By Keith M. Phaneuf

East Windsor — Gov. Ned Lamont today unveiled a series of proposals to reduce bureaucracy and make it easier for businesses to work with the state.

Lamont, who made the announcement at Infoshred, a local document shredding firm that holds the contract to dispose of sensitive state documents, said his initiative would eliminate thousands of unnecessary forms the state must process annually.

“With fresh eyes, an aggressive approach, and collaboration, we can modernize state government the way it should be,” said Lamont, who made the announcement standing before two huge rectangular blocks of shredded paper. “It is too difficult to navigate through our agencies — it slows down our employees and our businesses.

“State government needs to embrace change and be willing to take responsible risks to move into the future,” he added. “The status quo is not good enough.”

By Mark Pazniokas

With its former leader facing a criminal investigation of potential political influence, the U.S. Department of Interior today abruptly reversed course and announced it has accepted a gambling amendment necessary for the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes to jointly construct a casino in East Windsor to compete with MGM Springfield.

The terse notice posted on Interior’s website at 11:15 a.m. gives no rationale for the reversal, saying only that after “further consultations with the Tribe,” the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs signed off on the document on March 15 and that it would become effective after its publication Monday in the Federal Register. The DOI had no comment.

The notice removes a key obstacle to the construction of Connecticut’s first casino off tribal lands, but it invites the certain revival of a legal challenge by MGM Resorts International of the state’s authorization of the East Windsor casino without competition. MGM’s original lawsuit was dismissed as premature, but that no longer is the case.

MGM said today it will resume its court fight, which claims that Connecticut’s authorization of an off-reservation casino without competitive bidding was unconstitutional.

By Mark Pazniokas

A legislative committee today took the first steps on what would be a long and complex journey to implement a comprehensive system of electronic highway tolls in Connecticut, endorsing three bills that broadly outline the process, while leaving crucial details about cost, frequency and location of tolls for another day.

All three bills would authorize the state Department of Transportation to develop and present a tolling plan to the Federal Highway Administration.

A Senate bill would require the full General Assembly to vote twice on tolling, once this year on the enabling legislation and again on a highly detailed final plan.

Versions favored by House Democrats and the governor’s office would require hearings on the final plan developed by the DOT and reviewed by the FHWA, which would precisely identify the location and pricing of tolling gantries, but not a second vote by the General Assembly.