It’s like beating a dead horse, yet I think the horse is worth beating again! So here goes.
Gov. Dan Malloy has proposed a budget that will include higher taxes and more spending. His rationalization is the $3.7 billion projected budget gap for the fiscal year. The current trajectory of the state is disconcerting and the budget will just continue the cycle of crushing deficits into the future. The population has remained basically static over the past 20 years, increasing on average .4% per year. Therefore, using simple math every tax bill will increase appreciably…depressing jobs, growth, personal spending, business profits & expansion, investment, and accelerating the flight of businesses, the wealthy and highly skilled people to states with lower taxes and less regulation .
State expenditures have grown dramatically during this same period, averaging 4.2% per year and taxes even faster. Almost every state, local tax and fee imaginable has grown in the past few years. State fuel, excise, utility, sales, real estate, and income taxes…dog, fishing, hunting, and vehicle licenses, and the hidden taxes of regulation et al. have in some cases skyrocketed…and the exodus of people and jobs continues. Nevertheless our new Governor is proposing more of the same.
The State has been controlled by Democrats. Our state’s representatives have been aggressively pro-higher taxes, anti-business and have supported greater intrusion into our lives. The results are clear and will continue. A few examples, Connecticut spends approximately 50% more per student on education than the national average, yet testing surfaces student achievement at the national average…when will our elected leaders deal with this reality and take steps to insure we are “getting what we are paying for”…and deal with the teacher’s union that ignores this glaring fact.
Another example worth addressing is the growth in size of the state’s government. Not that many years ago (approximately 25), the state employed about 26,000 people in contrast to United Technologies Corp. which employed 57,000. Today those numbers are upside down. The state’s payroll is around 57,000 while UTC’s in-state payroll is approximately 26,000 (to escape the aforementioned anti-business environment, and attract skilled/competent personnel). What added state services have we received from this astonishing growth?…name just three…and you will amaze your neighbors!
Hopefully you will decide as I have that a new course needs to be charted…one of job creation, appreciable spending reductions, the creation of a positive business environment, less government intrusion and deficit control. It would be refreshing to believe that new solutions and ideas which reverse the current trajectory get a hearing with the new Governor…maybe even a few might be implemented…or maybe Mr. Malloy should take the time to have lengthy conversations with Governors Christie, Daniels, Cuomo, Kasich and Jindal to name just a few.
Well done
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