The stakes have been raised in the competition to build Connecticut’s first new casino in 20 years, with MGM unveiling plans for a $675 million privately financed waterfront resort in the state’s largest city that the gaming giant is touting as an economic and jobs boon. A 2021 opening date is being eyed by MGM, […]
After a compromise budget deal didn’t receive a vote late Thursday, legislators will return to the Capitol today for a second attempt to vote on a taxing and spending plan to close a two-year projected deficit of $3.5 billion. Democrats, who have long enjoyed significant margins in the legislature, hold only a 79-72 advantage in […]
Democratic leaders still must sell this two-year budget plan to rank-and-file members before Thursday’s scheduled votes in the House and Senate. Moderate Democrats have expressed concern about the tax hikes being proposed and have called for greater fiscal reforms. Though full details were not available, the new plan for this fiscal year and next would […]
The combined value of property destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in the Gulf Coast and Hurricane Irma in Florida could hit between $150 billion and $200 billion, CNBC reported, citing Moody’s data. The ongoing shortage of skilled construction labor is one of the biggest hurdles expected to impact rebuilding efforts. Even before the storms, seven in 10 […]
The report from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association found Connecticut would lose $3.2 billion in economic activity each year, including $2 billion in lost sales and 10,227 in lost jobs that an investment in transportation would have supported. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s compromise budget does not include a bonding cap, but any bonding […]
About 75 people gathered at the Mystic branch of the Ocean Community YMCA Thursday afternoon for the groundbreaking of a $7.2 million expansion and renovation project that will take place over the next 13 months. Despite what he called “tough times” in the state, Stonington First Selectman Rob Simmons said the town has allocated $100,000 […]
To be clear, if the legislature capitulates and increases the thresholds of our prevailing wage law, it will be a symbolic gesture at best. CCM and our elected officials are under no illusions that weakening wage standards for construction workers won’t realize any significant savings for our municipalities. If CCM were actually committed to lowering […]
While plenty of smaller projects are still underway, the grand opening of the University of Connecticut’s new branch campus Wednesday means for the first time in about a decade and a half, there is a lull in major redevelopment downtown. Though it evolved over time, the bulk of it ultimately became what is now known […]
House Democrats say the sales tax would increase from the current 6.35 percent, but they said the final rate would be determined after discussions with the party’s caucus. An earlier Democratic proposal called for raising the sales tax to 6.99 percent, but it is widely believed the new proposal would be lower than that. http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-democratic-revised-budget-20170822-story.html
Blindly cutting municipal aid without loosening draconian mandates and labor laws will be counterintuitive, giving municipal leaders little wiggle room to shave costs and forcing local taxpayers to shoulder the burden in the form of higher property taxes. Municipalities have long argued for curtailing the state’s prevailing wage law, which requires municipalities to pay a […]
A Connecticut city plans to convert a stadium currently housing its minor league baseball team into an outdoor venue for concerts. Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim says the city-owned stadium will be redeveloped into an amphitheater with a $15 million investment through a public-private partnership. Developer Howard Saffan says the amphitheater will open in 2019 and […]
The $1.4 million “Hartford Lofts” project would convert the space that was a hotel and rooming house and would be the first residential condo project in downtown in more than a decade. CRDA has committed $400,000 in loans to the project along with $850,000 from the Hartford Community Loan Fund. The balance of $150,000 is […]
Standing along the Connecticut River Tuesday, Rep. John Larson announced a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that would fund projects across the country — including his $10 billion proposal to tunnel I-91 and I-84 through Hartford — by taxing carbon emissions. The America Wins Act, as Larson is calling the bill, would create between 13 million […]
Efforts to lock up state & municipal construction projects with prevailing wage and project labor agreements will probably decline over the next four years, predicts Charles Krugel, a management-side labor and employment lawyer and HR counselor in Chicago. “We’ve already seen the chipping away of previous public sector union rights in historically unionized states like Wisconsin and […]
Though spending levels are far from final, Senate and House appropriators have generally rejected the sharp cuts President Trump proposed for important infrastructure accounts. Senate appropriators, in unanimously clearing their 2018 DOT-HUD measure, spurned Trump’s proposal to zero-out DOT’s highly popular Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants and his plan to slash transit capital […]
