Despite nonpartisan analysts’ recent warning that eroding state income tax receipts were pushing Connecticut’s finances into the red, Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo countered Wednesday that the budget remains marginally in the black.
State Budget
Posted inMoney
Nonpartisan analysts cite eroding CT income tax receipts
Nonpartisan analysts are tracking eroding state income tax receipts that could push the current state budget – and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s plan for the next two fiscal years – modestly into deficit.
Posted inHealth, Money
Hospitals say they face hidden, $156M tax hike in Malloy budget
Connecticut hospitals would pay $156 million more in state taxes over the next two years under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new budget — an increase Malloy did not report to legislators when presenting his biennial plan on Feb. 8, the Connecticut Hospital Association says.
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 inHealth, Money
CT hospitals launch TV ad to protest new tax proposal
Connecticut’s hospital industry launched a new television ad Thursday to protest Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to end nonprofit hospitals’ exemption from local property taxation.
Posted inMoney
S&P worried about proposed cost shift onto CT towns
S&P Global Ratings warned Thursday that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposals to shift one-third of the cost of the teachers’ pension program onto cities and towns, and to realign other grants, “creates budgetary uncertainty for local governments.”
Posted inHealth, Justice, Money, Politics
Budget cuts cost CT medical examiner’s office full accreditation
The Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has lost its full accreditation and was downgraded to provisional status because of staffing and facility shortcomings driven largely by budget cuts.
Posted inJustice, Money, Politics
Pistol permit fee hikes prompt NRA, others to rebuke Malloy
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to bolster state pistol permitting fees drew a sharp response from the National Rifle Association, a Connecticut-based advocacy group and top Republican officials.
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 inMoney
Malloy says intellectually disabled winners in new budget
It’s a budget laden with cuts, but Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s first event after Wednesday’s rollout of his fiscal plan for the next two years was to highlight what he says are significant improvements in services to individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
No one wants a share of CT’s teacher pension bill
Municipalities and hospitals both fear the new cost burdens they would assume in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget would grow quickly as state retirement benefit costs surge in the coming years.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Hospitals blast Malloy’s proposal to subject them to property taxes
The governor’s plan would also cut an $11.8 million fund that has provided money to small, independent hospitals. And it would restore the administration’s ability to unilaterally cut funding to hospitals through a technical budgeting change.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Amid cuts and concessions, Malloy promises progress
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy framed what is likely to be his final two-year budget as a call to recast the state’s compact with its neediest municipalities, expanding the tax base of teetering cities like Hartford and Waterbury and maintaining aid to the 30 poorest school districts that educate nearly 40 percent of Connecticut’s children.
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.