Sunday, May 03, 2020

The Economic Hole Of No Return For Connecticut?

Can Connecticut come back economically in 2020?  Or in 2021?  How about the election year of 2022?  Will this be the virus that seals our economic fate here in Connecticut once and for all?  The economic hole of no return for the state?  An economic recession that we can never come out of?
We are told constantly to stay home and stay safe.  When will be allowed out of our homes to resume normal economic activity?  Pick a date and pick a restriction according to our by the decree Governor and his non elected officials and advisory boards.
Connecticut seems to be a wanna be New York tagging along with their Governor to try to figure out what to do economically.  Connecticut in my opinion is much different than New York especially economically.  Although many Connecticut residents work in New York City,  Fairfield county is only one part of our state greatly different than for example Windham county.  With very few virus cases why was Windham county completely shut down economically?   An economic shutdown for the entire state was not necessary if there was some logical planning taken place by the Lamont Administration so as not to treat the state exactly the same.  One must remind the Governor that our state is just not Fairfield county with its gold coast along with its economically challenged cities such as Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven.  Connecticut has many defined rural areas and family run farms that are always an after thought to our state and are usually forgotten about.  Now since they have been shut down we see their economic problems.  For example our dairy industry must face massive losses.  Will they will survive in the long run?  I guess the Governor did not realize that cows produce milk daily and there has been an enormous amount of milk thrown out since his mandated shutdown.  The wasted milk also means a massive loss of revenue for these farms.  What is the plan for these farms if any to help them? 
Connecticut now has about a 20% to 22% unemployment rate due to the shut down.  One in five in the work force is out of work.  Down the road we will see the state's unemployment fund be completely depleted.  How much federal taxpayer monies will dumped into this fund?  How much higher will the state unemployment tax go up to for the remaining businesses left in the state to pay for unemployment benefits?  What was the economic logic in leaving large retail stores open while small retail stores were forced to close?   And how many of these same stores will reopen in the future?  
Connecticut's restaurant industry has been completely overhauled with massive restrictions placed upon them.  Their future is unknown and will be challenged if they are no longer allowed to operate at full capacity due to social distancing decrees.  Many will close for good in the short and long run.
Connecticut still has $145 billion dollars in short and long term debt along with unfunded liabilities.  The state budget is now massively out of balance due to the downturn in tax revenues.  Connecticut wants more federal tax monies to help them out even though our Congressional delegation has spent the last four years condemning all things President Trump.  Now they demand immediate action by him while billions of state dollars have been squandered over the years.
Connecticut's lack of emergency planning and years of fiscal mismanagement have come to an ugly head in 2020.  Lamont and his crew are starting their usual chant of raising taxes yet again to get the state out of this new and foreboding economic hole of no return.  And as usual there was no immediate action by Lamont in March to suspend collective bargaining in the state and cut state management and commissioners salaries (including his) along with other non essential state spending.  No short term plan other than "Stay home, stay safe". 
The virus has killed people in our state there is no denying it nor should it be taken lightly.  The stresses of losing family members is great especially with limited and or a lack of a funeral.  However people continue die from many other health related problems in the state daily.  Drug abuse and drug overdoses continue (although not spoken about in our controlled media).   We sadly can not control and or prevent deaths from occurring in our society. 
With the economic actions of the Lamont administration since March we may have been "safe at home"  but with some rational common sense our economic system could have continued in some capacity to have avoided a second great depression from taking place in our state as we see today.   Ned Lamont was supposedly such a successful business owner prior to being Governor.  Sadly he lacks any type of economic savvy or economic logic as Governor.  And he and his administration will forever be known as placing Connecticut into the economic hole of no return. 

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