Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration is seeking to eliminate legislators’ authority over certain attempts to make changes to Medicaid and other federally funded assistance programs – an authority legislators recently used to block a controversial administration proposal.
State Budget
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy turning bearish on the jobs recovery
MIDDLETOWN — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was in the unfamiliar position Tuesday night of trying to persuade an audience that Connecticut’s glass is half-empty, its economic recovery rests too heavily on low-wage jobs and its citizens need to expect less from their government.
Posted inMoney
Nappier: Malloy’s budget doesn’t cover state’s credit card bill
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new budget proposal could be $50 million to $74 million out of balance if state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier and the legislature’s nonpartisan analysts are correct about what Connecticut owes on its credit card.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Small towns’ forum offers preview of ’16 legislative campaign
State legislative leaders may have offered a preview Tuesday of this fall’s election themes as they battled before the leaders of Connecticut’s small towns.
Posted inEducation
Cutting DCF: Right-sizing or wrong-headed?
The Department of Children and Families says it has been able to absorb large budget cuts and better serve vulnerable children by placing more of them with family members and fewer with strangers in expensive group homes. But critics say the agency hasn’t been allowed to redirect enough of those savings into community support to improve outcomes. And more cuts loom.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Keep Connecticut’s commitment to community action
As discussions and negotiations begin around the FY 2016-2017 midterm budget adjustments this legislative session, it is critical that the state continue its deep-seated commitment to Connecticut’s Community Action Agency (CAA) Network and antipoverty efforts. For more than 50 years, Connecticut’s CAAs, the state and federal designated antipoverty agencies, have provided basic human needs services such as food, shelter, heating assistance, and childcare to limited income individuals and families in all 169 cities and towns.
Posted inMoney, Politics
‘Imperfect’ Malloy asks for understanding on budget
STAMFORD – In the first of a series of open-ended town hall meetings, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stood his ground Thursday on his intention to make deep spending cuts. But the governor did so in a tone more plaintive than combative, suggesting in his sixth year in office he was humbled by the fiscal challenges. He called himself an “imperfect governor.”
Posted inEducation
AFT’s Weingarten: Malloy budget ‘really horrible’ for education
Randi Weingarten, the leader of one of the nation’s largest labor unions, came to an inner-city school in Hartford Thursday to lambaste the budget cuts proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat she helped re-elect in 2014.
Posted inEducation, Money
College leaders decry proposed cuts; ‘It’s grim’ says Herbst
At many of the state’s public colleges – which collectively enroll 150,000 students – tuition could rise, course offerings would shrink, class sizes would increase, library hours would be cut and some degrees would no longer be offered, the state’s higher education leaders testified Wednesday.
Posted inMoney
Labor, advocacy groups call for tax hikes instead of budget cuts
A top Connecticut labor leader blasted Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget as continuing “to protect the very, very wealthy,” offering a counterpoint to the governor’s call for deep spending cuts and state workforce reductions, and to the broader aversion among many legislators to the idea of raising taxes for a second consecutive year.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy finds even polite questions have no easy answers
A harder test comes Thursday night in Stamford when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy faces an unfiltered audience at the first of his town hall meetings. But even in a small invitation-only event Tuesday, he heard concerns about the depth of his spending cuts.
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 inMoney, Politics
Malloy’s vision for Connecticut shifts dramatically in new budget
Had state government slashed its way out of a deficit five years ago, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy often has said, Connecticut’s quality of life would be unrecognizable. But the Democratic governor now is urging spending cuts over the next two years that key Democratic lawmakers argue could have an impact similar to cuts Republicans sought – and Malloy decried – in 2011.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy: Increase charter school, cut neighborhood school funding
Charter schools have escaped Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget axe and are slated for a $9.3 million boost in his proposed state budget. But the Democratic governor wants a $52.9 million cut on funding for special education, after-school programs, reading tutors and other services in low-performing public schools across the state.
Posted inMoney, Politics
After five years, Malloy says he still can be a force for change
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy cast himself Wednesday in his sixth State of the State address as a vigorous agent of change, not the stolid defender of an entrenched administration wobbling under the weight of bad polling, dwindling revenues and growing debt.