Since its inception in 1991, Connecticut’s income tax has been raised four times, new brackets have been added, and the income tax has become the state’s largest source of revenue, projected to bring in $9.4 […]
Three decades have passed since the historic budget crisis that culminated in the creation of Connecticut’s personal income tax.The tax was enacted out of desperation: a roaring private sector buoyed a multi-year explosion in state […]
Connecticut has the second largest tax burden in the United States, according to a new report by the Washington D.C.-based Tax Foundation, which measured the economic impact of taxes on residents in each state as […]
State employee unions and the Working Families Party are holding a car caravan rally outside the Governor’s Mansion February 20, after union leaders and progressive lawmakers publicly expressed their disapproval of Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget […]
Gov. Ned Lamont released his biennial budget proposal to close a $2.5 billion deficit, which relies on a mix of federal aid, a continued delay of sales tax revenue for municipal grants and maintaining some […]
It’s an old truism: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Bereft of any innovative ideas for addressing the rising poverty resulting from policies chosen to address the coronavirus pandemic, […]
In a break from the progressive wing of their party, the Moderate Democratic Caucus issued a statement rejecting calls for increasing Connecticut’s tax rates, a statewide property tax and a proposal to break the state’s […]
Senate President Pro-Tem Martin Looney, D-New Haven, filed two bills to implement a statewide property tax on residential and commercial property and to implement a surcharge on capital gains. Although the bills are only concept […]
A new study released by the Pioneer Institute in Massachusetts has a warning for Massachusetts lawmakers who may consider raising the state’s income tax rate: Don’t be like Connecticut. Connecticut’s Dangerous Game: How the Nation’s […]
Connecticut Voices for Children, a New Haven-based think tank, outlined their plan to achieve economic justice through increasing taxes on Connecticut’s top earners in a report published this month and in an online presentation that […]
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.