Posted on 10/10/2005 12:43:22 PM PDT by Graybeard58
"The rich" in Connecticut are the official state pinata. When the budget goes into deficit, or when Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the socialist legislature want to raise spending by more than 9 percent to keep their special interests happy, or when they just feel like sticking it to the wealthy, they beat them with the stick of higher taxes and then scurry to pick up all the money that spills on the floor.
The rich do most of the taxpaying in this state. Upward of 55 percent of all income taxes come from the top 10 percent of income-earners. The rich also pay a good chunk of sales, property, real estate conveyance and many other taxes, and every penny of the death tax. To the Democrats, this is just the rich "paying their fair share."
The rich are a slow-moving target because they are few in number and politicians know the rich don't evoke much sympathy from other social classes. But fed up with tax policies based on envy, class warfare and political revenge, some of the rich in Connecticut are vowing to sit still no longer. They are making their most serious rumblings to date about designating their homes in other states as their primary residences to avoid not only Connecticut's punitive death tax but income, sales and most other taxes.
Repeated threats by the rich to relocate have been instrumental in staving off the so-called millionaires' tax, a levy that socialist Democrats have tried desperately to impose in recent years just to make their masters in the AFL-CIO happy. Instead, they imposed tax-law changes that will increase death-tax revenues, which hit $253 million in 2004-05, by $66.8 million this year, $138.9 million next year and $158.3 million the year after. Since the tax, with rates as high as 16 percent plus separate surcharges of 10 percent and 30 percent, is levied on estates of $2 million or more, it will end up hitting the rich harder than the millionaires' tax would have.
Belatedly, the rich have figured out they've been suckered. On the Gold Coast of Fairfield County, "a fair number" of wealthy people are thinking quite seriously about ways to avoid Connecticut taxes altogether, Rep. Livvy Floren, R-Greenwich, told an interviewer. Many also own homes in Florida, which is one of more than 30 states with more favorable estate-tax laws than Connecticut.
Rep. Floren and her GOP colleagues would like to roll back the tax before the exodus of the rich begins in earnest. House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, said Democrats might consider a revenue-neutral trade of the estate tax for the millionaires' tax, but that would add insult to financial injury to the rich. Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, took it a step further by daring the rich to leave the state: "People said in 1991 when the state income tax passed that all the wealthy people would leave the state. There's a certain amount of Chicken Little alarmism here."
But the Democrats play chicken with the rich at their own peril. Connecticut leads the nation in millionaires per capita. The rich own a lot of businesses that employ thousands upon thousands of people in "working families." They are also investors whose capital helps other companies create even more employment opportunities.
In a state badly lagging the rest of the country in economic performance and job creation, the last thing the government ought to be doing is antagonizing the people most able to reduce the ranks of the unemployed -- or increase them.
"But the Democrats play chicken with the rich at their own peril. Connecticut leads the nation in millionaires per capita. The rich own a lot of businesses that employ thousands upon thousands of people in "working families." They are also investors whose capital helps other companies create even more employment opportunities. "
Say goodbye to Conn. : )
Drive out the rich and the whole state will look like
Bridgeport.
the REAL pinatas in CT are the state employees. they are constantly having to make concessions, etc. and never get anything when things recover. right now they are about 6 years behind in where thier salaries ought to be because of concessions. they will never recoup, unlike the rich whose taxes decline when the economy improves (relatively speaking)
The "rich" can simply up and leave. A close friend in California did just that. He became so tired of paying for every unworkable, leftist scheme to come down the pike and THEN being scapegoated as "evil" on top of it, that he took his company and ~100 jobs to another state.
In addition, other successful friends and business contacts have also left to join him based on his glowing recommendation. What they all found was a lower cost of livig & a better business climate.
He hasn't looked back.
Let see we just came out of an economic downturn. Thousands of people in the private sector lost their jobs and many more now work at jobs that doesn't pay what they were making before. How many state workers received a cut in pay or benefits and how many were laid off. You still got your cost of living increase and many received raises. "They are 6 years behind salaries." They are some of the highest paid in the nation and have great benefits. I live and work in Connecticut. When it comes to business friendly, Connecticut is one of the worse. When my children graduate, I'm heading south. I won't be alone.
I moved 80% of my business to Tempe,AZ.
I maintain an office in Westlake Village, Ca. only to service my clients : )
The state employee unions (yes, even the cops) are the biggest suckers of the public teat. Coming from New York, I can tell you that the state would survive just fine without about 33% of current employees on the public dole.
"I moved 80% of my business to Tempe,AZ."
Well, then you must be evil [/s]
It's amazing how the socialists will happily kill the goose and spend the golden eggs.
California doesn't want businesses, it seems.
Baseball ended yesterday for me in the 18th inning.
I dislike eating canned tomatoes.
They are good in a stew.
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Atlas is going to shrug eventually...
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