Published on June 24, 2009 by the Yankee Institute for Public Policy
This report is a non-partisan effort to increase the public’s and policymaker’s understanding of the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the so called “stimulus bill,” as well as some of its fiscal and economic impacts in the State of Connecticut.
The report highlights economic conditions that helped propel passage of the stimulus bill, discusses some of the economic principles behind the use of fiscal policy as an economic stimulus and presents key arguments for and against the ARRA.
The report broadly classifies and summarizes key ARRA provisions and their timing nationally and in Connecticut. To help bring coherence to nearly 300 separate spending measures we present a simple taxonomy that describes how the measures will affect government and their potential to stimulate economic activity. We compare the volume of known stimulus funding allocated to Connecticut with the amount allocated to other states and we estimate the value of individual and corporate tax breaks Connecticut citizens and businesses will receive as a result of ARRA’s provisions.
Finally, we suggest benchmark metrics from which to evaluate the job creation impacts of the ARRA and highlight some of the difficulties inherent in and urge caution in evaluating the employment impacts of the stimulus.
