The Connecticut People’s World Committee presented its annual Amistad Awards on Saturday to mark the 102nd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party USA, with awards being presented to Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, Pastor […]
Nearly 75 percent of Connecticut’s public-sector workforce is part of a union, according to new numbers released by Unionstats.com, making Connecticut’s government workforce the most unionized in the country. The figures derived from 2020 Current […]
The Labor and Public Employees Committee approved a bill that would give public employee unions unfettered access to employees’ personal information and work orientations and would codify union membership cards into state law. The legislation […]
In testimony before the Public Safety and Security Committee, House Republican Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, and Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, R-Newtown, said there has been no evidence that the CT AFL-CIO replaced missing funds dedicated to […]
Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, was treasurer of the John J. Driscoll United Labor Agency during years in which $103,713 of state money dedicated to compensating workers affected by the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting went missing. […]
The Labor and Public Employees Committee has filed a bill designed to push back against the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME that allows public sector employees to opt out of union membership […]
At a press conference Friday, Senate Democrats announced plans to once again try to pass legislation limiting what employers can talk to their employees about during mandatory meetings – known as “captive audience” legislation. Senate […]
The Labor Committee voted to draft a committee bill to prevent employers from holding mandatory meetings with employees regarding politics, religion or union organizing, referred to as “captive audience” meetings. The legislation, which has been […]
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.