The Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth — composed of Connecticut CEOs and business owners — released their much-anticipated recommendations today at the Capitol, which included a combination of tax increases, tax cuts, tolls […]
Connecticut’s major tax increases in 2009, 2011 and 2015 may have offered the state temporary budget relief, but in the end Connecticut appears to be a little worse off than the rest of the country. […]
An annual study by WalletHub ranked Connecticut 48th among the states for its real estate property tax burden and 43rd for its vehicle property tax costs. In total, the 2018 study noted that the median […]
Approximately 150 protesters gathered outside the Connecticut Supreme Court across from the Capitol on Monday to protest Janus v. AFSCME, a free speech case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Connecticut has the second highest tax burden in the nation, according to a new report by 24/7 Wall Street, which used data from the Tax Foundation. Connecticut ranked behind New Jersey, but ahead of New […]
Last week Pelletier decided to lash out against the Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth with an op-ed in the Hartford Business Journal and some quotes in a CT Mirror story. According to her, […]
Connecticut lowered the discount rate of the teacher’s retirement system from 8.5 percent to 8 percent in 2016, but it still remains higher than most other states. According to NASRA the median discount rate has […]
Mark originally wanted a union shop so that J-Con Inc. could do business in neighboring New York and Rhode Island. He contributed toward his employees' pension fund with the carpenters union, along with health benefits […]
Establishing tolls along Connecticut’s highways and increasing the state gasoline tax by 7 cents per gallon would allow the Special Transportation Fund to issue $1.2 billion in bonds in 2022, up from $800 million this […]
Connecticut’s state agencies need to stop offering six-figure separation and non-disparagement agreements to former employees without third-party oversight, according to a report to the General Assembly by state auditors John Geragosian and Robert Kane.
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.