Posted on 03/07/2017 8:24:26 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Government finance is now the greatest source of controversy in Connecticut, owing to billion-dollar deficits and an epic debt load that ensures high taxes for many years to come. In national politics, Connecticut is deep blue: Its entire congressional delegation is Democratic, and it hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 28 years. But the GOP has recently notched strong gains in the state legislature. Though it’s far from clear which party will prevail, the fight for control of state government will depend on who can better respond to broad public recognition that Connecticut needs a new fiscal model.
Many Connecticut conservatives cite the adoption of an income tax in 1991 as the beginning of the state’s woes. Up to that point, the Land of Steady Habits had an inspired run, poaching businesses and residents from overtaxed New York. Connecticut governor Lowell Weicker, a former Republican who served as an independent, worked out a deal with lawmakers: Government would impose a spending cap in exchange for the tax hike. But the state never fully implemented the former.
No one seriously believes that the state can grow its way out of its fiscal troubles. In four of the last six years, the Connecticut economy has ranked among the five slowest-growing of all American states. Wounds are still raw from General Electric’s announcement in January 2016 that it would relocate its corporate headquarters from Fairfield, Conn., to Boston. State officials are anxious that Aetna, a large insurance company that’s been based in Hartford for over 150 years, might decamp as well. In 2016, the state registered a net decline in population for the third year in a row. Families and corporations are right to speculate over what Connecticut’s fiscal future means for them. Ever-escalating pension liabilities and a structural budget deficit make it seem like only a matter of time before even New York looks like a bargain compared with Connecticut.
RELATED: Connecticut’s Progressive Nutmegs
When Malloy in early February released his budget proposal for fiscal year 2018, he technically made good on promises, which he had been making for months, of no new major tax hikes. But by cutting state aid to most towns and proposing that all localities start paying one-third of their teachers’ pension costs, which are currently a state expense, the budget will certainly lead to steep local property-tax increases if it becomes law.
Not all localities would lose out under the Malloy budget. Connecticut’s major cities stand to benefit handsomely from more school aid and other forms of financial assistance. That is the practical consequence of a redistributionary philosophy espoused by the governor: not only that wealthy households should fund safety-net programs for the low-income, but that affluent towns should send general-treasury support to their poorer urban peers. Malloy says that this is the right thing to do and that a brighter future for Connecticut requires that its cities be stronger.
The erosion of Connecticut’s suburban tax base is a more dire prospect than the continued weakness of its cities.
His urbanist vision is deeply flawed. Small-town Connecticut’s quality of life — the high-performing public schools, the classic housing stock, the opportunities for authentic local self-government — stacks up with that offered by any other American jurisdiction. Up to a point, it’s worth the price of tax bills that are higher than in most other states. At the same time, the suggestion that just one more “investment” would give Bridgeport, Waterbury, or Hartford the vibrancy of Boston or Houston is implausible. The erosion of Connecticut’s suburban tax base is a more dire prospect than the continued weakness of its cities.
What does this all mean politically? Since 2009, the Democrats’ advantage in the lower house of Connecticut’s general assembly has declined from 77 seats to seven. In this past election cycle, Republicans tied the Democrats in the state senate. Nationwide, Republicans claim 25 “trifectas” — control of a state’s governorship and both legislative houses. Within the next couple of years, Connecticut has a shot at becoming the 26th. A change in leadership will be necessary if Connecticut voters are serious about avoiding further decline.
— Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
“A related thread stated more people would leave, but due to falling housing values, they can’t get out from under their mortgages. Sounds like implosion to me.”
And what will eventually happen as people go further under water is that they will simply take what they have, toss the keys through their lender’s door, and move on. RATs continue to think that they can defy financial gravity while they curry favor with their public employees and their unions. Looks like that the “financial can” in CT is so badly bent up that they can’t kick it down the road much further.
Two Words: NO BAILOUT!
Being from the State of Connecticut I have seen NO reason to believe Connecticuts economic situation is going to change without a vast political change.
Most of the suburbs and rural towns are very conservative but the major cities are loaded with parasites and they tend to wash out our votes.
Maybe if the cities find out there is no more money for their boondoggles they’ll start voting Republican for a change.
That’s the only way we’re going to get out of this mess we’re in.
Also add in the Estate and Inheritance Taxes and it is a real PARTY. We own a couple of non-portable businesses and can’t leave this money pit. I fear we will be the last taxpayers standing here.
their houses are in the $500,00 range
We should let the Blue States die of their own “progressive” disease. It would make the point even to the dense young “skulls full of mush” at the universities when they would have to close because the politicians have run out of Other People’s Money.
I'm hoping that Republicans make inroads here and turn the situation around. I'd happily move away but my other options (if I want to keep my current job) is NY and NJ.
At some point, it will swing back. However, given how firmly it is stuck, it will likely take a political, economic, or natural catastrophe to jar it loose.
A scandal or disaster that incontrovertibly exposes both the incompetence and the moral and ethical bankruptcy of the Democrat Party and its politicians to California voters.
STOP WITH THIS “RED/BLUE” STUFF
Democrats USED TO BE Commie Red, until AlGore.
I have family/friends in Maine. We go up there to visit on occasion.
I fuel up at the eastern PA line before NY, then stay on the interstate and don’t stop for anything....Not fuel, food, lodging, nothing...not even to pee until I get the southern ME line. Then, I fuel back up, pee, get me some Moxie & Humpty Dumpty BBQ potato chips and I’m good to go the rest of the way. I have to go thru NY, CT and MA....none of em get a penny of my money, except for toll roads. Same thing on the way back.
I live here and I hate it. I make a good income, but if I moved and made the same income, I would be able to live like a king.
In this state, I don’t even consider buying a new vehicle or boat, because I don’t want the tax hit.
I don’t understand how home prices are so high here, they take forever to sell, in the past severak years at a huge loss.
RE: I don’t understand how home prices are so high here, they take forever to sell, in the past severak years at a huge loss.
Depends on the area of CT where you live. I think Greenwich, Stamford, Danbury ( those places where people commute to NYC to work ) is the one that PULLS the average prices in the state up.
The further you are from these communities, the cheaper ( but more difficult to sell ) they become.
My single family house in Colchester is 300,000. It would be 180k in many many other states.
Is a CT GOP any better than the CT democrat party, or just a timed-release version of the same ruin?
That was back when news was real news, such that it may be, and reported as such.
RE: Is a CT GOP any better than the CT democrat party, or just a timed-release version of the same ruin?
Look what the Republican Congress is proposing to replace Obamacare and you know the answer to the question.
Then e governor talked to Hillary who told her, “don’t sell the silverware, take it with you when you leave.”
However, it is not in the best interests of the party in rule, nor the willing and contributory accomplices in the media, as well as the three top state paid unions, do expose such.
Nor is it in the interests of the literal millions of illegal aliens do so, hence, it will be a while.
I am afraid Pelosi's neighborhood will first freeze over.
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