The Yankee Institute honored the legacy of Dr. Milton Friedman on Wednesday, July 31 with a luncheon and policy discussion led by Jason Bedrick of the Cato Institute. The New Britain Herald’s Scott Whipple called […]
EAST HARTFORD – The new study by Arthur Laffer and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the latest independent assessment reaching the same conclusion: Connecticut’s economy is among the very worst in the nation. […]
It turns out that rising taxes and non-existent growth are not desirable traits for business. CEO Magazine, a trade magazine for business leaders, ranked Connecticut the 45th best (?) state for business in 2013. Texas […]
EAST HARTFORD – A record 525 retired state employees took home at least $100,000 in pension pay in 2012, according to new data from the state Comptroller’s office analyzed by the Yankee Institute. That figure […]
EAST HARTFORD – Connecticut has compiled a disgraceful list of lasts in recent years, as the Yankee Institute highlighted on Wednesday this week with a full page advertisement in several major CT newspapers. Yankee Institute […]
Connecticut needs to go in a new direction to reverse these trends and prosper again. Connecticut’s 2012 Policy Road Map proposes 26 action items aimed at improving lives through freedom and opportunity.
HARTFORD – Fergus Cullen, Executive Director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, issues the following statement in response to SEBAC’s complaint to the Attorney General: “There are two groups of people in Connecticut: Those […]
Connecticut Survey of 500 Likely VotersConducted June 9, 2011By Pulse Opinion Research for Yankee Institute for Public Policy 1. How would you rate the job Barack Obama has been doing as President… do you strongly […]
Yesterday, the Pew Center on the States released a nationwide study of state pension funding shortfalls. The Center’s survey of the states found that 31 out of 50 states were below the 80 percent funded […]
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.