Posted inMoney, Politics

Business leaders push to intensify control of state spending

Connecticut’s business leaders had high praise Tuesday for the deep spending cuts and absence of tax hikes in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new budget. But they also warned that without an even harder, bipartisan push to control spending, businesses will remain reluctant to grow — or to support the tolls and gasoline tax hikes recommended to finance transportation improvements.

Posted inPolitics, Transportation

Malloy calls ‘lockbox’ vote a milestone, not a setback

What do you say when your pitch for a constitutional amendment protecting transportation revenue is strongly endorsed by the General Assembly, just not by the three-fourths margin necessary to place it before the voters in 2016? “This is a victory,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Wednesday. “It’s not a hundred-percent victory, but it’s a victory.”

Posted inEducation, Money, Politics

Looming deficits already threaten transportation, town aid initiatives

A new, two-year state budget would make unprecedented investments in communities and transportation. But while Gov. Dannel P. Malloy insists his transportation investment will be protected by a legal lockbox, and Democratic lawmakers profess their commitment to local aid, looming deficits that start arriving in 2017-18 have advocates for both constituencies admitting they’re worried.