As local governments debate and finalize their 2024-2025 budgets, Connecticut residents across the state are bracing for possible tax increases due to new policies enacted by the General Assembly over the past few years. […]
On March 29, Gov. Ned Lamont and the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) — a group that is comprised of 15 state government unions — agreed to terms on a wage re-opener that will […]
Submitted by Frank Ricci, Labor Fellow March 7th, 2024 My name is Frank Ricci and I serve as Yankee Institute’s Labor Fellow. Yankee Institute, a non-profit public policy organization in Hartford dedicated to empowering […]
On March 6, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that he reached a tentative agreement with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) — which represents 15 state government unions — that will see state employees benefit […]
A perk Connecticut General Assembly members currently enjoy may come to an end if a newly proposed bill passes. As of today, legislators receive reimbursements for mileage expenses even if they opt for carpooling without […]
Connecticut Lawmakers Should Keep the Fiscal Guardrails Intact In a state with one of the highest per capita incomes and heaviest state and local tax burdens in the United States, it’s remarkable […]
Last month, the Connecticut Comptroller’s Office released its statutorily required annual report on savings generated by Gov. Dannel Malloy’s 2017 agreement with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) — which showed the actual savings […]
The Articles of Confederation were not effective. Adopted by the Continental Congress in 1777 during the American Revolution, the nation’s first governing document “faced many challenges in conducting foreign policy, largely due to its inability […]
In an op-ed published on Friday (Dec. 1), Rep. Josh Elliott (D-Hamden) correctly characterized the state’s unfunded pension obligations as the “primary fiscal albatross around Connecticut’s neck”; but he contends that the fiscal guardrails implemented […]
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.