A bill designed to help Connecticut officials peer into the black box of drug pricing won final approval from a unanimous state Senate early Wednesday, and will now go to the governor. Proponents of the measure called it a necessary first step toward curbing expensive prescription drug prices.
Kevin Lembo
Kevin Lembo previously served as Connecticut comptroller from 2010 to 2021. Before his time in office, Lembo served as Connecticut’s first state healthcare advocate.
Posted inHealth
House unanimously passes bill to shine light on drug industry
The state House of Representatives unanimously approved a comprehensive bill that aims to shed light on the murky prescription drug industry, which state officials say is a necessary first step to lowering expensive drug costs.
Posted inHealth
Clock ticking on a bipartisan scramble to curb drug costs
With only two weeks left in the legislative session, a Democratic lawmaker and the state comptroller are feverishly working to bring to the House floor proposed legislation that is considered Connecticut’s most comprehensive effort so far to control high prescription drug costs.
Posted inHealth
CT extends HUSKY B coverage for kids again, now through March
Connecticut officials have again extended health care coverage for more than 17,000 children and teenagers in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), this time through March 31. The program is known as HUSKY B in Connecticut.
Posted inMoney, Politics
CT closed last budget in the red — for the third straight year
Though state government has gone 102 days into the new fiscal year without a budget, the outgoing year’s finances weren’t trouble-free. Connecticut closed the 2016-17 fiscal year with a $22.7 million deficit, its third consecutive year in the red.
Posted inPolitics
A Labor Day surprise: Lembo opts out of race for governor
Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo abruptly ended his exploratory campaign for governor Thursday after a 10-day “gut check,” removing the best-known Democrat from the field for 2018. He simultaneously announced his candidacy for re-election as comptroller.
Posted inPolitics
No one’s charitable in this partisan fight over giving
Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo and Senate Republicans publicly argued Tuesday over whether the GOP was responsible for jeopardizing a state employees’ charitable giving program by blocking a technical bill unanimously approved by the House of Representatives, only to die from inaction in the Senate.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Senate Democrats make new and old pitch for CT budget reform
Senate Democrats unveiled a new plan Thursday to stabilize future state budgets years from now, offering a plan similar to one enacted into law just two years ago. The benefits might nor arrive for many years.
Posted inPolitics
Lembo opens an exploratory campaign for governor
Connecticut now has a dozen candidates raising money for declared or exploratory campaigns for governor as Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo confirmed Thursday what has been suspected for months and known for weeks: He, too, is interested in running for governor in 2018.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Lembo, OFA project CT budget deficit; Malloy does not
Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo projected Monday that the current state budget is a modest $44.6 million in deficit, effectively matching the conclusion reached March 27 by the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration still says finances are in balance.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Lembo renews push for outside review of business incentives
State Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo has renewed his push to require an independent analysis of the hundreds of millions of dollars in economic incentives Connecticut provides annually to businesses.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Lembo says CT finances remain slightly in the black
Despite nonpartisan analysts’ recent warning that eroding state income tax receipts were pushing Connecticut’s finances into the red, Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo countered Wednesday that the budget remains marginally in the black.
Posted inHealth, Money
Lembo targets ‘skyrocketing’ drug prices
State Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo unveiled a five-point plan Tuesday to develop new legislation to reduce “skyrocketing” pharmaceutical drug costs in Connecticut.
Posted inMoney
Malloy, unions strike deal to stretch out spiking CT pension costs
Updated at 3:50 p.m.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced a deal Friday with state employee unions that would allow Connecticut to dodge a fiscal iceberg by holding down annual pension costs otherwise set to spike over the next 16 years.
Posted inMoney
Lembo says all is not bleak in CT’s fiscal forecast
One day after analysts briefed the legislature’s budget panels on surging retirement benefit and other debt costs that could imperil state finances through the early-to-mid 2030s, Comptroller Kevin Lembo peppered his monthly budget forecast with “positive economic indicators that are worth highlighting.”