The state budget passed late last night after wrangling over language. The vote was 134-5 and happened at 2:35 am.

The lastest bank robbery might be solved rather quickly. Apparently the robber jumped in a taxi cab and there was a good security camera picture.

Teenage boys might have been responsible for fires that raged on Chinon islands off the coast of Norwalk.

Fred Wilms is hosting a municiple finance round table on Monday night (City Hall). Other finance board memebrs of surrounding towns will be attending. Wilms held one last year, and this is an excellent step in starting a regional discussion.

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The state budget, much like Norwalk’s municipal budget, has a big chunk devoted to educational spending. Governor Rell wanted to make that educational chunk even bigger this year, and throughout the legislative session, it was the talk of the 169 towns. The allocations of state educational aide, however, for years benefited upstate towns while ignoring Fairfield County’s needs, culminating in the routine calls for ECS funding reform. This was not the year that ECS reform was going to happen for a variety of reasons, and it looked like once again that cities like Norwalk were going to get bacon bits, under the Democratic budget plans.

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Lots of things going on, so feel free to comment on anything.

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With the super-majprity Democratic led legislature faced with strong opposition internally over the yearly tribute of bacon bits towards southwestern Connecticut, Norwalk’s Bob Genuario-R and Larry Cafero-R fought at the budget negotiating table for Norwalk’s fair share.

A state budget compromise offers Norwalk a nearly $1.5-million increase in education funding, legislative sources said Thursday.

That sum comprises an approximately $1 million increase to the city’s Educational Cost Sharing grant and roughly $500,000 in additional priority school funding. Any increase would come in handy as the city’s Board of Education is considering how to trim $6.7 million from next year’s schools budget.

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As someone commented here earlier in the week, Bill Krummel has dropped his plans to seek the Democratic nomination for mayor. Both the Advocate and the Hour report on the glacial candidacy race to determine who will run against Dick Moccia this fall. Moccia announced his candidacy in April. After more than two months of posturing, none of the rumored Democratic candidates has made a move except for Krummel.

Demonstrating how completely out of touch with the problems facing Norwalkers, Democratic town chair Galen Wells had this to say about Krummel.

He is an extraordinary councilman, and I hope he stays on the council. We really need him there. He’s led the way on the infrastructure,” Wells said.

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It’s also the world’s smallest political leanings quiz. I’ve taken it before and my red dot moves ever so slightly right and left. My score:

Your PERSONAL issues Score is 70%.
Your ECONOMIC issues Score is 50%

That makes me a CENTRIST.

CENTRISTS espouse a “middle ground” regarding government control of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on
the issue, they sometimes favor government intervention and sometimes support individual freedom of choice.
Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind, tend to oppose “political extremes,” and emphasize what they describe as “practical” solutions to problems.

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Next week the Common Council will be voting on adopting the revised-revised ethics code. And below you will find the link to the latest draft amendment.

Ethics code (pdf)

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Bet you never thought I’d write that headline. But after reading the Hour article headlined, “Boozed up prom goers get graduation walk” I arrived at this startling conclusion. Why? Because I think that nanny statism has over reached, when it performs breathalyzers on kids near prom sites. Forget about looking at the pervasive use of Ritalin force fed to kids who naturally would prefer running around to sitting in a classroom all day filling our bubbles on endless tests. No, the anti-alcohol forces want to train your kids to accept a violation of the fourth amendment as being the norm. Let’s look at the incident:

Detective Michael Murray, of the Norwalk Police youth division, said he responded to a phone call that alcohol was present in a bus carrying students at the Stamford Sheraton Hotel.

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How did I miss this one? Apparently State Comptroller Nancy Wyman got legislators to vote on a bill adopting GAAP. GAAP, one of my pet accounting issues, stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and is a framework used to generate financial statements. The chief benefot of the state adopting GAAP is that it will findamentally change how revenue is reported. Currently, the state accounces revenue projections as actual revenue. This causes the legislature to spend money it thinks it has. The reality is that until revenue is collected, under GAAP, it is not used in financial statements.

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So far, the budget vote is planned for Friday. But by late Tuesday, 24 hours after the budget negotiators reached a tentative agreement, according to the Journal Inquirer, the votes might not be there. The reason? ECS funding, in particular to Fairfield County towns, and the opposition is from upstate legislators. From the Journal Inquirer:

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