In one Connecticut town after another, voters are saying no and sending local budgets back to their leaders for more cuts. Yesterday, Bolton taxpayers said no to the 2008-09 budget for the third time in a month even though the margin of defeat was much smaller than previous attempts. Read story here.
Continue reading →

Here we go again. The state legislature appears to be limping out of its 2008 session taking no action that will help cities and towns cope with the latest fiscal crisis. Once again local taxpayers will be forced to shoulder the load or face severe cutbacks in essential services. Education budgets—the biggest ticket item in most towns—are destined to end up squarely in harm’s way. Continue reading →

The other shoe fell last week on the CT state budget surplus projection for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. What was thought to be a modest but healthy $260 million cushion just a couple or months ago has now been pegged at $16 million. Given a budget of $17.6 billion, we’re essentially talking zero at this point. The balance may even go negative when all is said and done. And while no one appears ready to conjure up a dire forecast for next year at this point, I don’t see much light when I look down the tunnel. Continue reading →

April 21st and 22nd are big days for the history of Connecticut and the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding. This broad based advocacy organization—municipalities, school boards, professional education associations, unions, parents and students among its many members—will follow up an April 21^st news conference with a next day appearance before the State Supreme Court. The Coalition’s legal team will be presenting oral arguments in its fight for an “adequate” education for every Connecticut child. It will be appealing Judge Shortall’s lower court ruling that no entitlement to such a level of education exists under the state’s constitution. Continue reading →

Back from a much needed week in the warm Florida sunshine. Keeping on with last week’s theme of looking for positives in a negative climate, one of the first things I picked up on was the announcement of a plan to consolidate individual municipal health care programs into a larger self funded group program called the Enhanced Municipal Employee Health Insurance Plan. I haven’t seen all the details of the plan but it seems to be targeted and well suited to small to medium sized towns since some of the larger cities may already be operating under a large self funded program. Continue reading →