian, hurried past a large group of AAUP protesters outside of his scheduled Board of Regents meeting at the old Phoenix Insurance building on Woodland Street in Hartford. It probably never occurred to this right-hand man of the governor that he was presented with a rare opportunity. In Ojakian’s defense, his boss probably would not have seized the opportunity either.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Will Connecticut follow Massachusetts on Common Core?
Massachusetts, one of the leading states on education reform in the nation, in a monumental decision has abandoned Common Core testing. The Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, Michael Chester, in a stunning reversal, has walked away from the very test he helped to create. Now it remains to be seen if other states in the nation, including Connecticut, will follow Massachusetts, a state that is considered to be “the gold standard” in successful education reform.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy, federal lawmakers stand firm on helping Syrian refugees
WASHINGTON — A growing number of GOP governors are citing the Paris attacks as a reason not to accept Syrian refugees, but Connecticut politicians are rejecting that notion.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Stamford parking garage saga takes strange new turn
The nearly decade-long struggle to replace the crumbling Stamford railroad station parking garage has taken another bizarre turn: the Connecticut Department of Transportation now wants to spend $1.5 million and take six months to repair the garage before they tear it down.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
State budget cuts threaten the mentally ill and addicted
I am opposed to the recent ill-advised budget cuts made in the areas of health care, social services and education, and I am engaged in a touch advocacy effort to see these cuts rescinded. Our most disadvantaged residents will be disproportionately affected by these draconian cuts. I urge you to advance the concerns of those we care about most.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Budget cuts will hurt Connecticut’s most vulnerable residents
As someone who has testified and written frequently about funding decisions and service modifications and also as someone who is very familiar with health disparities in Connecticut, I believe that the governor’s current budget rescissions are not only evidence of a disconnect between the state’s commitment to ending disparities and inequities in health and health outcomes, but they are also a departure from the state’s early commitment to the enactment of the Affordable Care Act.