In its July 2017 North American Crane Index report, construction research firm Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) counted nearly 400 fixed cranes in use across 14 major North American cities, indicating continued, steady activity in the construction industry. Cities where crane counts have declined still have projects in the pipeline that could boost construction crane numbers […]
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at resolving hotly contested questions about the economic viability of the Millstone Power Station, a nuclear-powered generator of electricity crucial to Connecticut’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. An intense lobbying campaign by Dominion Energy, the owner of Millstone, failed to convince the Malloy administration […]
The “Bethel Forward” plan, was in the works for a decade and finalized just over a year ago, and since then officials have been applying for grants to make downtown more walkable and working to change zoning regulations to promote development. Although Bethel aims to revitalize the whole downtown, the core of the plan is […]
Nearly half the 61 towns and cities that participated in a Connecticut Conference of Municipalities survey have imposed some level of spending freeze during the first quarter of the current fiscal year. The fiscal constraints, CCM officials said, are in large part because the municipalities had to begin the 2018 fiscal year without any indication […]
In a key vote on a portion of the state budget, the state House of Representatives will debate later today on whether to ratify $1.5 billion in labor concessions by state employees to help close about one-third of the budget deficit over two years. With all Republicans opposed, the vote is expected to be close […]
The crew of about 40 is expected to complete the job in late October, with time to spare before the start of the basketball season. With a crew that specializes in dome repair on site, the project began in May. The crew worked seven days last week, making up for rain days— it’s impossible to […]
House Democrats are to caucus Tuesday on the budget, but no votes are scheduled by the House. State employee unions are expected to report whether their members have ratified a tentative concession deal. Rejection means the projected current-year shortfall would jump to $3 billion. Overall, about $1.4 billion of the state’s $20 billion annual budget […]
Unionized state employees have voted overwhelmingly to ratify the concession deal negotiated by the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, shifting the focus to a closely divided General Assembly, where Republicans say they will attempt to reject an agreement worth an estimated $1.57 billion over two years. Labor and other sources who have been briefed […]
Sen. John Thune, R-SD, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said last week that progress on President Donald Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan could be sidelined until 2018, according to The Hill. Deatils of the president’s infrastructure plan so far include leveraging $200 billion in direct federal spending to spur $1 trillion in […]
The elimination of some federal aid for transit funding means Connecticut will be spending more on highways and less on trains and buses, according to a draft of a transportation department four-year plan. On the mass transit side, no new systems are in the works, but more than $1 billion is planned for upgrading Metro-North […]
A long-awaited $205 million renovation of the State Office Building on Capitol Avenue could serve as the catalyst for an even bigger goal: bringing back a neighborhood where one hasn’t existed for decades. The overall redevelopment is likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Financing, which still must be lined up, would be a […]
According to the conservative Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WTA), state legislators and Gov. Scott Walker may soon act to cut the wages of private construction workers by as much as 44 percent. States that repeal their prevailing wage laws see lower productivity, less efficiency, more safety problems and on-the-job fatality rates, and more spending on social […]
Both the U.S. House and Senate have introduced multi-year legislation that would increase funding for airport construction, according to Engineering News-Record. Earlier this month, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced an extra $527.8 million in AIP support. The money will be disbursed among 584 airports and includes discretionary funds for 38 airports where […]
Legislative leaders and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy met for about an hour Wednesday to discuss how to move forward with a two-year budget that closes a $5.1 billion deficit. But they won’t know until after tomorrow whether they will convene June 29 to pass a two-year budget or a continuing resolution. The House needs 76 votes […]
With the regular General Assembly session over, and a budgetary nightmare just 23 days away, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislative leaders no longer can avoid one huge question. Neither the administration nor top lawmakers mapped out a path Wednesday to a bipartisan solution to the $5.1 billion deficit plaguing the next two-year budget. With […]
