The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy appears to be cooling on Keno, a game the Connecticut Lottery has endorsed as a way to boost revenues in a lottery market that turns 40 this month.
Malloy has no intention of proposing Keno or any other significant expansion of gambling in his budget or State of the State speech, according to Roy Occhiogrosso, the governor's senior adviser.
House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan's proposal to raise the state's minimum wage by $1.50 over two years could give Connecticut the highest minimum in the nation, a distinction certain to fuel opposition to the idea by business interests and some legislators.
But the proposal by the Democratic leader and congressional candidate to index the wage to the cost of living puts him in the same camp as House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, and the Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination, Mitt Romney.
The election-year effort by House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, to raise the $8.25 minimum wage and index it to inflation energizes his labor base and creates tension with a less-than-enthusiastic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
As tax season arrives, advocates for the Connecticut's new income tax credit for working poor families are trying to keep commercial tax preparers -- and revenue-hungry state officials -- from getting their hands on it.
The Connecticut Association for Human Services, one of the private, nonprofit community's leading anti-poverty organizations, is coordinating an outreach campaign to steer needy households to free tax preparation services also run by nonprofits.
"The more money you spend on gambling, the more revenue you make, the likelihood is greater you are going to have more problems," said Marvin Steinberg, who steps down this week as head of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling. He called the relationship between an increase in gambling and an increase in gambling problems inescapable.
Read moreGov. Dannel P. Malloy secured Connecticut's investment in a major genetic research initiative Monday -- but not before one more partisan debate.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced plans Friday for a second round of agency consolidations, including combining oversight for the University of Connecticut, its health center and the chief medical examiner's office. He will ask the legislature to merge 15 departments and agencies into seven.
Read moreWashington -- A deal between five major banks and a group of attorneys general -- including George Jepsen of Connecticut -- could bring $150 million or more to state homeowners who have been victims of foreclosures or the burst of the housing bubble.
Some half-dozen years after the Rowland administration tried to all but eliminate the state's Department of Agriculture, the Malloy administration is embracing the state's $3.5 billion, 20,000-job agriculture industry as a potent component of job creation.
Read moreThe state's budget isn't drowning, but its fiscal nose is above water by such a small fraction -- 1/134th of 1 percent -- it's almost impossible to see. The monthly report from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration, released late Friday afternoon, projects a $1.4 million surplus, with the $88 million cushion originally built into the budget all but vanished.
Read moreOne of the leading Wall Street credit rating agencies downgraded Connecticut's rating Friday, citing a heavily loaded state credit card, huge debts in pension and retiree health care programs, and a depleted emergency reserve.
The decision by Moody's Investors Service to lower state government's bond rating from Aa3 to Aa2, opens the door for Connecticut to pay higher interest charges on future capital projects, even though its rating remains relatively high.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today proposed a new public authority to broadly coordinate development in the Hartford region, the latest in a string of initiatives to be trumpeted in his upcoming State of the State Address.
Accompanied by regional officials, Malloy outlined plans for a 13-member Capital Region Development Authority that would replace an agency founded by former Gov. John G. Rowland, the Capital City Economic Development Authority.
Say goodbye to CCEDA, the agency Rowland created in 1998, and hello to CRDA.
The Occupy protesters huddled in McPherson Square in the nation's capitol and the 250 U.S. mayors meeting a block away this week have at least one thing in common: They are both reacting to the economy. Like the protesters, the nation's mayors are seeking action from Washington. But that may be hard to find.
Read moreGov. Dannel P. Malloy used one of the new job creation tools Wednesday that state lawmakers authorized during last fall's special session, tapping a South Windsor company to launch the new Small Business Express Program. Oxford Performance Materials is expected to be the first of dozens of firms to receive assistance within 30 days of appealing to the administration for help.
Read moreGov. Dannel P. Malloy's vaunted fiscal cushion has begun to erode quickly, and an underperforming state income tax is the chief culprit. Fiscal analysts for the executive and legislative branches agreed on a consensus revenue report late Tuesday that pushes the current budget to the brink of a deficit -- or possibly over it.
Read moreEnfield -- Alcohol laws proposed Saturday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy would change the retail market in Connecticut by lifting rules that have long protected package store owners with tight controls on prices, ownership and hours and days of operation.
With an announcement timed to make the Sunday newspapers, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy intends to propose a series of changes Saturday in the state's restrictive alcohol laws, including a repeal of minimum pricing and the ban on Sunday sales.
Administration officials say Malloy will explain his proposal in Enfield, one of the border towns where package-store owners have broken with the rest of what is a mom-and-pop industry and asked to compete with longer hours of operation and flexible pricing.
President Obama and the Pentagon have rolled out a plan for a leaner military. Their strategy is meant to accommodate about $489 billion in defense cuts over the next 10 years, an overhaul that could shake up the state’s large military contractors like United Technologies and Electric Boat and the hundreds of subcontractors in the state that depend on these defense giants.
Read moreWith gas prices climbing again, a Meriden lawmaker and service stations want to put the brakes on a volatile state fuel tax that accelerates prices hikes even further. But with taxpayers still recovering from the $1.5 billion increase in all state taxes last year, any plan to revisit taxes in the coming legislative session could be doomed.
Read moreFarmington -- Gov. Dannel P. Malloy marked his first anniversary in office today by finalizing the deal for the state to invest $291 million in a genetics research institute at the University of Connecticut Health Center.
The state's partnership with The Jackson Laboratory, a world-renowned research center in Maine, is an attempt to ride the field of personalized medicine into a new economy.
Stephen F. Cashman, chairman of the elections enforcement commission
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THE MINIMUM WAGE
Connecticut's hourly minimum wage of $8.25 is one of the highest in the nation, trailing Washington at $9.04, Oregon at $8.80 and Vermont at $8.46.
Five of the six New England states exceed the federal minimum of $7.25. The exception is New Hampshire, whose minimum is the same as the feds.
Connecticut is one of 18 states with a minimum higher than the federal standard. Twenty-thrree are at the federal level, four are below it and five have no minimum wage.
Ten states have a minimum wage indexed to the cost of living.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor
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