** For the full study including charts and graphs, please download the PDF** Yankee Letter Across Connecticut, the teacher pension system is not working for teachers, taxpayers or children. And it has the potential to […]
An Information Systems Director for Charter Oak State College was allowed to work part-time from a new home in Florida for 16 weeks – just long enough to become vested for Connecticut state retirement benefits, […]
Connecticut remained a “sinkhole state” in this year’s state-by-state ranking and report from Truth in Accounting, a Chicago based think-tank that analyzes government accounting data. Connecticut ranked 48th in the country because of its high […]
In response to an annual transportation spending study published by the Reason Foundation, Connecticut’s Department of Transportation has started to reclassify the way it reports transportation spending to the federal government, according to CT DOT […]
A one-page, handwritten memorandum of agreement between the Connecticut Judicial Branch and the court monitors’ union has further postponed cost-saving recommendations made nine years ago by a special state committee until 2021, according to a […]
In 2008, Connecticut took out a $2 billion pension obligation bond in order to boost its teacher pension fund, which the state had underfunded for decades. The timing was calamitous as the country entered into […]
Connecticut ranked 44th in the nation for “highway performance and cost-effectiveness,” in Reason Foundation’s annual study of transportation spending across all fifty states. While Connecticut scored well for fatality rates and pavement conditions, the state’s […]
In March of 2019, the City of Hartford won a number of cost-saving provisions in an interest arbitration decision between the city and the Hartford Municipal Employees Association. The stakes were high for Hartford, which […]
The New Haven Firefighters Local 825 in 2014 paid the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association nearly $26,000 in dues for “legislative representation” at the Capitol, but an internal audit of the UPFFA showed the union […]
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.