With no single solution capable of restoring Connecticut’s fiscal health, the state probably will need a multi-faceted solution that will spark fierce opposition among all constituent groups. Third in a series.
Labor
Posted inCities & Towns, Education, Money, Politics
Malloy proposes easing mandates on cities and towns
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled a plan Tuesday to ease municipal mandates, including tighter wage standards on construction projects and greater flexibility in property assessments.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Transportation
A legacy of debt: Squeeze on state’s priorities only getting tighter
State government’s surging retirement benefit costs are likely to have a big impact on programs and taxes over the next two decades. But they already have sapped significant funding from key priorities, including transportation, higher education, health care and social services. Second in a series.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
A legacy of debt: Connecticut standing on its own fiscal cliff
The budget that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will present to the legislature Feb. 8, in an attempt to close $3 billion in deficits over the next two years, is only a portent of a far greater, long-term challenge facing the state. First in a series.
Posted inCities & Towns, Education, Money
CCM: Pair sales tax hike, bargaining changes to bolster cities, towns
Connecticut’s cities and towns unveiled a sweeping financial plan Wednesday that included a major sales tax boost to aid communities, new regionalization incentives and collective bargaining changes. The bargaining changes would be designed to ensure new revenue for towns would not be used to boost wages and benefits for municipal workers.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Malloy continues to prep CT for lean budget and shifts in local aid
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy continued to set expectations Tuesday for his upcoming state budget proposal, hinting at a lean plan that avoids major tax hikes and realigns municipal aid in favor of distressed cities.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CEA attack on Achievement First ‘blatantly political’ and false
The Connecticut Education Association’s criticism of Achievement First is a blatantly political attack that willfully misrepresents AF’s leaders, finances and students. As the first person in my family to graduate from college, I know what education has done for my family and me. Like Dacia Toll, the founder of Achievement First (AF), I am passionate about education and I want the same opportunities for all children as my children received.
Posted inMoney
CT’s jobless rate falls to 4.4 percent despite December job losses
Connecticut posted a mixed jobs report for December as the unemployment rate dropped from 4.7 percent to 4.4 percent, despite the loss of 1,700 jobs that month and the downgrading of November’s job gain, the state Department of Labor said Thursday.
Posted inHealth, Money
Nonprofits say privatizing social services could save CT $1.3B
Hoping to stave off cuts in the next state budget, nonprofit social service providers said privatizing an array of services for the intellectually disabled and mentally ill could save more than $1.3 billion in total over the next three years.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Despite officials’ claims, Connecticut not on positive job-growth trajectory
I read with great concern and disappointment a recent article that appeared in the Sunday Stamford Advocate (and affiliated papers) on 1/8/17 entitled “New Jobs are job No. 1.” As a business owner, business leader and one connected with hundreds of businesses in the state and the region, I can comfortably say that many of the perceptions stated by the various elected officials quoted in this piece are categorically false and demonstrate how out of touch many in elected office in Hartford seem to be.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
New legislative balance brings hope for Connecticut businesses
This recession also dampened the normally optimistic view of the future for many of the state’s residents, evident in the polling and focus groups CBIA conducted throughout the 2016 election season. But because of the resiliency of Connecticut businesses and their workforces, our companies are competing and winning every day.Employers are heartened by the hope that the new balance in the state legislature will lead to more bipartisanship, and therefore better policy choices, as they are by Gov. Dannel Malloy’s emphasis on a more predictable and stable fiscal environment for businesses in his Opening Day address to the General Assembly.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
‘Pension spiking’ bleeding Connecticut’s budget — bigtime
“Pension Spiking” is the term used to describe the common practice whereby state and government employees contrive to boost their pensions in the last years of their employment. Pension spiking has been going on for years throughout the country, but it has been raised to a new level in Connecticut during Gov. Dannel Malloy’s two terms. By appointing a number of loyal Democrat legislators to judgeships or other high ranking positions in his administration, he has “spiked” their retirement benefits.
Posted inMoney
Future payment scheme takes a heavy present toll on state pension fund
The latest valuation of Connecticut’s state employee pension fund, which assumes the plan pending before the legislature would be ratified, shows it would push the fund into its worst fiscal shape in three decades.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy warns of need for concessions, smaller government, new aid formulas
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy set the stage Wednesday in his 2017 State of the State address for a protracted and difficult debate on how to further shrink state government, extract more concessions from unions on pension and health benefits, and better focus a smaller pool of state aid for education to the systems most in need. Any one would be difficult.
Posted inMoney, Politics
House Democrats block GOP bid to require votes on labor deals
In the first partisan fight of 2017, Democrats in the House of Representatives blocked a Republican proposal Wednesday that would have ended a longstanding practice of approving state employee contracts without a vote.