SEBAC: Prove It or Apologize

Posted on Jun 20, 2011 in Press HARTFORD – Fergus Cullen, Executive Director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, issues the following statement in response to SEBAC’s complaint to the Attorney General: “There are two groups of people in Connecticut: Those who enjoy the security, high pay, and generous benefits of government jobs – and the rest of us who pay for them. The unions think state employees deserve...
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24 Retirees Make More than Governor

Posted on Apr 7, 2011 in Accountability and Transparency, Data, Press, Research HARTFORD – Pensions for two dozen retired state employees exceeded the governor’s salary of $150,000 in 2010, according to new data posted to the Yankee Institute’s CT Sunlight Project (www.ctsunlight.org). A total of 378 retired state workers received pensions of more than $100,000 last year. That’s up from 175 individuals in 2008 and 299 retirees in 2009. In all, the state of...
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Let Voters Decide, Not Gov’t

Posted on Mar 27, 2011 in Press by Nick Dranias and Fergus Cullen No one particularly likes negative political ads. Having them paid for with tax dollars is worse. But what’s most offensive is when government uses public funds to help some candidates while discouraging others from speaking to voters. That’s what happens in campaigns for state offices in Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, and six other states with so-called...
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Jepsen, Lamont Join McComish

Posted on Mar 17, 2011 in Press U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Free Speech Case Affecting Connecticut In 10 Days HARTFORD – Oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court in McComish v Bennett, an important free speech case concerning taxpayer funded political campaigns, are scheduled for Monday, March 28. Underscoring the case’s relevance to Connecticut, Attorney General George Jepsen and former candidate Ned Lamont...
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1,126 paid more than the Governor

Posted on Mar 9, 2011 in Press HARTFORD – The Yankee Institute announced that it has posted 2010 payroll data for all state employees at CTSunlight.org. The data shows that 1,126 state employees earned more than the governor’s salary of $150,000 last year. “This data is especially relevant now, when Gov. Malloy is seeking $1 billion in concessions from state employees and when many states are reassessing state employee...
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E-Gov Could Cut Costs

Posted on Jan 19, 2011 in Press Making state government work better is now the job of Gov. Dan Malloy and his administration. Combined with their need to confront the state’s $3.4 billion budget deficit, Mr. Malloy and his team should turn to increasingly important tools of e-governance to make state services more convenient for citizens and less expensive for taxpayers. E-governance, or the use of new technology to make...
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US Supreme Court to Hear McComish

Posted on Dec 1, 2010 in Press HARTFORD – The United States Supreme Court has granted a petition supported by the Yankee Institute and will review a free speech case challenging the constitutionality of giving taxpayer money to political candidates. “The U.S. Supreme Court accepts less than two percent of cases appealed to it, so the Court’s decision to take this case for review is a big deal with national...
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Simmons Featured Courant Columnist

Posted on Oct 18, 2010 in Press HARTFORD – Newly-elected Yankee Institute Board Member Robert R. “Rob” Simmons is serving as a special guest columnist with the Hartford Courant each Sunday until Election Day 2010. The Vietnam veteran, former member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and three-term Congressman will be joined with former gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont to opine on the state of...
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Yankee Petitions US Supreme Court

Posted on Oct 3, 2010 in Press HARTFORD – The Yankee Institute has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the court to review McComish v. Bennett, an Arizona free speech case challenging the constitutionality of so-called “matching grants” by which taxpayer money is given to certain political candidates. The case is relevant to Connecticut because both Dan Malloy, a Democrat, and Mike Fedele, a...
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A Presidential Tax Cut for Liberal Elite

Posted on Sep 20, 2010 in Blog, Press by Dr. Lewis Andrews As the Bush tax cuts become a central issue of the midterm elections, more and more people are asking why President Obama, in refusing to extend them for “the rich,” has defined the upper income limit for middle class singles as $200,000 and for families as $250,000? How did the president and his party ever get the idea that $200,000 to $250,000 is a “middle...
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