The Trump administration has proposed using $200 billion in federal monies to leverage an additional $800 billion from the private sector. It’s an ambitious proposal, one that, if successful, could permanently change the landscape of America. The government can reap huge benefits from public-private partnerships—but only if they are structured correctly. All too often, though, […]
A controversial bill on highway tolls was pulled from consideration on Tuesday, seconds before it would have been defeated on the House floor. It is likely to be dead for the year. House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, culminated a 90-minute debate, admitting that there was not enough support in his narrow 79-72 majority to […]
The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations crossed the finish line Wednesday on the last day of the General Assembly’s annual session, victors in a two-year struggle for authorization to jointly develop a casino to compete with an MGM Resorts International casino under construction in Springfield. The House vote of 103 to 46 was surprisingly […]
The construction industry added 11,000 jobs during May and its unemployment rate improved from April’s level but it was slightly worse than the year-earlier figure, the Labor Dept. has reported. The latest monthly employment report, which the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released on June 2, showed that construction’s jobless rate fell to 5.3% in […]
The Dept. of Veterans Affairs is seeking congressional approval for a plan to get moving on $1.4 billion in major construction projects that have been stalled because of differences in funding projects at VA and at the Army Corps of Engineers—which is handling design and construction for VA at those delayed projects. http://www.enr.com/articles/42108-va-aims-to-unsnarl-14b-in-delayed-projects
The state House of Representatives approved a constitutional lock box Tuesday that would prevent any transportation money from being spent for any other purposes – paving the way for an impassioned debate on highway tolls. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has been pushing for more than four years for the lock box, and he says the box […]
On Thursday, Bristol Hospital released renderings of a proposed 60,000-square-foot ambulatory center that would house specialty practices, lab space, therapy services and a ground-floor cafe. Bristol Hospital hopes to break ground later this year and complete the building by 2019. http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20170525/NEWS01/170529954
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy used a visit Thursday to the city’s XL Center to campaign for an aggressive, $250 million makeover, as a key legislative committee has whittled away at his initial requests to get to project moving. Malloy is seeking $50 million in 2018 and $75 million in 2019, one half of the renovations, […]
One area where housing is concerned is the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which would see its funding contract by $6.2 billion, or 13.2%, as compared to 2017. The cuts focus on big-ticket community development grant programs that the administration has identified as too broad as well as rental assistance reform, according to The […]
Speaking at a May 15 Infrastructure Week kickoff event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., Chao also confirmed earlier administration comments that the package will propose $200 billion in direct federal funding, which it hopes will trigger another $800 billion in private financing. She also said officials “in coming weeks” will unveil […]
The lack a Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CES) leaves lawmakers, in their final few weeks of the legislative session, without policy guidance on a number of energy issues — most critically and controversially, whether to give competitive help to the Millstone Nuclear Power Station. CT’s delayed energy plan could mean trouble for Millstone bill
The University of Connecticut is resurrecting a plan for a hotel on its Storrs campus — this time on land just south of the Storrs Center development. This project would not require local zoning approvals because it would be located on state property http://www.courant.com/business/hc-uconn-hotel-storrs-campus-20170516-story.html
Three proposed Hartford commercial-renovation projects — two of them downtown — received state Bond Commission approval Friday for $19.8 million in state loan assistance. The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) requested the funding on behalf of the developers for a pair of derelict office buildings at 101-111 Pearl St., at the corner of Trumbull Street, […]
Connecticut has the ability to double its freight service capacity in central Connecticut if millions of dollars are spent repairing the system, but upgrading to passenger service is cost-prohibitive, a new study has concluded. Total costs for upgrades range from $140 million for Class 2 rail, with speeds of up to 25 mph, and $170 […]
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz says the decision about whether Connecticut should have a third casino will likely be decided during state budget negotiations. It’s unclear what that means for the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, who want legislation allowing them to build a jointly owned casino in East Windsor to compete with the MGM Resorts […]
