CT budget debate pits competing conservative, liberal groups

Recovery for All CT, a progressive coalition of labor, community and faith groups, is targeting the conservative think tank Yankee Institute over what it sees as its opposition to legislation supporting working people in Connecticut.

The coalition convened an online press conference Wednesday to call attention to two new reports critical of Yankee Institute's policy agendas over the years and some of its funders, who have also donated to organizations designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The critique comes as the debate around tax relief ramps up in the General Assembly with majority Democrats pushing for a new tax break for the working poor and a new state child tax credit, among othe proposals meant to help lower and middle income residents.

Recovery for All has advocated for higher taxes on the state's wealthiest residents as a path to economic equity and increased funding for social services. Yankee Institute's advocacy for regressive tax policies has been detrimental to that fight, coalition members said Wednesday.

“They have been the mouthpiece of the ultrawealthy in Connecticut, advocating for policies that provide kickbacks to the rich, that defund our schools, that cut vital services,” said Rob Baril, president of SEIU District 1199, which represents unionized nursing home workers.

Yankee Institute's website describes its mission as developing and advancing “free-market, limited-government solutions in Connecticut.” Carol Platt Liebau, the group's president, said the reports are “an attack on our proposals to empower people rather than government.”

“Instead of stooping to smears (many of them inaccurate), we hope Recovery for All will engage with us on the issues, and offer its ideas for improving the lives of people throughout our state,” Liebau said in an emailed statement Wednesday afternoon.

One of the reports outlines Yankee Institute's policy track record including support for eliminating personal and corporate income taxes and privating some state services, and opposition to paid family leave and increases to the state's minimum wages.

The other report delves into Yankee Institute's funding sources including receiving more than $3 million from DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, which have also given millions of dollars to hate groups including the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Center for

Security Policy, both of which promote anti-Muslim bigotry.

DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, entities funded in part by the Koch family, have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the conservative movement's fights against collective bargaining, climate policies and public schools. Koch Industries has recently come under fire for continuing to do business in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Given this, state Reps. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, and Anne Hughes, D-Easton, said lawmakers should be wary of Yankee Institute's advocacy on bills before the General Assembly.

“I urge my colleagues not to be fooled by the concept of 'Yankee, individualistic, scrappy, sound values' that its title suggests, but understand that this organization is a mouthpiece for national, right-wing, big money interests, not Connecticut's interests” Hughes said.