Tag: Yankee Institute

Report Finds Connecticut Still Has the Second-Highest State and Local Tax Burden

Bradley Vasoli

According to recent data from the center-right Tax Foundation, Connecticut taxpayers continue to shoulder nearly the highest revenue burdens of anyone in the U.S.

As stated in a report titled “State and Local Tax Burdens, Calendar Year 2022,” the average state resident paid 15.5 percent in combined state and local taxes last year. That places Connecticut in second among all states in that category, second only to New York which claims 15.9 percent of residents’ annual earnings on average. Neighboring Massachusetts and Rhode Island both have tax onuses under 12 percent, hovering around the national mean.

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Dueling Economic Narratives: Connecticut Dems Vaunt Higher Credit Rating; GOP Cites Poll Showing Residents Unhappy with Economy

Bradley Vasoli

While Democratic officials met news of Connecticut’s boosted credit rating effusively on Tuesday, Republicans drew attention to new survey results showing on-the-ground feelings about the economy overall aren’t so rosy.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P), a major New York City-based credit-rating agency, assigned the state’s general-obligation bonds a “positive” outlook; before the rating was merely “stable.” S&P attributed its upgrade to the state projecting it will accumulate a $3.31-billion fund balance in the next fiscal year, amounting to 15 percent of appropriations.

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Connecticut Gas Prices Rising Despite Tax Pause

Bradley Vasoli

Both Democrats and Republicans in Hartford worked for and celebrated the Connecticut gasoline-tax suspension that Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed in late March, but new data indicate its effect could be lessening.

The center-right Yankee Institute (YI) published an analysis on Saturday showing that the difference between gasoline costs in Connecticut and those in Massachusetts, which did not enact a similar gas-tax holiday, are narrowing.

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Connecticut State Employee Contracts Ratified

Bradley Vasoli

By a 22-13 vote, Connecticut’s state Senate on Friday ratified contracts with state workers estimated to cost taxpayers roughly $1.9 billion.

The Democrat-controlled state House of Representatives approved the agreements with the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) 96-52 the prior day. All House Democrats and only one House Republican, Thomas Delnicki (R-South Windsor), voted for the deals. The Senate vote came down along party lines.

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Nearly 3,000 State Workers in Connecticut Had Salaries Exceeding the Governor’s in 2021

Bradley Vasoli

A review of Connecticut’s salary records published by the center-right Yankee Institute (YI) Thursday indicated that 2,927 state employees received higher salaries than the governor in 2021.

State statute confers a $150,000 yearly salary on Gov. Ned Lamont (D). Approximately 2,000 state employees earned higher pay than him through 2017. Over the next three years, that number rose by nearly 1,000.

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Connecticut Fiscal Conservatives Warn Against SEBAC Contracts

Bradley Vasoli

The Yankee Institute (YI), Connecticut’s premier economically conservative think tank, is exhorting state lawmakers to reject contracts that the Lamont administration negotiated with the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC).

YI began warning against the eventual fiscal consequences of the agreements after the public-employee labor coalition started publicizing their major features in mid-March. Later that month, the SEBAC’s 15 unions approved the agreements and, on April 1, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) requested that the Democrat-controlled General Assembly ratify the deals, characterizing them as “responsible and fair.”

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Connecticut No Longer First in Personal Income Per Capita

Bradley Vasoli

New data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reveals that Connecticut is no longer first place among states in terms of per-capita personal income.

The Constitution State’s per-capita individual income exceeded every other states’ since 1987. Last year, however, Massachusetts outranked Connecticut regarding individuals’ mean income. The latter state’s residents averaged a yearly income of $82,475 each, whereas the former’s average earner got $82,082 annually. (The national average was $63,444.)

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Bill Would Give Legislators Access to Connecticut Residents’ Tax Returns

Bradley Vasoli
Kate Farrar, Michael Winkler rand Josh Elliot

Connecticut leftists are promoting legislation that would let lawmakers request and receive copies of any residents’ tax return.

Advocates for the bill are basing their case on “fairness and equality,” insisting that access to individuals’ financial information will help them improve tax policy from a progressive standpoint, i.e. claim more revenue from higher-income earners.

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Connecticut Public-Sector Unions to Get Costly Raises and Bonuses If Contracts Approved

Bradley Vasoli
Worker in restaurant kitchen

According to a brochure distributed by Connecticut’s public-sector-labor coalition, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) and the state’s unionized employees have negotiated contracts that will cost taxpayers plenty if ratified. 

Wins for each unionized worker would include $3,500 in bonuses and and three yearly wage hikes of 2.5 percent, which would be made retroactive to summer of 2021. About two-thirds of union-affiliated employees would also get “step” raises; i.e., elevation to the next pay rate. These bonuses and salary gains would also factor into future pension payments.

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Connecticut Bill Would Have Employers Pay Unemployment to Strikers

Bradley Vasoli
Ned Lamont

If Connecticut’s Democrat-run General Assembly and Governor Ned Lamont (D) approve a bill now before the Joint Committee on Labor and Public Employees, striking workers will gain the right to collect unemployment.

Current state law does not permit union strikers to collect jobless benefits, as eligibility requires having come into “unemployment through no fault of your own.” The legislation under consideration, sponsored by State Representatives Michael Winkler (D-Vernon), David Michel (D-Stamford) and Robyn Porter (D-Hamden) would, starting this October, allow strikers to get unemployment checks two weeks into a labor walkout.

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Proposal Would Let Connecticut Agencies Sue Employers and Bestow Proceeds on Unions

Bradley Vasoli
Michael Winkler

A bill in the Connecticut House of Representatives would allow the state to effectively nullify worker-employer agreements designed to prevent lawsuits and let state officials bestow some monetary awards on unions.

The legislation, sponsored by State Representative Michael Winkler (D-Vernon), would evade what it refers to as “forced arbitration agreements” and “allow employees to sue employers on behalf of the state after having waived their personal rights to sue.” 

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