House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, is seeking early support for an effort to become only the third three-term speaker in the history of the General Assembly. If successful, he would leave the legislature in three years at the conclusion of his next term.
J. Brendan Sharkey
Posted inEducation, Politics
Looney, Sharkey hedge on overriding Malloy veto
The Connecticut General Assembly expects to convene Monday for a one-day veto session, but legislative leaders expressed uncertainty Wednesday about whether lawmakers would attempt their first override of a veto by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Posted inMoney
The tricky business of measuring business climate
Forbes ranks Connecticut 36th among the states as a place to do business. Others peg it as low as 47th. On the plus side, Bloomberg places it fourth on its list of innovative states. And Connecticut ties for second-lowest business tax burden measured against productivity. Does it matter?
Posted inMoney, Politics
House approves bill to restrict tax exemption for colleges, hospitals
The House of Representatives approved a measure early Friday that would end a portion of the municipal tax exemption long possessed by private, nonprofit colleges and hospitals.
Posted inEducation
CSCU president: Meriden campuses will stay open
Heeding pressure from the state Capitol, the community college programs in Meriden will remain open after all, the college system’s president announced Wednesday. But he said he’s depending on the state to fund the campuses.
Posted inEducation, Politics
House votes to strip Gray of power to close campus
In a clear show of displeasure with the leader of the state’s system of community colleges and regional state universities, the state House of Representatives voted 86 to 56 Tuesday to block the system from closing a campus without legislative approval.
Posted inEducation, Politics
Senate moves to rebuke Gray, stop Meriden campus closure
The Senate moved swiftly Wednesday to stop a surprise plan to close a community college satellite campus in a district represented by the co-chair of the legislature’s committee on higher education. On a unanimous vote, the Senate stripped administrators of the right to close any campus without legislative approval.
Posted inEducation
For students with limited English, glaring gaps in achievement and state remedies
One of every 15 students in Connecticut’s public schools speaks and understands only limited English, and their academic achievement lags far behind that of their classmates. The achievement gap in Connecticut is among the highest in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
House Democrats step off on long, difficult road to a state budget
Majority Democrats in the House of Representatives tried Tuesday afternoon to get their arms around the daunting deficits facing state finances. But after two hours behind closed doors, they left still trying.
Posted inPolitics
Campaign finance reform left for high-level negotiations
The Senate Democratic majority’s leadership yielded Monday to a toothless compromise on the question of capping the unlimited expenditures the state parties now can make on General Assembly races in Connecticut. The compromise: a $250,000 cap that wouldn’t have meant a difference in any campaign last year.
Posted inPolitics
Sharkey and GOP vs. Senate Democrats on campaign reform
The Senate Democratic majority is blocking House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, and minority Republicans from closing what critics say is major loophole in Connecticut’s system of publicly financing campaigns — the parties ability to direct special-interest money to taxpayer-funded candidates.
Posted inEducation
The charter debate: More schools, transparency and oversight?
Legislators are grappling with whether to fund new charter schools in Bridgeport and Stamford, put a moratorium on new charters while existing schools are assessed, or demand more transparency and oversight in the wake of financial and management failures at a charter school in Hartford.
Posted inMoney, Politics
For now, Malloy says this budget problem is the legislature’s
Exactly four years ago, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was in Norwich for the fifth of 17 town-hall meetings to pitch Connecticut on the labor concessions and record tax increase he proposed to erase the nation’s largest per-capita state deficit. Today, he is vacationing in Puerto Rico. There is no tour this year to sell the public on his plan to resolve a smaller shortfall with business taxes and spending cuts that fall heavily on the poor, elderly and disabled.
Posted inPolitics
Can Connecticut’s campaign finance reforms be saved?
Reform it. Leave it alone. Blow it up. Prescriptions for fixing Connecticut’s system of publicly financing campaigns vary wildly. Its tight limits on contributions and spending turned porous in 2014, tarnishing what had been a shiny instrument of campaign finance reform.
Posted inPolitics
Maynard’s unexpected return upstages an inauguration
The General Assembly opened its 2015 session Wednesday on an emotional note as the Senate welcomed the surprise return of Sen. Andrew M. Maynard, D-Stonington, who was re-elected without campaigning after sustaining a traumatic brain injury last summer.