STAMFORD – The featured speaker at the Yankee Institute’s Policy Luncheon had a clear message for Connecticut’s policymakers and opinion leaders: “Fix the state’s unfunded liabilities now!”
Curtis Dubay, a Connecticut native and Senior Tax Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. spoke to nearly 60 Yankee Institute guests on Tuesday, October 8, at the Stamford Sheraton about tax reform both at the federal and state level. He touted Heritage’s Saving the American Dream tax reform plan that is far simpler, more transparent, and less costly than the current tax code.
But the big message was for state and local governments to get serious about unfunded liabilities, usually pension and health care obligations that governments are contractually obligated to pay but have not saved enough to actually do so. He recommended pension reforms to give public employees more control over their retirement future and more security in the long run.
At an evening event for municipal candidates in Cromwell, Dubay again emphasized this message, telling the local candidates to focus on pension reform at the local level. He connected it to tax reform, noting that debt reform was the best way to prevent future tax increases.
