HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Connecticut legislative leaders have kicked off what they acknowledge will be challenging state budget negotiations.
The Democratic governor met more than an hour Tuesday with top Democratic and Republican members of the General Assembly. Lawmakers emerged from Malloy’s state Capitol office offering scant information, other than they plan to eventually meet again and hope Malloy can reach a $700 million labor concession agreement with state employees. Those talks are still ongoing. House Republican Leader Themis Klarides says the group had “to start somewhere and today was our starting point.” She would not predict whether a bipartisan agreement can be reached. Projections released Monday show the next two-year budget could be $5 billion in deficit. Malloy says the ultimate solution should not be “revenue-driven.”
SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION TABLED
Norwich aldermen have tabled a resolution that would place a bond issue on this November’s city ballot for a school consolidation project. The proposal would renovate and expand the Mahan, Moriarity, Teachers Memorial, and Stanton schools to house all kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms. Education officials say maintaining all existing school buildings is becoming too costly. The consolidation plan lists Uncas as a renovated building, if it’s determined the Mahan school property could be sold for commercial development. Project supporters are hoping the city council can approve the bond issue by mid-August to get it on the Election Day ballot. Aldermen say they still have unanswered questions about the proposed consolidation.
ETHICS COMMISSION KEEPS MEETING
No rest for the weary, at least for the Norwich Ethics Commission. It meets Monday at 5 PM to review in executive session four new complaints. It’s not known if they’re connected to the all-expense paid trips that Norwich government and Public Utilities officials attended last May to the Kentucky Derby, or in October 2015 to a luxury golf club. Five Norwich officials were found by the commission to be in violation of city ethics rules for attending the Derby trip. The Ethics panel will also welcome a new alternate, Linda Bertelson, who’s been a harsh critic of the city’s public utilities commission in its handling of the Derbygate controversy.
5 CARD ILLEGAL
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – State consumer protection officials say lottery officials knew that retailers could illegally access the numbers of a popular game on computer screens and manipulate tickets but waited almost a year to inform the authorities. The Hartford Courant reports that Connecticut Lottery Corp. Chairman Frank Farricker acknowledged at a legislative hearing on Tuesday that lottery officials “put revenues over security issues” regarding the 5 Card Cash game. A report from the state Department of Consumer Protection says a retailer had gone to lottery officials in January 2015 and told them about being able to see the numbers on the terminal screen before they were actually drawn. The report says officials didn’t alert the department until October 2015.
The game was shut down that same year.
COURT RULES BEACH LAND IS PRIVATE
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A court has ruled against beachgoers who sought more access to the sand in the Misquamicut area of Westerly. The Rhode Island Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s ruling that said landowners along Atlantic Avenue could put up fences to keep the public off their 2-mile stretch of beach. The attorney general’s office and environmental groups had argued that the land had been dedicated to the public more than a century ago. The court disagreed, finding the beach is privately owned. The attorney general says he’s disappointed but points out that the decision does not affect a state constitutional guarantee to access the shoreline.
STATE HOUSE REJECTS CONVERSION THERAPY
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – The Connecticut House of Representatives has passed legislation barring health care providers from engaging in so-called gay conversion therapy to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The legislation cleared the House on a bipartisan 141-8 vote on Tuesday. It now awaits Senate action. Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy immediately applauded the House vote, saying he’ll sign the bill into law if it passes the Senate. He says the practice of conversion therapy has been discredited “by nearly every credible medical and psychiatric group in the country.” Democratic Rep. Jeffrey Currey of East Hartford, who is gay and a chief proponent of the legislation, says the practice can be emotionally harmful to young people.
But some opponents argued that the bill is too vague and infringes on parents’ rights.
