Can Connecticut's economy be repaired?
Is there any hope for Connecticut's economy?
What can be done to make Connecticut a vibrant economy again?
Depending on what point of view you take Connecticut is a vast economic wasteland or it is one of the most prosperous socialist economies in the country.
If you are a Democrat your non stop command economy demands and laws have help to create a socialists dream of gun control, an excessive minimum wage, high taxes, a taking away of personal freedoms along with rampant illegal immigration with a more than generous welfare system. The legal system does not pertain to you or your party. Laws are meant to be broken. Political nepotism rules.
If you are a Republican you are thinking about moving out of state as fast as you can. You are supposedly always in the minority and have no voice or say in state government. The state economy remains near last or last in all economic development, job creation and business development categories. The state media is a feeding system for the Democrat Party thus their non objective reporting on all economic issues.
There is not really much being offered to change Connecticut's economy. Connecticut's legal Taxpayers and businesses realize they work only to support a bloated state government whose only concern is state management and union employees salaries, benefits and pensions. They also realize there is little they can do to address Connecticut's growing $100 billion dollars plus short and long term debt along with unfunded liabilities since the Democrat Party could care less about it. They also realize they have literally become indentured servants to Connecticut's state government.
Thus what can be done?
At this point literally nothing unless there is balance in state government. The Connecticut Democrat Party has been in control of the state house for 40 plus years and an almost equal time for the state senate. It is their political rule that has brought the state to its economic knees. It has been their corruption and pay to play schemes that have disrupted our economy and forced its citizens to leave.
Cut spending, cut taxes, we all know it falls on deaf ears. But it is what is necessary to get Connecticut to become a free economic system once again. Think about it if you dare to.
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Connecticut's State Pension Crisis
Hidden in the economic debacle created by the Connecticut Democrat Party is the ongoing state pension crisis. According to a new report released by the American Legislative Exchange Council Connecticut is dead last in total ratio pension funding in the country coming in at 20.28% of the money needed to fund the pensions, thus being underfunded by 80%. The unfunded pension liability amounts to $32,805 per person
in the state and 45.13% of Connecticut’s gross state product according to this report.
Connecticut assigns a very high rate of return of 6.9% to its State Employee Retirement System and an even higher 8% rate of return for its Teachers Retirement System. Both funds do not achieve this rate of return as far as I can research. With limited information to review I see that the Teachers Retirement System is seriously underfunded and their rate of return is also seriously understated. Therefore both funds are underfunded by $70 billion dollars. This debt will only grow in the future and is a massive part of the states yearly budget in costs. I estimate in the near future that due to the borrowing for these pensions along with the actual annual contributions the state makes to them and the pension payouts themselves, 20% or more of the state budget will account for employee pension costs.
Governor Lamont's solution like former Governor Malloy's solution is to push payments down the roads years from now and continue to estimate the same rates of return on the pension funds. Thus future generations will be bankrupted trying to pay for these pensions for a small minority of the workers of the state.
This current pension crisis should have been addressed in this legislative session. Obviously it was not. Where is the money going to come from in the future? How is this sustainable? What is coming next a new tax to pay for the state teacher and employee pensions?
Pushing payments years from now to pay for the funds just exaggerates the issue. Realistic rates of return along with self funding pensions should be immediately enacted. Negotiations need to be implemented to restructure pensions to stop these massive costs from bankrupting Connecticut. I think many legal citizens and legal taxpayers of the state are fed up with these ridiculous salaries, pensions and benefits that paid out yearly to suffice a ruling political elite of the state.
It is time to address Connecticut's state pension crisis today.
