Marc E. Fitch

As Gov. Dannel Malloy delivered his state of the state address, which highlighted Connecticut’s growing deficit problem, the Office of Fiscal Analysis released it second-quarter report on state agency overtime spending. So far, Connecticut agencies - particularly the Department of Correction - have spent 14.7 percent less on overtime payments than the second quarter of last year. The DOC is consistently the biggest driver of overtime but managed to reduce their payments by $8.2 million.

Ms. Coates and her husband had enrolled their two older children in private Catholic school, but that eventually became a financial impossibility. Instead of moving out of Bridgeport, where most schools in the city were rated far lower than those in surrounding areas, she decided to tackle the situation head on. Ms. Coates showed up at a Bridgeport Board of Education meeting, where she witnessed parents at odds with each other and a system that was not working for her kids.

One of nominees for the Yankee Institute’s 2016 Unsung Hero Award, Alex worked with a fellow Wilton resident to form “Sensible Wilton” in the summer of 2014. Sensible Wilton’s goal was to stop a renovation of the Miller-Driscoll school that started as a $3 million facelift but ballooned into a $50 million teardown and reconstruction project.

Numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau show that Connecticut’s population has declined for the third year in a row. According to its Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for the United States and Puerto Rico, Connecticut has had a net loss of 19,581 residents since the state peaked in 2013.

The Connecticut Spending Cap Commission concluded its last meeting on Monday unable to reach agreement on a definition of “general budget expenditures,” which would be subject to Connecticut’s constitutional spending cap. The commission voted 11-12 against a proposal by William Cibes, which recommended gradually phasing in increases to the cost of the unfunded liabilities the following year. The year long delay would continue until 2022, at which point all the unfunded liabilities would be subject to the cap.

In 2016 Connecticut borrowed $327.4 million for public projects, which included $4 million in fees for Connecticut agencies to oversee the projects, essentially borrowing to pay the cost of its employees. Those fees have added up to more than $61 million since 1999. Each year the state pays interest on these costs.