“I’m ready, willing and able to speak with the leaders. The leaders are going to have to play a leadership role,” Malloy said. “Republicans are probably going to have to vote for a budget for the first time in 10 years. So, there’s a lot of work to be done.” The expectation of GOP votes […]
Plummeting state income tax collections are experiencing their worst decline since the last recession, falling $450 million below anticipated levels for April — one-and-a-half times the free fall projected just one day ago. That adds $1.1 billion to an already daunting $3.6 billion deficit forecast, all but shattering hopes of avoiding tax increases or big […]
The Mohegan tribe has secured $80 million in financing to proceed with plans for an expanded convention center, the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority said this week. The MTGA, which owns and operates the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, first announced the proposed expo adjacent to the casino in March and says it will open by the […]
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will not seek re-election to a third four-year term. In an afternoon announcement in the Capitol more than six years after taking office, Malloy, 61, is expected to say that freedom from politics will allow him to steer the General Assembly through its budget crisis. With low popularity ratings, a $1.7-billion […]
President Donald Trump shocked organized labor by saying he would soon have an announcement on a law that guarantees wage levels for workers on most federally funded construction projects. The White House has since declined to reveal his position publicly. But privately, Trump administration officials appear in recent days appears to be trying to calm […]
Trump’s plan, expected to be released as early as May, has already faced months of skepticism from some conservative deficit hawks — even though it’s likely to call for far less direct federal spending than its eye-popping price tag implies. Meanwhile, Democrats are crying foul at suggestions that the blueprint will include hefty tax breaks […]
President Trump wants a couple of his fellow New York billionaire real estate developers to oversee his plans to spend $1 trillion to improve infrastructure. The plan to spend $1 trillion repairing highways, bridges, roads, airports, dams and other infrastructure, a centerpiece of Trump’s plan to boost hiring and the economy, still needs approval by […]
Work will begin this summer to convert what is now the high school’s auxiliary gymnasium to house the shops while construction on the $130 million project to renovate and rebuild the school is underway. Having received the Board of Education’s approval this week of revised educational specifications and the final Phase 2 plans for the […]
The Midwest Economic Policy Institute published a report entitled, “Prevailing Wage and Military Veterans in Connecticut”. CT’s Construction Industry employs thousands of our returning veterans. Prevailing Wage protections are vital to the financial independence of our blue-collar veteran families. https://midwestepi.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/policy-brief-prevailing-wage-military-veterans-in-connecticut.pdf
State Comptroller Kevin Lembo said slow income tax withholding has forced him to predict the state will end the year with a $44.6 million budget deficit. He agreed with the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis that revenues would fall about $60 million short of projections. Lembo pointed out that Connecticut’s overall budget performance is ultimately […]
Electric Boat, the Groton-based subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp., is ramping up to build two subs a year, with the start of design of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. More than 5,000 firms in the U.S., including nearly 450 in Connecticut, supply parts. In Connecticut, where the number of low-paid jobs are increasing faster than […]
A plan to build a new $108 million school in Bloomfield for Two Rivers Magnet High School has been scrapped amid budget concerns, the Capitol Region Education Council said Friday. The 408-student, environmental-themed Two Rivers High in Hartford will also cease to exist next school year and students will instead be shuttled to New Britain […]
Those that have proposed an increase to the prevailing wage thresholds have indicated that their proposals will alleviate budgetary constraints on our municipalities. I do not believe that is the case. Further weakening of our state’s prevailing wage law will do just the opposite, and will further eliminate the kind of fair-paying, middle-class jobs that […]
“We understand that raising thresholds are not good for workers,” said David Roche, president of the building trades council. Some prominent Democrats in state and federal office also spoke out against raising the prevailing wage thresholds. While they did not identify the Democratic governor by name, they did say anyone supporting such a measure would […]
Governor Malloy has made a recommendation to raise the threshold as to when our state’s prevailing wage law is triggered on public works construction projects. Connecticut currently has the second highest thresholds in the country, and the highest in New England. The truth is this proposal won’t in any way alter our state’s budgetary woes. In […]
