Author Archives: cxpowell

By Chris Powell Nothing this year is likely to illustrate the enduring corruption of politics and government in Connecticut as well as last week’s crowded six-hour hearing of the General Assembly’s General Law Committee about whether supermarkets should be allowed to sell wine, in addition to the beer they already sell. The hearing’s focus wasContinue reading “Supermarket wine bill shows enduring political corruption”

By Chris Powell For a long time Connecticut has been spending billions of dollars each year on elementary and high school education, and now that the annual cost exceeds $9 billion, the leaders of the Democratic majority in the state Senate announced last week that their top priority of the new legislative session will beContinue reading “Where school money goes really isn’t such a mystery”

By Chris Powell Connecticut is losing population and business again but its elected officials are as busy as ever deploring the awful things happening elsewhere in the country, and they may be thankful for the distraction. In recent days mass shootings in California and murderous misconduct by police in Tennessee have prompted Connecticut’s leaders toContinue reading “Distance makes outrage easy for Connecticut’s posturing pols”

By Chris Powell What an extraordinary claim the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system made for itself last week. The system, representing the regional universities and the community colleges, declared that its institutions long have been cannibalized by employee compensation costs and so now need big new appropriations to restore their academics and make itContinue reading “Making themselves ‘free’ is colleges’ scheme to survive”

By Chris Powell While state government is all geared up to distract itself with trivia, news organizations are full of reports indicating Connecticut’s worsening impoverishment, especially its child neglect. In recent days these reports have told of thousands of students coming to school hungry because their families don’t feed them at home, and of aContinue reading “Legislators, governor scurry to overlook child neglect”

By Chris Powell For many years Hartford’s North End, the heavily Black area of the city, has suffered extensive sewage overflows into basements from its antiquated sewer system, and the other day residents there complained about it again, this time to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The problem is universally acknowledged but nothing is beingContinue reading “North End’s sewer mess is pathetic politics, not racism”

By Chris Powell Could Stamford, a Democratic-controlled city, be tired of forfeiting its financial management to government employee unions? That’s the implication of a vote by the city’s Board of Representatives — the city council — at its first meeting of the new year. The board voted 23-7 to reject a proposed contract with theContinue reading “A Democratic city may learn binding arbitration is awful”

By Chris Powell Connecticut may have had its “All power to the Soviets!” moment the other day as more than 200 people summoned by the Democratic Socialists of America gathered on the internet to call for a law to limit residential rent increases to 2½% annually. Five Democratic state legislators have co-sponsored the legislation andContinue reading “Rent limit will only worsen Connecticut’s shortage of housing”

By Chris Powell Seldom does the New York Times pay attention to Connecticut unless it involves something edible, and so it was again the other day when the newspaper identified New Haven as one of 52 places around the world that everyone should visit this year for “food, culture, adventure, and natural beauty.” Certainly forContinue reading “Could New Haven wake up? And skip the dope course”

By Chris Powell Only one practical proposal has been offered for immediate reduction of Connecticut’s electricity prices, the highest in the continental United States. But the practical proposal is the least publicized one. The practical proposal is [ITALICS] not [END ITALICS] the legislation offered by state Rep. Christine Conley, D-Groton, to give the General Assembly the authority to decideContinue reading “Political honesty might cut electric bills 20% real fast”