Truck tolls face a certain legal challenge, but they could finance $19.4 billion in infrastructure improvements over 10 years.
Matt Ritter
Posted inMoney
CT’s wealth inequality remains a looming obstacle to tolling cars
While many issues killed Gov. Ned Lamont’s plan to toll passenger cars, fears about the impact it would have on the poor weighed heavily on some lawmakers.
Posted inTransportation
House Democrats counter with trucks-only tolls
House Democrats recycled a campaign proposal made and abandoned by Gov. Ned Lamont: Trucks-only tolls.
Posted inTransportation
Lamont commutes to the Senate GOP to pitch CT 2030
Gov. Ned Lamont pitched to the GOP sweet spot, highlighting what his transportation proposal would mean for Metro-North commuters.
Posted inNews
Religious exemptions to vaccines rose by 25 percent in one year
The increase is the largest single-year jump in religious exemptions since the department began tracking the data a decade ago.
Posted inPolitics
Quickly, Ritter abandons novel gun-control idea
On second thought … Ritter abandons constitutional convention idea. (And please don’t mention it again.)
Posted inCities & Towns, News
Solution: Fully fund the state’s PILOT program
Local officials have learned that the state’s PILOT program is also voluntary, in a sense, with lawmakers able to override it when finances are tight.
Posted inPolitics
On budget, Dems say GOP prefers heckling to haggling
For only the second time in a decade, minority Republicans in the legislature have failed to propose a new state budget. But that doesn’t mean they’ve stayed silent about Democratic plans.
Posted inMoney
Lamont’s first budget could hinge on progressive taxes
Gov. Ned Lamont’s goal of completing his first state budget on time could be stymied by his reluctance to order taxes aimed specifically at Connecticut’s wealthiest.
Posted inMoney
Speaker to sales tax critics: ‘Take a deep breath’
One day after the top Republican in the House criticized proposals to tax groceries and regionalize schools, Democratic leaders urged lawmakers to keep an open mind.
Posted inPolitics
New push for Connecticut to allow early voting
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill opened a campaign Tuesday for Connecticut join the vast majority of U.S. states allowing early voting, an idea that requires a state constitutional amendment to implement.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Budget talks testy as deadline inches closer
Talks between Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislative leaders are growing testy as Connecticut inches closer to a June 30 deadline to craft a budget for the next two fiscal years. “My gut reaction is we’re going to get past July 1” without a budget, Senate Republican President Pro Tem Len Fasano said.
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.
Posted inPolitics
In Hartford, mayor and unions step back from the brink
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and the city’s labor unions, its council and its legislative delegation took steps Thursday toward defusing a fight that threatened to politically isolate the new mayor as he tries to keep Connecticut’s capital city out of bankruptcy.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Change to hospital regulation again looms – but direction unclear
As hospitals join larger systems and critics worry about access to care, a key legislator said the time is ripe for lawmakers to revisit the way the state regulates major changes in health care. But it’s not yet clear what shape such changes will take – or whether they would leave the state with more regulation or less, a sign of sharply differing views on its role.