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Costs down for retired state employee healthcare
Actuaries predict Connecticut will spend $1.7 billion less than previously projected on retiree healthcare over the next 25 years because of lower-than-expected costs and a slowing rate of growth in healthcare costs around the country. With the expected savings,...
First do no harm
As we near the end of the state legislature session, which is set to adjourn June 5, the House and Senate are considering a flurry of bills that have made their way through the legislative committees. It might be appropriate at this point to suggest lawmakers adopt a...
CT Mirror board members overwhelmingly contribute to Democratic campaigns
The nonprofit board that runs the Connecticut Mirror news website includes frequent political donors, most with a preference for Democrats. The Connecticut News Project is the nonprofit organization that publishes the Mirror. It is led by a 10-member board, eight of...
Malloy seeks permission to marry couple in Newport
Legislation introduced in the Rhode Island General Assembly would allow Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy to marry a young couple there. The proposed law: SECTION 1. Notwithstanding any other general or special law to the contrary, The Honorable Dannel P. Malloy,...
Ansonia officials plan to compost food into electricity
The city of Ansonia hopes to become home to an innovative power plant fueled by decomposing food in a partnership with a New York green-energy company by leasing city property to the company for $1 a year. Ansonia has collaborated with Greenpoint Energy Partners, a...
Sharing the Blame for Crony Capitalism
Who is to blame for crony capitalism? The answer may seem simple, and yet that is the unlikely question posed yesterday in an Atlantic article by Timothy Carney entitled “The Case Against Cronies”. Even more unusually, Carney argues that politicians are not the only...
The Hartford Budget Takes Aim, But Misses the Biggest Targets
It should come as no surprise that, in some ways, Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra’s proposed FY2013-2014 Budget is a case study in what is wrong with government. What may be surprising, however, is that the document also offers very real solutions to some of those...
Legislature deletes emails after 21 days
Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act is considered to be one of the best in the nation, but the General Assembly, which created the law in 1975, avoids its full consequences by deleting emails after three weeks. According to the Office of Legislative Management’s...
Weird: Quasi-public agencies can’t hire lobbyists but they can employ them
Unseemly links between lobbyists and state government are coming to light regularly these days, serving up curious examples of loopholes in Connecticut’s ethics law, like the one allowing lobbyists to accept state jobs as long as they are with the executive or...
Can you hear me now? Bond commission to fund PA system upgrade at Capitol
The State Bond Commission will meet Friday to allocate more than $100 million in borrowed state money. Of the 31 projects on the agenda, three stand out. – $1.3 million for renovations to the Capitol and Legislative Office Building, including an “upgrade to the...