Connecticut’s total state and local unfunded pension and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) liability is a whopping $124.9 billion, according to an independent report delivered to the Connecticut Council of Municipalities. Pro Bono Public Pensions, a […]
The Rhode Island Supreme Court has upheld a Superior Court decision to allow the City of Cranston to cut cost of living adjustments for city retirees, citing the city’s dire fiscal problems. In 2011, Cranston […]
Lawmakers and visitors to the Legislative Office Building throughout the week may have noticed a truck with a digital sign advertising Gov. Ned Lamont’s new transportation plan called CT2030. It’s been driving in circles outside […]
Senate Republicans unveiled their latest transportation funding plan which would use $1.5 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to pay off pension debt and remove pension payments from the Special Transportation Fund, thereby freeing […]
Connecticut’s teachers may be better off with a 401(k) style, defined contribution retirement plan than under Connecticut’s massively underfunded pension system, according to some number crunching. Assuming a 6.5 percent employer match and adjusted for […]
Who benefits from pensions? Imagine 100 teachers are hired by a Hartford, Connecticut school district, all of them are age 25, they are all women, and all hold a master’s degree. What percentage of them […]
Over the past year, Connecticut’s Auditors of Public Accounts have found instances of workplace violence, benefits paid to deceased individuals, abuse of overtime, state agencies that violate both state policy and union contracts and “massive […]
Despite increasing General Fund revenue by $2.52 billion over the next two years, Connecticut will still face billion-dollar budget deficits from 2022 through 2024, according to a budget report released by the Office of Fiscal […]
Yankee Letter Across Connecticut, the teacher pension system is not working for teachers, taxpayers or children. And it has the potential to fail current and future retirees if it is not equitably and carefully reformed […]
A new study from the Manhattan Institute, a free-market think tank based in New York City, reported improvements for one of Connecticut’s underfunded long-term debts – namely its medical benefits for state retirees and teachers. […]
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.