Yankee Institute Profiled in Hartford Courant
HARTFORD – The Hartford Courant profiled the Yankee Institute for Public Policy in the wake of labor union allegations that the organization was somehow involved in hacking into the state e-mail system. Calling Yankee “the Little Think Tank That Roared”, the Courant delved into how 3.5 people are playing a growing role in Connecticut’s policy discussion.
In 2009 the Yankee Institute went through what Major League Baseball managers would call a “rebuilding year”, bring in new staff and sharpening its focus on pithy, thoughtful analysis of public policy issues and offering conservative alternatives to the conventional wisdom in Hartford. Since that time, Yankee has been playing to win. In February 2010, YI launched the CT Sunlight Project (http://www.ctsunlight.org) an electronic database of every state expenditure, salary, and pension payment. The site, which features more than 500,000 records, has been viewed more than one million times since its unveiling and generated hundreds of mentions in the national and statewide media. In the summer of 2010, data on municipalities and schools were added, bringing an unprecedented level of transparency to town halls across Connecticut.
Putting limited government principles into action, Yankee generated the first independent review of the Citizens’ Election Program, Connecticut’s unusual system for providing taxpayer dollars to political campaigns, and then joined the US Supreme Court case McComish v. Bennett in 2011 with an amicus brief opposing a key component of such programs. In June 2011, the Court ruled in our favor in a 5-4 decision.
The Hartford Courant profile highlights the effectiveness of our work over the last few years and points toward a very bright future for the Yankee Institute.
