States nationwide are facing the question of how to move toward a better future for all during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report asks that question for Connecticut, examining the economic data, the history, and the facts to point a way towards a better future for everyone.

The report finds: 

• Connecticut has continued to reduce its public investment in services people need and the structures such as education, healthcare, housing, and transportation upon which our communities depend.
• This reduction has held down economic growth, exacerbated income and wealth inequality by race and class, and produced a self-perpetuating cycle of movement further away from livable cities, safer communities and equal opportunity.
• This trend has been aggravated by Connecticut’s revenue structure, in which the wealthiest pay far lower effective rates in state and local taxes than other Connecticut families.
• States that took the opposite approach, increasing investments in public services and structures, have done far better in addressing economic challenges than states like Connecticut that relied primarily on cuts.
• Connecticut is well situated to make genuine progress in addressing its core economic problems by investing in the programs that improve people’s lives, the services that they need, and the public structures that provide for a community and an economy that works for everyone.