Connecticut assigns a very high rate of return of 6.9% to its State Employee Retirement System and an even higher 8% rate of return for its Teachers Retirement System. Both funds do not achieve this rate of return as far as I can research. With limited information to review I see that the Teachers Retirement System is seriously underfunded and their rate of return is also seriously understated. Therefore both funds are underfunded by $70 billion dollars. This debt will only grow in the future and is a massive part of the states yearly budget in costs. I estimate in the near future that due to the borrowing for these pensions along with the actual annual contributions the state makes to them and the pension payouts themselves, 20% or more of the state budget will account for employee pension costs.
Governor Lamont's solution like former Governor Malloy's solution is to push payments down the roads years from now and continue to estimate the same rates of return on the pension funds. Thus future generations will be bankrupted trying to pay for these pensions for a small minority of the workers of the state.
This current pension crisis should have been addressed in this legislative session. Obviously it was not. Where is the money going to come from in the future? How is this sustainable? What is coming next a new tax to pay for the state teacher and employee pensions?
Pushing payments years from now to pay for the funds just exaggerates the issue. Realistic rates of return along with self funding pensions should be immediately enacted. Negotiations need to be implemented to restructure pensions to stop these massive costs from bankrupting Connecticut. I think many legal citizens and legal taxpayers of the state are fed up with these ridiculous salaries, pensions and benefits that paid out yearly to suffice a ruling political elite of the state.
It is time to address Connecticut's state pension crisis today.
Friday, July 12, 2019
Connecticut Turnaround? Where?
Where is Connecticut's economic turnaround?
I am curious as I can't see what Governor Lamont sees nor what the Connecticut Democrat Party sees as far as an economic turnaround.
Where is the economic turnaround?
Is it in the higher taxes that will be going into effect on August 1st?
Is it in the banning of plastic shopping bags next year?
Is it in the higher business taxes that will be going into effect this year?
Is it in more businesses moving out of the state?
Is it in Connecticut being last and or near last in most economic and business categories in the country?
Is it in shoving tolls down the throats of Connecticut's drivers while raiding the Transportation fund and leaving our state roads and bridges in disrepair?
Is it in the time of recovery from one recession to another recession that Connecticut can never seem to get out of as compared to the rest of New England?
Is it in the amount of sanctuary cities Connecticut's Taxpayers have to support in the state?
Is it in the $100 billion dollars in short and long term debt along with unfunded liabilities the state has?
Is it in the net outflow of legal citizens moving out of Connecticut on a daily basis?
Where is Connecticut's economic turnaround?
Sorry I do not see it.
Governor Lamont is confused and offered nothing to rectify these issues in the unbalanced budget that he signed into law. We are now in the ninth year of economic failure and counting due to the Connecticut Democrat Party.
We do not have an economic turnaround. We have a great deal of economic misery instead.
I am curious as I can't see what Governor Lamont sees nor what the Connecticut Democrat Party sees as far as an economic turnaround.
Where is the economic turnaround?
Is it in the higher taxes that will be going into effect on August 1st?
Is it in the banning of plastic shopping bags next year?
Is it in the higher business taxes that will be going into effect this year?
Is it in more businesses moving out of the state?
Is it in Connecticut being last and or near last in most economic and business categories in the country?
Is it in shoving tolls down the throats of Connecticut's drivers while raiding the Transportation fund and leaving our state roads and bridges in disrepair?
Is it in the time of recovery from one recession to another recession that Connecticut can never seem to get out of as compared to the rest of New England?
Is it in the amount of sanctuary cities Connecticut's Taxpayers have to support in the state?
Is it in the $100 billion dollars in short and long term debt along with unfunded liabilities the state has?
Is it in the net outflow of legal citizens moving out of Connecticut on a daily basis?
Where is Connecticut's economic turnaround?
Sorry I do not see it.
Governor Lamont is confused and offered nothing to rectify these issues in the unbalanced budget that he signed into law. We are now in the ninth year of economic failure and counting due to the Connecticut Democrat Party.
We do not have an economic turnaround. We have a great deal of economic misery instead.
Wednesday, July 03, 2019
243 Years of Freedom July 4, 1776 - July 4, 2019
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
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