DEMS PUSH BUDGET PLAN
Connecticut House Democrats say they’ve come up with a two-year budget proposal that could be ready for a vote on July 18. The eleventh-hour, $40 billion two-year plan would increase the state’s 6.35 percent sales tax to 6.99 percent to help maintain funding to cities and towns. It would also provide municipalities with additional ways to generate local revenue and restore the local property tax credit against the personal income tax.
AETNA GONE
Insurance giant Aetna made it official on Thursday, announcing it will move its headquarters to New York City beginning in late 2018 after nearly two centuries in Hartford. The news was not a total surprise to Connecticut officials, who learned in May that Aetna was in negotiations with several states about moving its corporate base from the state’s capital. Governor Dannel Malloy had lobbied Aetna to stay, promising to match any incentive package the company received from another state.
HEALTH STUDY
The affiliation between Lawrence and Memorial Hospital and Yale New Haven Health continues to pay dividends to the City of New London. Officials say L&M will invest $50,000 to study social determinants of health in the city. The grant will be used to identify opportunities in pre-selected New London neighborhoods and to determine a specific intervention that will benefit those neighborhoods.
ALERT POSTAL WORKER
An alert U.S. Postal Service worker has helped catch a burglary suspect in Norwich.
Police say the worker saw a man walking around a home in Norwich Wednesday afternoon while carrying a television. Knowing the man did not belong at the house, the worker notified nearby officers. Responding officers found the front door of the home open and saw the suspect walking away from the scene. The man has been arrested, with officers also finding stolen jewelry from the home in his possession.
