Your taxes keep rising—so why is Connecticut broke? (see pdf for complete list) Connecticut residents pay the highest taxes in the entire country, second only to New York. Next year, lawmakers must close a multi-billion-dollar […]
Your taxes keep rising—so why is Connecticut broke? Connecticut residents pay the highest taxes in the entire country, second only to New York. Next year, lawmakers must close a multi-billion-dollar budget gap—and in the coming […]
An updated study published by the Yankee Institute on Wednesday found that Connecticut government employees earn 28 percent more than comparable private sector employees, largely due to public employees’ generous retirement benefits. That difference adds […]
*Click “Download PDF” for the full report* Public employee pay and benefits in Connecticut are a matter of concern and debate for policymakers, employees and citizens. Elected officials must craft budgets amidst the Covid-19 crisis […]
A new annual report from Truth in Accounting found Connecticut has $67 billion in bonded debt and unfunded retirement costs, making it the third most indebted state per taxpayer in the nation. The total debt, […]
A coalition of public sector unions in Connecticut are running advertisements on television and social media calling for increasing taxes on the wealthy and list off the names of Connecticut’s billionaires they feel should be […]
The University of Connecticut and UConn Health Center is asking the state of Connecticut for a combined $102.7 million to help mitigate their losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to figures presented to the […]
Barron’s, the financial investor publication, conducted an overall “credit worthiness” scorecard for states and ranked Connecticut near the bottom of the pack, despite a hefty budget reserve fund. Connecticut currently has an A1 stable credit […]
Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency powers under the public health and civil preparedness emergency statutes are set to expire on September 9, six months after he was granted those powers by a vote of legislative leaders […]
It’s midnight, Saturday night, in the middle of the statewide electrical outages after Tropical Storm Isaias. I’m lying in bed, bathed in a pool of my own sweat. And I am seething. Our family is […]
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.