House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz offered a compromise Wednesday on one of the stickiest points in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget: asking communities to gradually assume a portion of skyrocketing teacher pension costs.
Labor
Posted inMoney, Politics
Dems, GOP test their arguments on labor cuts, tax increases
Ostensibly called to protest the GOP’s labor bills, a news conference of pro-union Democrats in the General Assembly on Friday began to sound like the stirrings of a revolt against the governor’s push for employee concessions and his resistance to any significant new revenue, including a tax increase on the wealthy.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Democrats eyeing sales tax hike to plug holes in next CT budget
While Gov. Dannel P. Malloy continues to push spending cuts as the chief solution to Connecticut’s latest budget crisis, his fellow Democrats on one key panel say a more balanced mix of reductions and revenue might be unavoidable.
Posted inNews
Connecticut, U.S. unemployment rates were 4.7% in February
The Connecticut unemployment rate rose from 4.5 percent in January to 4.7 percent in February as the state posted a net loss of 1,600 jobs, nearly all in the private sector, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. The U.S. unemployment rate also was 4.7 percent.
Posted inHealth, Money
State worker union launches TV ad to fight layoffs
Two days after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy threatened to lay off 4,200 unionized state workers unless concessions are granted, Connecticut’s largest healthcare workers union launched a television ad urging viewers to keep its members on the job.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money
Jepsen sees ‘not insubstantial’ risk in casino expansion
Allowing Connecticut’s two federally recognized tribes to jointly operate a casino off tribal lands would pose legal risks that “are not insubstantial” to the more than $250 million in slots revenue annually shared with the state, Attorney General George Jepsen wrote Monday in a formal legal opinion.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Battles over labor’s wages heat up at Capitol
The clash over labor costs intensified Tuesday at the state Capitol. While one panel split over a proposal to boost the minimum wage, labor groups rallied against changes to the prevailing wage law.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Transportation
Griebel on the business climate: ‘Confidence must be restored’
R. Nelson “Oz” Griebel, longtime chief executive officer of the MetroHartford Alliance, has been active in state, regional and city public policy for nearly two decades. He chaired the state Transportation Strategy Board and ran, unsuccessfully, for governor in 2010. Now, as the governor and General Assembly resume debate on the state budget and massively under-funded retirement benefit programs that threaten Connecticut’s fiscal future, Griebel sat down to talk with The Mirror.
Posted inPolitics
Progressives struggle to regain momentum on labor bills
The Democratic leader of the evenly divided state Senate led the kickoff Thursday of an uphill campaign to raise the $10.10 minimum wage to $15 on Jan. 1, 2022, and also make Connecticut the fifth state in the U.S. to enact a worker-funded insurance program of paid medical leave.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics, Transportation
Legislators begin to push back on Malloy’s new budget
The General Assembly began its review of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new two-year budget Friday with a strong, bipartisan pushback from the Appropriations Committee.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics, Transportation
Malloy budget hinges on big labor savings, new revenues
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled a $40.6 billion two-year budget Wednesday that seeks $1.5 billion in labor concessions, imposes $400 million on annual pension costs on municipalities and reorganizes the financial relationship between the state, communities and hospitals.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy proposal today to kick off a grueling budget season
The governor’s new, two-year budget would avert $3.6 billion in projected deficits, seek $700 million in annual labor concessions, redistribute local aid to shield poor cities, require municipalities to cover one-third of Connecticut’s teacher pension costs and allow municipalities to levy the property tax on hospitals.
Posted inMoney
Labor savings is the big unknown in Malloy’s new budget
The new budget Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will propose Wednesday will be based partly on a big assumption — that ongoing talks with state employee unions will produce concessions. But some are worried that to get them, the state must promise to maintain a costly retirement benefits system beyond the current 2022 expiration date.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Employers fret job-based coverage vulnerable in GOP health overhaul
As President Donald Trump promises a replacement for the Affordable Care Act that will provide “insurance for everybody,” employers worry Republican attempts to redo other parts of the insurance market could harm their much larger one.
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.