On Thursday October 15, Yankee Institute held an online forum with four renowned economists who discussed the current and future state of both Connecticut’s economy and the national economy in the wake of the COVID-19 […]
Economy
Budget numbers released by the Office of Fiscal Analysis show Connecticut’s budget deficit this year grew to over $1 billion, an increase of more than $687 million over the previous estimate. Gov. Ned Lamont had […]
Amidst a severe downturn on Wall Street sparked by the COVID-19 virus and the shuttering of businesses across states to keep the spread of the virus minimal, Connecticut will face “considerable” economic fallout, according to […]
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released state-by-state personal income growth figures for the first quarter of 2019 that showed Connecticut near the bottom of the list, placing 48th overall for income growth. Connecticut residents’ […]
Connecticut ranked 43rd in the country in Wallethub’s annual ranking of Best and Worst States to Start a Business.
Nice states encourage and reward risk takers, both with policy and general attentiveness to their job creators. Unpredictability, projections to increase taxes, and constant regulatory creep are factors that reduce business confidence and, ultimately, reinvestment in a state. Naughty states disregard the concerns of employers.
Photographs taken at the Governor’s 2016 Economic Forum in February highlight a number of troubling statistics.
- Poverty among minority groups is rising faster than others.
- The decline in Connecticut manufacturing jobs has wiped out more than half of all job growth since the 1990s.
- Middle-skill jobs in the science and technology sector are the hardest to fill.
- Connecticut has some of the highest long-term unemployment rates in the nation.
Plans to bring more natural gas to New England to lower the region's high energy prices face trouble. Two separate pipeline plans would have brought more natural gas, a relatively clean and low-cost fuel, to the region while investing more than $4 billion in the projects, but one developer dropped its plan last week.
Kinder Morgan pulled the plug on its planned regional pipeline that would have invested $3.3 billion in the region. Company officials said in announcing the change in plans that the company could not find the support and consumers necessary to make the investment.
Connecticut is losing better-paying jobs and replacing them with low-paying jobs, according to a study released by the Commission on Economic Competitiveness.
The commission had previously attempted to keep the document secret by discussing it in a closed-door executive session, prompting a Yankee Institute complaint to the Freedom of Information Commission.
In the face of declining tax revenues and weak job reports, state lawmakers have to decide whether or not to continue to fund Governor Malloy's controversial First Five Plus program, which is scheduled to end this year. To fund the program, the state borrows money, which it then hands out to major corporations through grants, low interest loans and tax subsidies in order to create jobs.
Commissioner Catherine Smith of the Department of Economic and Community Development testified before the Commerce Committee on March 15 that the program should continue for another three years.
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