Author Archives: cxpowell

By Chris Powell Even though he has decided against seeking re-election, state Treasurer Shawn Wooden has discovered a way to fix state government’s unclaimed property program, which his office supervises. In January the Connecticut Mirror’s Andrew Brown and Kasturi Pananjad reported that during the last 20 years the program had seized $2.3 billion in theContinue reading “Wooden’s idea great but late; and Lamont fudges on taxes”

By Chris Powell Does Hartford’s school system inform a student’s parents when it learns that the student may be dealing with gender dysphoria? That’s the important question raised by the system’s suspension of a school nurse who recently wrote on social media that school staffers keep such issues secret from parents. The school system isContinue reading “Hartford schools in cover-up on gender dysphoria issue”

By Chris Powell Legislators of both parties in the General Assembly are congratulating themselves on the bipartisan juvenile justice bill that has come out of the Judiciary Committee, and well they should. For the legislation will do no more than provide the illusion of action, and thus avoid the controversy about juvenile crime. Lately thatContinue reading “Victory for repeat offenders; and nutty Indian mascot law”

By Chris Powell Another day, another study finding that Connecticut state employees are paid so much better than private-sector workers. The latest study was done by a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Andrew Biggs, who holds a doctoral degree from the London School of Economics. Biggs’ conclusion matches that of similar studies inContinue reading “Connecticut pays high price to satisfy state employees”

By Chris Powell Connecticut may be paying the Sikorsky helicopter division of military contractor Lockheed Martin as much as $250 million to keep its facilities in the state for the next 20 years — an average of more than $12 million per year — if the company gets major new helicopter contracts from the U.S.Continue reading “Bar military contractors from accepting corporate welfare”

By Chris Powell Everybody in state government seems to love this tax-cutting stuff — first the temporary suspension of Connecticut’s 25-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax, and then a week of lifting the sales tax on most clothing purchases. The public will love it too. But how happy will everybody be on July 1, as the election campaignsContinue reading “Cutting state taxes and revenue might revive true liberalism”

By Chris Powell Even as state government purports to be rolling in money, much of it emergency aid from the federal government, Connecticut is trailing the country in still another economic measure: income growth. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis says personal income grew nationally by 7.4% last year but in Connecticut by only 5.8%.Continue reading “Jobless benefits for strikers herald more decline for state”

By Chris Powell Renovating the state’s child-protection agency isn’t the only issue Connecticut has just taken 32 years to resolve in court. The same amount of time has just elapsed with the resolution of the Sheff v. O’Neill lawsuit over de-facto racial segregation in Hartford’s schools. The child-protection case plodded along in federal court whileContinue reading “Evading vote on Sheff case, legislature fails democracy”

By Chris Powell President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court to fulfill a campaign promise to give the court its first Black woman. But this week Jackson told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she can’t define “woman” because “I’m not a biologist.” So how could the president have been so sureContinue reading “Evasive nominee flunks test for which Biden chose her”

By Chris Powell Success and failure alike were marked last week as Governor Lamont visited Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families. The governor congratulated the department for being on the verge of release from federal court supervision, which began in December 1989. The department has hired more social workers, reduced to about 15 the numberContinue reading “DCF is fixed in only 32 years; and a disaster in education”