Connecticut’s working families are struggling with threats of eviction, hunger, high unemployment, and skyrocketing racial and economic inequality.1 The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented economic crisis for the state’s most vulnerable communities, especially communities of color. Connecticut legislators are currently considering a set of progressive proposals that would repair the regressive tax structure, invest in local communities, and reduce the state’s extreme inequities.

These policies, while very popular with the public, are facing opposition from a vocal minority focused on protecting the interests of Connecticut’s corporations and the ultra wealthy. This vocal minority is advocating for a set of counter-proposals, designed to enrich the state’s most rich and powerful, at the expense of working families.

The Yankee Institute for Public Policy (YIPP) is a right-wing think tank in Hartford, Connecticut that is leading the charge on these regressive policies. YIPP is part of the conservative Koch brother-funded State Policy Network, which pushes policies that benefit the rich.2

Since 1984, YIPP has called for sizable tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations while proposing the state slash or privatize vital public services that working families depend on. This brief outlines the Yankee Institute’s most harmful policy recommendations while explaining what’s at stake for our communities if these policies are adopted.