For many Connecticut families, the building blocks of economic security are crumbling, as family income stagnates. Connecticut is the only state in which the inflation adjusted income of the poorest 20% of families declined since the 1980s. The 5.1% increase in the incomes of the state's middle-income families since the late 1980s was the smallest percentage increase in any state. Connecticut's relative wealth is tempered by high costs of living and masks some of the widest disparities in income and wealth in the country. The gaps in real income between wealthy and poor families and between wealthy and middle-income families, have grown more in Connecticut than in any other state in the last two decades.

Connecticut policymakers have weakened the state's ability to respond to the economic crisis, slashing $3.3 billion from the current biennial budget from the levels necessary to maintain current services. The fact sheet suggests making some proven investments in the human capital of the state, including an overhaul of the state's economic development policies so that tax incentives and economic development subsidies are subject to rigorous review, increasing subsidies for high-quality child care, and avoiding state budget cuts that undermine the economy and reduce supports for working families and the unemployed. (July 2010)

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