Tag: Joe DeLong

The current legislative session has seen more talk “about pizza than affordable housing,” Connecticut Conference of Municipalities Executive Director and CEO Joe DeLong said.

Connecticut added another 49 COVID-19-related deaths since yesterday, bringing its total to 326. Another 110 persons have been hospitalized, bringing that total to 1,418. The new to-date numbers of tests conducted and of positive results are expected later tonight, Gov. Ned Lamont said. Updated county-by-county information is also not yet available.

The timing for completing the project and promoting proposals across the state will coincide with the General Assembly election campaigns next fall and the longer, five-month General Assembly session in the first half of 2021.

The Connecticut Council of Municipalities doesn't think the forced regionalization of schools idea "accomplishes a whole lot of anything. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ thing.”

Lamont cited as an example North Carolina, which uses one contract for school software throughout the entire state. In Connecticut, he said, there are 170 different contracts.

The CCM provided details of 15 communities that have seen a shift from municipal recycling being a net plus to a net minus.

“Connecticut has long been the land of steady habits, but the precarious fiscal condition that still plagues the state budget demands that Connecticut change key core public policies – now,” said CCM Executive Director Joe DeLong.

Nearly half of the surveyed communities have imposed some type or level of spending freeze during the first quarter of their fiscal year.

The governor and other top Democrats in the legislature are offering more time via a letter to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

Towns and cities originally were told sales tax revenue sharing would amount to $246 million this fiscal year, but that figure was cut to $185 million.