Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is backing an effort to resurrect the bipartisan jobs bill that was killed in a game of political chicken by House and Senate Democratic leaders a week ago on the last day of the annual legislative session.
"I have expressed my support for that in personal conversations with a number of individuals," Malloy said Wednesday after addressing a business group at the XL Center. "I think there were a lot of good things in that bill."
Hartford -- Three years after its tourism budget was reduced to $1, Connecticut is back with a two-year, $27 million marketing campaign to promote tourism and brand the state as "still revolutionary."
After a spring marked by declining revenue projections and a handful of questionable cost-cutting moves, legislators from both parties conceded Thursday that the state's fiscal outlook emerged from the session as murky as when it entered.
"I worry about the state's finances all the time," the governor told reporters one day after the session closed. But, "I think financially we're still in a pretty good place."
Read moreConnecticut residents could be shopping for beer and liquor on Sundays as soon as May 20, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday morning.
Malloy made his remarks at the first of three post-session press conferences scheduled Thursday by him, House and Senate Republicans, and Senate Democrats. Only House Democrats have no conference, a first in recent years.
Read moreBill Cosby never met state Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven, until Wednesday. But after hearing her passion for mentoring urban youth, the actor, comic and activist had his own unique way of complimenting her: With a smile, he vowed to commit voter fraud on her behalf.
"I'm going to illegally cross the line in Connecticut and vote," said Cosby, who lives in Massachusetts. "There are some people in this room who are ready to get things straight."
As the Senate voted 22-13 to give final approval late Tuesday to a revised $20.5 billion budget for next year, both parties saw state finances on the cusp of a major change.
There was no agreement on the nature of that change: Democrats see the budget closing small deficits and preserving vital services until a recovery, while Republicans predict that gimmicks in the plan mean another looming budget crisis.
Read moreThe state Senate overwhelmingly approved a measure late Wednesday guaranteeing communities can negotiate working conditions with labor unions before public projects are put out to bid.
The measure allowing so-called "project labor agreements," spurred in part by a legal battle over school construction work in Hartford, passed 32-3 and now heads to the House of Representatives.
Colt Defense LLC of West Hartford has lost an $84 million Army contract to a competitor and, like an increasing number of federal contractors, it's not taking rejection sitting down. The loss of a contract for at least 70,000 rifles prompted Colt to file a protest, a common response as federal dollars shrink.
Read moreThough Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is trying to see the fiscal glass as half full, key legislators tied to budget talks conceded this week that many of Malloy's top initiatives may have to be scaled back, delayed, or cut altogether.
Republican legislative leaders say that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's plan to divert the state's long-term debt payments to close the swelling current budget deficit won't play on Wall Street.
Why? Because just two months ago the state cited its efforts to pay down its debt as evidence that it was getting its fiscal house in order.
Connecticut no longer will be dry on Sunday. With the governor committed to signing the bill into law, the Senate voted 28-6 Tuesday to give final legislative approval to a measure ending the state's longstanding ban on Sunday liquor sales.
The state Senate's Democratic majority is at least four votes shy of passing a compromise minimum-wage increase approved last week by the House of Representatives, leaving one of the House speaker's key bills on life support in the annual session's final seven days.
Despite vowing during the campaign not to use the state's credit card to cover its operating costs, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced late Monday he would divert more than $220 million dedicated last year to pay off debt to close a growing deficit in the current budget.
And a new report showing plunging tax revenues opened a huge projected deficit in Malloy's budget plan for next fiscal year, jeopardizing new initiatives for school districts and nonprofit social services that the governor unveiled just three months ago.
One of Connecticut's largest public employee unions is trying to rally support in the waning days of the General Assembly session for a study of whether state government should offer a retirement plan to private citizens.
But a key lawmaker behind the proposal conceded that the chances of passage this year are poor with the legislature scheduled to adjourn in less than two weeks.
Read moreOn a bipartisan vote, the state Senate approved a highly promoted economic-development bill Friday, legislation designated by the Democratic majority leadership as Senate Bill 1 to signal job creation as a political priority in 2012.
The state House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday legalizing liquor sales on Sundays and holidays starting July 1 and modestly easing liquor price controls -- though far less than proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
The measure, which passed 116-27 and now heads to the Senate, creates a new task force to study liquor pricing rules and also increases the number of package stores a permittee may own.
House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, said Wednesday night after a Democratic majority caucus that he has the votes to pass a compromise minimum-wage increase Thursday -- and a deal with Republicans to avoid a filibuster.
The $8.25 minimum wage would jump by 25 cents in each of the next two years, a significant retreat from Donovan's original call for two 75-cent jumps and a more recent proposal for two 50-cent increases.
With memories still fresh of the severe storms that slammed Connecticut during the second half of 2011, the Senate overwhelmingly adopted a bill targeting price gougers who take advantage of weather emergencies.
The measure empowers the Department of Consumer Protection to level an unfair trade practices charge against any business charging an 'unconscionably excessive price' for vital goods or services during a weather emergency.
Read moreWhile gubernatorial candidate Dan Malloy pledged repeatedly to dive into a new budgeting system based on honesty and transparency within moments of taking office, Governor Malloy waded more gradually into Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
And now, plagued 16 months later by sluggish revenues, a small-but-growing deficit and reluctant legislators, Malloy may not get to dip his toe in the GAAP pool.
Connecticut didn't put Mitt Romney over the top Tuesday night in the delegate hunt, but it did deliver an easy win by 9 p.m., the time that the Associated Press declared victories for Romney in four of the day's five presidential primaries.
Only in New York, where the polls close later, did the AP hold off on a declaring an immediate sweep for the presumptive GOP nominee, whose focus has shifted away from Republicans to Barack Obama. Unofficial results showed Romney with 67 percent of the vote in Connecticut.
Read more"He brings experience. He's been elected."
Mike Clark on endorsing State Sen. Andrew Roraback for the Republican nomination for the 5th Congressional District race.
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MINIMUM WAGE IN CONNECTICUT
January 1, 1980 $3.12
January 1, 1981 $3.37
October 1, 1987 $3.75
October 1, 1988 $4.25
April 1, 1991 $4.27
October 1, 1996 $4.77
Septem 1, 1997 $5.18
January 1, 1999 $5.65
January 1, 2000 $6.15
January 1, 2001 $6.40
January 1, 2002 $6.70
January 1, 2003 $6.90
January 1, 2004 $7.10
January 1, 2006 $7.40
January 1, 2007 $7.65
January 1, 2009 $8.00
January 1, 2010 $8.25
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