Unions have fought for years against any changes in the prevailing wage, and Democrats in the House and Senate have backed the unions. This year, the atmosphere has changed because the Senate is currently tied at 17 to 17 with two open seats awaiting special elections. “In states around us, the thresholds are zero,” Pelletier […]
At a meeting with the leaders of several construction and building trade unions, President Trump reiterated on Monday his interest in directing hundreds of billions of dollars to infrastructure investments, some of it from the federal government, union officials said. At the meeting, Mr. McGarvey raised one point of possible discord between the labor leaders […]
The most favored is the NEC proposal to upgrade the rail line that runs through the center of the state, from New Haven to Hartford and then Springfield, Mass. Demographers project that between 2010 and 2040, the population in the Northeast Corridor will grow to 64 million, an increase of roughly 23 percent. Six of […]
On the “to do” list for the 2017 legislative session for Connecticut’s two tribes is the possible approval of a third casino along I-91. On Friday, after a meeting with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy— who has been neutral about the prospects of a third casino off tribal land — the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes […]
The budget — depending on which analyst you believe — is in deficit by $1.3 billion or $1.5 billion and will be a focal point for lawmakers who don’t want to raise taxes or further cut state services. In addition to the budget and labor issues that are likely to consume most of the debate, […]
Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, will undergo kidney transplant surgery today before being able to reach an agreement with Senate Republicans over how the now evenly divided upper chamber is organized. The Senate, which had been held by a 21-15 Democratic majority, will be split 18-18 between the parties when the 2017 session opens. […]
The conventional political wisdom among many at the state Capitol was that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a major cheerleader for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, would head south to Washington, D.C., to become part of her new administration. But that never worked out for Clinton or Malloy, and now political insiders are wondering whether Malloy will […]
Connecticut added 2,100 jobs in November, and its unemployment rate declined to 4.7 percent, state regulators reported Thursday. The unemployment rate in October was 5.1 percent. November’s declining 4.7 percent jobless rate is now seven-tenths of a point lower than it was a year ago. The construction and mining supersector dropped off sharply, with a […]
The Senate Republican leadership has hired Linda Yelmini of Windsor, chief labor relations official for five administrations until her awkward departure from government under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy late in 2014, as a part-time consultant and legislative researcher. Yelmini’s hiring foreshadows an anticipated push by Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano of North Haven to intensify efforts […]
Trader Joe’s is considering locating a $78.5 million regional distribution facility in Bloomfield and bringing with it 675 new jobs, a prospect the town mayor welcomed Thursday. In a Nov. 29 letter to the town planner, George A. Tobjy, managing director for New York City-based KPMG, said the grocer is weighing possible locations for the […]
Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor expected to be nominated as the next secretary of the Commerce Department, says the United States could spur $1 trillion in infrastructure spending by giving out about $137 billion in tax credits to private investors. “According to a report from the Congressional Budget Office, in the last 25 years, there […]
Connecticut Water Service Inc. says it will spend more than $55 million in the coming year on upgrades to its water systems at home and in Maine. Eric W. Thornburg, the Clinton-based water utility’s CEO, said Friday its board of directors approved a $55.4 million capital-spending plan for 2017. Of that sum, $46.7 million is […]
Shortly before the presidential election, then-candidate Donald Trump’s team of advisors released a 10-year, $1 trillion infrastructure plan that envisions the private sector pumping billions of dollars of equity into much-needed, user- or fee-based projects like toll roads, utilities or airports in exchange for being able to collect the revenue long-term, all with an 82% […]
The Navy has committed $5.4 million for design and planning work to replace Pier 32, one of 11 operational piers at the Naval Submarine Base, which is home to 15 nuclear attack submarines. The plan is to demolish Pier 32 and construct a wider, longer pier in its place. The project is expected to include […]
Each mandate that is unfunded, or only partially funded, adds to the already overburdened property tax, and reduces local discretionary authority, said Ron Thomas, deputy director of CCM. Connecticut has had nearly 60 new mandates over the last two years, he added. Some key proposals from the CCM report on unfunded state mandates in Connecticut […]
