Halloween has come early this year with the General Assembly imitating Dr. Frankenstein by cobbling together multiple “affordable housing” bills into one monstrously expensive and restrictive piece of legislation. The trouble begins with a newly […]
The Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration upheld disciplinary action toward an Ansonia police sergeant, who received a written warning following “behavior [that] was unacceptable for a supervisor,” Aug. 8. However, the ruling — […]
Chief State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo Jr., currently facing investigation over his questionable hiring of Anastasia Diamantis, the daughter of former Deputy Budget Director Kostantinos Diamantis, is running in a primary election to get back […]
The day before Connecticut officials announced consensus revenue estimates of a $2.2 billion surplus in the state’s finances, the Office of Policy and Management sent a letter to municipal leaders across the state informing them […]
When the Department of Economic and Community Development released its list of Connecticut’s 25 distressed municipalities for the upcoming year, there was one notable absence: New Haven. The Elm City has been on the list […]
Some members of the Municipal Accountability Review Board overseeing West Haven expressed frustration at what they see as the city’s slow approach to implementing purchasing control policies after West Haven was defrauded of more than […]
When finances are tight, every little bit helps, but some Connecticut cities have potentially thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars, sitting unused and uncollected on Connecticut’s unclaimed property list, known as the Big List, […]
Three Republican Board of Education candidates claimed victory in Newtown after accusations of online and public harassment and intimidation forced the Republican Town Committee to withdraw those candidates from a town hall event in late […]
West Haven Mayor Nancy Rossi declared victory over her Republican rival Barry Lee Cohen Tuesday night by a mere 24 votes, which will force an automatic recount in a city that has become backdrop for […]
The Newtown Republican Town Committee has pulled three Republican board of education candidates from participating in a scheduled candidate event with their fellow Democrat candidates due to public hostility both online and in town. “Here […]
The Connecticut State Legislature will begin its 2023 session on January 4th and will adjourn on June 7th. The “long session,” as non-election years are called in Hartford, will be centered around the biennial budget. The Office of the State Comptroller reports that state government found a way to spend $47.11 billion in 2022 and, if trends continue, we can expect that number to grow even more going forward. Concerns over energy prices, inflation, and general cost of living continue to dominate the headlines and the threat of a recession hovers over economic forecasts.
What will our elected officials be working on to improve policy outcomes for Connecticut residents? What tax reform proposals will there be? What can be done to lower home heating bills? How will state and local budgets be affected by fewer federal resources? How will schools be implementing to curriculum requirements?
While we wait to see the thousands of individual and committee bills that while dominate the myriad policy debates this year, Yankee Institute is hard at work promoting free-market solutions to the problems we face from Stamford to Putnam and Mystic to Salisbury. To that end, we have produced a new edition of our Charter for Change. The Charter provides commonsense reforms to make Connecticut’s government work for its residents.
Though the list of reforms may be exhausting to review, it is far from exhaustive! And that’s why we want to work with you to build a broad-based coalition to encourage sound policy reforms to enable Connecticut residents to forge a better future for themselves and their families.
It’s also imperative that we do so. As we noted in a report and CT Mirror op-ed last year, the debate over whether we’re in a national recession really misses the point for Connecticut residents. We had more people employed in the private sector in 2007 than we do today. Our economy has grown at one of the slowest rates in the nation for the past decade, and we are getting outpaced year after year. We’re not attracting innovation and industry. We’re losing some of our best and brightest as they seek other parts of the country where it’s easier to make a living.
But together, we can reverse this trend.
At Yankee Institute, we know Connecticut is a state with boundless opportunity, and we intend to help make our state more than a place where people are just able to make ends meet! Connecticut should be a place where everyone can thrive – and with your help, it will be.