The quest to succeed retiring New Haven Mayor John DeStefano officially became a two-man race Friday, as school reform remained a top campaign issue.
Democratic state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield of Newhallville filed papers to form his official mayoral campaign committee around 10:30 a.m. at the City Clerk's Office.
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After filing Friday, Holder-Winfield said that he will indeed put improving public education at the top of his campaign agenda along with public safety and local job-creation. He has authored numerous school-reform bills in the state legislature, including one parent-empowerment law that put him at odds with city officials when they ignored it.
Deficit at 140 mil. (COMPTROLLER LEMBO PRESS RELEASE).
Comptroller Kevin Lembo today announced that the deficit projection for Fiscal Year 2013 has grown to $140 million.
In a letter to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Lembo said that he agrees with new consensus projections that state revenue has eroded by $33.9 million.
As for spending, Lembo said that his projection is $75.6 million above what the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) recently reported. Lembo based his higher projection on the continued caseload growth at the Department of Social Services (DSS).
"The slow growth in the national economy has created increasing demand for state services while at the same time producing lower revenue collections," Lembo said. "Traditionally, even after the national economy improves, there is a lag before the state budget realizes the full benefit of the general economic improvement."
Lembo said there is still an opportunity for the current budget year to recover, and he agrees with OPM's note that less than half of projected General Fund revenue for 2013 was collected as of December.
"April is a significant month for income tax collections," Lembo said. "Recent federal tax changes combined with favorable market performance could result in a shift of capital gains revenue from future years to the current budget year. This would improve the budget forecast, so we will continue to modify our projections based on actual experience."
A majority of state residents support a broad array of gun control measures and say the Newtown shootings have swayed their opinions, according to a new University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant poll.
Connecticut residents are more likely to call for gun restrictions than those polled nationwide among men and women, as well as all age groups, political affiliations, and education levels, the poll showed.
By wide margins, state residents favored banning military-style assault weapons and ammunition magazines with more than 10 bullets, preventing people with mental illness from buying guns, and creating a federal database to track gun sales, among other measures.
Overall in Connecticut, 64 percent favored stricter laws governing gun sales, while 28 percent said the laws should be kept as they are, according to the poll. Only 5 percent said the laws should be less strict.
In addition, 57 percent said the shooting deaths of 20 children and six educators Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School made them more likely to support gun control, while 35 percent said it made no difference. Nationally, 44 percent said the shooting made them more likely to support gun control.
State Senator John McKinney waded into the waters of the 2014 race for Connecticut governor, by harshly criticizing Governor Dannel Malloy during an appearance on Face the State with Dennis House, set to air Sunday on WFSB-TV, Hartford.
McKinney, the Senate Minority Leader, became the second Republican to unofficially toss his hat in the ring for the '14 contest. On Face the State last month, 2010 GOP nominee Tom Foley announced he plans to seek a rematch with Malloy, who beat Foley by only 6400 votes. Other potential candidates include House Minority Leader Larry Cafero, former Lt. Governor Michael Fedele and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. Fedele lost to Foley in the 2010 primary. Boughton was Foley's running mate after he was Fedele's.
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