By Keith M. Phaneuf

www.ctmirror.org

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today proposed a second round of tax cuts, including a new income tax break for retired teachers that could provide a strategic edge in his re-election bid.

The governor also backed a sales tax exemption for non-prescription medications, an insurance premium break for cities and towns, extending a credit for business investors and a two-day state park fee holiday.

These breaks, worth about $52 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, would be in addition to the $155 million sales and gasoline tax rebate Malloy unveiled Thursday.

But unlike that last proposal, today’s tax cuts are ongoing, and would add more than $50 million to the nearly $1 billion shortfall projected for the first state budget after the election.

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By James Lomuscio

Called the most powerful woman at the United Nations—and a possible future U.N. Secretary General—former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark today stood in stark contrast to the images of powerless Afghan women and children on display at the Westport Arts Center (WAC).

U.N. Development Program head Helen Clark addresses today’s Westport Arts Center audience as Helen Klisser During , director of visual artrs, looks on. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Speaking before a packed WAC audience, Clark’s eyes studied the photos, images of women in burkas or giving birth, huddled together for strength or alone, their faces mutilated, and young girls old before their time, their eyes joyless.

The photos arrayed in the exhibit “On the Wire: Veiled Rebellion,” are the work of Westporter Lynsey Addario, a Pulitizer Prize-winning photojournalist who is no stranger to dangerous places.

The exhibit, choreographed by Helen Klisser During, WAC’s director of visual arts and curator of the exhibit, also proved a springboard for Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Program. Klisser During moderated the talk.

By James Lomuscio

Westport’s Downtown 2020 Committee, appointed two years ago by former First Selectman Gordon Joseloff to plan for current and future developments, officially disbanded today to make way for First Selectman Jim Marpe’s Downtown Steering Committee (DSC) announced earlier this week.

Attending the final meeting of the Downtown 2020 Committee were (l-r) G. Kenneth Bernhard, acting chair, Gerald Kagan, and Dan Kail. Bernhard and Kagan will serve on the new Downtown Steering Committee chaired by Dewey Loselle (back to camera). (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Marpe has stated that the 14-member DSC to be headed by Dewey Loselle would take a “new project management approach” to the efforts.

“This is a little bit of a sad meeting because for all intents and purposes, it is our last meeting,” said G. Kenneth Bernhard, acting chairman of Downtown 2020 since its founder Lou Gagliano resigned last spring.

Gagliano, who had been expected to phone in from Georgia but did not, quit after being at constant loggerheads with the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z), some of its members contending the advisory committee usurped the P&Z’s planning role.