You Can, Too!
The State Policy Network recently published a compilation of public policy ideas that are working to create jobs, reduce the size of government, and expand personal liberty in states across America. It...
View ArticleConnecticut Terrible on Business Tax Climate
Connecticut’s State Business Tax Climate is one of the worst in the nation according to a new ranking by the Tax Foundation. The Washington, D.C.- based think tank rated CT’s business tax climate as...
View ArticleYankee on Q Poll: Sign Of The Times
EAST HARTFORD – A new Quinnipiac poll highlights how badly Connecticut’s people have been hurt by state government’s tax-and-spend policies. After being subjected to the largest tax increase in...
View ArticleNeeded: Real Job Growth, Fiscal Stability — and Some Transparency, Too!
What a difference a few months can make! At the outset of this legislative year, Governor Malloy bubbled with optimism. There was going to be a big $506 million surplus, we were told — enough to...
View ArticleCT’s Small Business Climate: Graded D (Needs Improvement!)
Don’t take it from us — take it from the Economist. A recent piece there finds that Connecticut merits only a “D” for its overall friendliness to small business. That means it’s better only than...
View ArticleHold Off on Minimum Wage Celebration
You can expect some liberal populist triumphalism about the fact that, over the last six months, the 13 states that raised the minimum wage gained jobs faster than the states that didn’t. It’d be great...
View ArticleOne in 20 Connecticut Residents Have Given Up Looking For Work
New research released today by the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, in conjunction with the Liberty Foundation, shows that one in 20 Connecticut residents has given up looking for work since 2008....
View ArticleState Would Have $5.2 Billion More Under Spending Cap
Connecticut would have $5.2 billion more in its rainy day fund if lawmakers had kept spending under the state’s constitutional spending cap, according to a new Yankee Institute policy brief. The Yankee...
View ArticleLawmakers Can Avoid Spending Cap Litigation
Yankee Institute Study Explains Legal Limits Imposed By Spending Cap Connecticut lawmakers regularly find themselves tiptoeing at the edge of the law while writing the state’s budget. To clarify...
View ArticleConnecticut’s Terrible, No Good, Very Bad 2015 Legislative Session
By 1 a.m. on June 30, most of the dark-suited lobbyists had left the Capitol building, as had the cheering union sympathizers wearing purple t-shirts inscribed with the words “Fight for $15.” In the...
View ArticleGE Leaves Connecticut for Boston Clarifying Need for Better Policies
General Electric announced this week it would move its headquarters from Connecticut to Boston, Mass., highlighting the need for policies focused on increasing opportunity for all Connecticut...
View ArticleNew Year Brings Opportunities for Lawmakers
With the news that General Electric is leaving Fairfield for Boston fresh in the mind of lawmakers, 2016 can be a year of opportunity for Connecticut. It can be, that is, if lawmakers make it one. We...
View ArticleConnecticut Labor Force Got Smaller in 2015
The number of people working or looking for work in Connecticut, known as the labor force, decreased by about 3,000 people, according to the latest jobs numbered released Monday by the state Department...
View ArticleYankee Institute 2016 Policy Agenda
Currently, lawmakers get the same benefits that state employees receive through contract negotiations. This gives the appearance of a conflict of interest. Instead, lawmakers should repeal this law and...
View ArticleYankee Institute Supports Gov. Malloy’s Budget
We at the Yankee Institute support the Governor’s budget plan. We know it is a bitter pill. Like you, we agonize over the hardships it will impose on some of the most vulnerable residents of our state....
View ArticleFive Lessons Gov. Malloy Can Learn While in Puerto Rico
Governor Malloy is spending this week in Puerto Rico at the annual Democratic Governors Association meeting and then taking some time off with his family. Puerto Rico is facing bankruptcy and looking...
View ArticleConnecticut Gets Terrible Jobs Report: Job Growth Less Than Half Earlier...
We were told Connecticut had recovered all of the private sector jobs that were lost during the Great Recession, but new numbers released today show that this is not true. Previously, state labor...
View ArticleLegislative Alert: Working Class Tax Up For a Vote
This week lawmakers on the Human Services Committee will vote on the Working Class Tax, a tax on jobs. This tax would be mean Connecticut employers would have to pay the state $1 per hour for every...
View ArticleCommission Holds Closed-Door Meeting on the Struggling Connecticut Economy
The Connecticut Commission on Economic Competitiveness held a closed-door meeting Tuesday to discuss a report on the state's economy based on work from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The...
View ArticleStrange Servings on the Legislative Plate
In 2014, Connecticut made national news coverage with some “interesting” bill proposals such as banning whole milk from daycares to fight childhood obesity and regulating the volume of movie theaters...
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