Hundreds of teachers, parents, teachers union leaders and students descended on the state Capitol Tuesday, objecting to the Department of Education’s use of the Smarter Balanced test associated with the Common Core Standards. Some key lawmakers, however, appear to be unmoved.
Len Fasano
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy’s fitful search for a ‘new normal’ on budgets
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy talks about his push for a “Second Chance Society” for ex-offenders and his intention to somehow coax the General Assembly into putting the state on a path to spend $100 billion on transportation over 30 years. But the reality of governing in the first months of his second term is less about big ideas than the prospect of a protracted and painful conversation with a restive General Assembly about what kind of government Connecticut can afford.
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 inMoney, Politics
Budget debate: Malloy’s ‘childish,’ but GOP’s a ‘comedy show’
Leaders of the legislature’s Republican minority condemned Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget Thursday as savaging the social safety net, but they declined to commit to offering their own alternative to the one by the Democratic administration. Zingers ensued.
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 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 inMoney
Event: ‘Budget Unbundled’ program set for Feb. 25 in Hartford
“Budget Unbundled: A Closer Look at Connecticut’s Fiscal Roadmap,” a program discussing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed state budget, will take place Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the Hartford Marriott Downtown, 200 Columbus Blvd., Hartford.
Posted inPolitics
Schriro’s results in Connecticut outweigh troubles in NYC
Legislators were more interested Tuesday in praising Commissioner Dora B. Schriro’s leadership of the Connecticut State Police than in challenging her about controversies during her previous job overseeing New York City’s troubled jail complex at Rikers Island.
Posted inMoney, Politics
GOP offers no-tax-hike transportation plan
Republican legislators unveiled a $37 billion transportation proposal on Tuesday while making pre-emptive political strike against Gov. Dannel P. Malloy anticipated initiative on the same topic. GOP leaders stressed their plan makes a major investment without imposing tolls, increasing overall debt or raising taxes.
Posted inPolitics
A struggle for high ground on campaign reform in CT
The General Assembly’s Republican minority moved Thursday to shape the debate on Connecticut’s system of publicly financing campaigns, demanding that Democrats close loopholes undermining the state’s clean-elections law. The GOP offers itself as the savior of a system whose creation was opposed by most Republicans.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy, GOP leader and press do photo op lunch
Answering a dare and a double dare to sit and talk about deficit projections, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, each accompanied by fiscal advisers, dined in a public cafeteria Friday, surrounded by a tight circle of aides, reporters, photographers and cops.
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.
Posted inPolitics
Chris Healy to be state Senate GOP strategist
Chris Healy, the former Republican state chairman who was a senior adviser to a 2012 congressional campaign that was derailed by scandal, will be a communication and policy analyst for the state Senate Republican minority.
Posted inPolitics
Klarides elected as first woman to lead House GOP
The winners of Tuesday’s legislative races met Thursday in closed caucuses to elect new leaders in three of the General Assembly’s four caucuses, including Rep. Themis Klarides as the first woman to serve as House Republican leader.