The governor’s new, two-year budget would avert $3.6 billion in projected deficits, seek $700 million in annual labor concessions, redistribute local aid to shield poor cities, require municipalities to cover one-third of Connecticut’s teacher pension costs and allow municipalities to levy the property tax on hospitals.
State Budget
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
GOP, Malloy offer plans to restore stalled local aid
Republicans in the state House and Senate and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy both released proposals Tuesday to restore stalled municipal aid that local officials hoped to receive this fiscal year.
Posted inMoney
Labor savings is the big unknown in Malloy’s new budget
The new budget Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will propose Wednesday will be based partly on a big assumption — that ongoing talks with state employee unions will produce concessions. But some are worried that to get them, the state must promise to maintain a costly retirement benefits system beyond the current 2022 expiration date.
Posted inMoney, Politics, Transportation
Transportation funding debate still centered on ‘lockbox’
While Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has released no transportation-related details from his next two-year budget plan, he also hasn’t backed away from his demand that legislators first back a constitutional ‘lockbox’ amendment to safeguard transportation revenues.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy: Pension bills for CT towns part of a larger plan
The shift of $400 million in teacher pension costs onto municipalities is part of a much larger plan not only to close a significant projected state deficit, but also to address long-ignored inequities in municipal funding, the governor said. More details of that plan are expected today.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy would bill towns for teachers’ pensions, cut middle-class tax credit
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday his proposed budget would shift $400 million, nearly one-third of the cost of municipal school teachers’ pensions, onto cities and towns next fiscal year — a move that would hit the state’s wealthiest communities the hardest.
Posted inMoney, Politics
A legacy of debt: When fiscal reality meets political spin
As state government’s fiscal challenges became increasingly daunting, politicians for years nonetheless downplayed the risk and wooed voters with unrealistic promises. Last story in a five-part series
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy pitches early intervention for distressed communities
WATERBURY — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed a new municipal accountability system Thursday designed to provide early intervention to cities and towns before they slip into severe fiscal trouble.
Posted inMoney, Politics
A legacy of debt: As cuts get ugly, legislators forfeit power, transparency
Legislators have left more decisions on cuts up to the governor, avoided votes on state employee raises and have accepted less information on fiscal matters. Fourth in a series.
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 inMoney, Politics
Malloy offers tax break to bolster insurance industry
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Tuesday he would propose reducing the state’s insurance premium tax by one-seventh in his new budget next week, a move that would save insurance companies $11 million next fiscal year.
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 inMoney
Budget panel backs deal to stretch out spiking CT pension costs
The legislature’s Appropriations Committee Tuesday endorsed a new plan that would allow Connecticut to defer billions of dollars in required contributions to the state employees pension fund until after 2032.
Posted inMoney
Malloy reports current CT budget has slim surplus
State government’s finances are back in the black — albeit by a razor thin margin — according to new estimates released Friday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration. But major shortfalls still are projected for each of the next two fiscal years.