These Are Meaningful Tax Cuts?

 Tax cuts are usually hailed by our elected officials as being manna from the heavens.  Tax cuts are finally voted on and then presented as being thoughtful and Utopian in nature.  When there are tax cuts In Connecticut,  it is an indicator that there has been over taxation taking place and a state election is on the horizon.  In the case of the infinitesimal tax cuts that were given to Connecticut Taxpayers this year, it shows again the imbalance in economic reality for Connecticut's elected officials and for the Connecticut Taxpayers who must pay for Connecticut's ineffective, inept, bloated and corrupted state government.

This year's "bipartisan" state income tax cuts were comical in nature given the Democrat Party runaway inflation and loss of personal wealth Connecticut Taxpayers had to endure since Democrat President Biden took office in 2021.  The state income tax cuts may be summarized as follows:  A family of four earning $125,000 a year will get a $600 cut in taxes, a single-parent family with two children earning $80,000 a year will get a $300 cut in taxes, a single man or woman earning $40,000 a year will get a $250 cut in taxes, and a single parent with one child earning $30,000 a year a year will get a $220 cut in taxes.  Connecticut's Governor "King Ned Lamont, the Unaccountable" expressed great joy for these tax cuts.  Both parties commented on the importance and great tax cuts that were passed as well.  Placing these cuts into perspective, the last announcement of Ned Lamont's yearly income was a yearly total of $54,000,000 publicly or roughly $147,945 a day.  His income is not disclosed as to how it was earned as the public was not shown the actual tax return nor can gain transparency into it either.  Nor does it shed light on "The Unaccountable's" financial family benefit from SEC-verified documents reflecting interests owned in secret tax havens. In juxtaposition, these puny tax cuts in no way, shape, or form will economically help Connecticut's Taxpayers, since the unending runaway inflation of the Democrat Party rolls on unabated and unchecked in 2023. 

Placing another perspective on these tax cuts, how do they promote a more "tax friendly" state?  There was no meaningful tax reform passed in 2023.  Connecticut still ranks as a top five- highest taxed state in the country along with a bottom-five state in business and economic development.  Connecticut Taxpayers monies are given away daily in futile programs that supposedly create jobs, get politically connected companies to move into the state and to invest into companies, some of which have documented political connections to Ned Lamont's family hedge fund.  Can we draw a possible parallel to the Governor's $147,945. daily income to some of the Connecticut Taxpayers tax monies?  We will never know as that is forbidden to be seen nor investigated by Connecticut's largely obedient  and fawning  state run media.

What will you do with your tax cut for the year?  In the opinion of many not much, as it does little to offset the Democrat Party induced runaway inflation you must deal with on a daily basis.  Empty promises, a lack of transparency, a lack of accountability, a lack of ethics and daily incoherent economic gibberish is the "real"tax cut you get as a Connecticut Taxpayer governed by multi-millionaire politicians like Ned Lamont.  No more and much less.  Remember that $147,945 daily your Governor is making as you toil day-to-day being a honest Connecticut Taxpayer getting your $600 or less in tax cuts.  Connecticut's economic and governmental failures live on for another year , as it is 1776 all over again.

Connecticut's Constant and Continual Debt Crisis

Democrat Connecticut's euphoria of its recently passed $51.1 billion dollar "we cut taxes!" biennial budget is endemic of the 33 year political tango of fiscal denial where the state will certainly face fiscal Armageddon in the near future.  Contrary to the shouts of joy from Ned Lamont and his Connecticut Democrat Party, Connecticut has a massive spending and debt problem.  This economic downward spiral started with the advent of the Utopian state income tax in 1990-91 in the opinion of many. Debts continue to pile up for Connecticut to a point of no return.

How does a state as small as Connecticut and with as small a population of legal citizens as Connecticut, spend as much as it does?  Yearly,  the state spends a massive amount of money each year on state employee salaries, benefits and pensions for both its management and non management employees along with interest on its' debt.  It also has borrowed and bonded enormous sums of money.  Bonds get paid off and then are immediately renewed into new bonds.  It is fascinating to see that Connecticut will spend a mere $823.3 million dollars of Connecticut taxpayers monies in its new budget for "economic development". Much of this bulbous sum will be uselessly paid to a failed and non-transparent "quasi-public" entity oxymoronically known as the "Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development". Even with this massive amount of money that is spent for such "economic development", Connecticut continues to rank at the bottom or near the bottom in most business and economic categories in the country, and still can not pull itself out of the 2008 recession level of job formation, since so many businesses have closed and or moved out of state.

What is Connecticut's actual debt?  I can only estimate it since hard figures seem to be in short supply when analyzing this debt.   In this year's budget (https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/OPM/Budget/2024_2025_Biennial_Budget/Budget_WebPage/GovBudget_2024-25_Final-Web-Version.pdf-A18,19)  the summary of principal and interest that the state has outstanding through 2043 for bonding functions is a mere $24,174,979,627 billion dollars.  There is also outstanding principal and interest on this fiscal nut through 2043 for special tax obligations is $9,935,799,580 billion dollars.  It is difficult to find more figures from the state budget as to a "true" amount of how much actual short and long term debt along with unfunded liabilities exist.  Estimates may range from $100 to $150 billion dollars.  Here, the major problem is the actual amount of unfunded state pension debt.  How much is it?  Does anyone know? This was magically resolved by an economically irrational and fiscally illiterate Democrat Party plan to lower current payments and have future generations figure out how to pay for it.  State pension reform seems to be an issue that one is forbidden to discuss in the state legislature by either political party, as both parties are on record for cheering this faux "pension reform", neither willing to bite the bullet necessary to change this drastically bad course.

What is the plan (if any) to pay off this debt?  I have seen nothing mentioned about it over the years.  Connecticut spends a massive amount of money each year.  There would seem to be a great deal of wasted spending in the budget each year also since there is an excessive amount of debt in the state.  The state budget is also unexamined at any real length since the Connecticut Democrat Party introduces it with little time to even read the hundreds of pages of accounting information and check for accurate figures at the last minutes of the legislative session.  The marching orders are simple: Just vote on it and make sure the politically connected of Connecticut are rewarded and have their palms greased by grants, subsidies and other types of goodies funded by Connecticut Taxpayers with no oversight or accountability.  These are the same taxpayers who have absolutely no say whatsoever in where their hard earned monies go.   Taxpayer- be-damned seems to have been the common theme of the Democrat Party controlled State Legislature for years now.  It is truly taxation without representation and the identical reason as to why the Colonists threw the tea in the river in Boston some years ago.  It is 1776 all over again.

Connecticut's Failed "Two-State Solution"

 

Connecticut is a tale of two states.  One tale presents an incredible Utopian view of the state where there is economic and personal freedom, prosperity, law and order, low taxes, a state government that is completely transparent, checks and balances, flourishing businesses in a conducive environment, a great environment to raise children due to a wholesome and devoted public education system and a whole lot more!  The other tale represents a much more realistic view of a lack of economic and personal freedoms, economic recession, a difficult business-hostile environment, economic turmoil, rampant crime, theft and murders, one of the highest tax rates in the country, a total and defiant lack of transparency in state government corrupted without checks and balances, businesses moving out of state and or going bankrupt, a horrific environment to raise children in with liberal mind control and gender change as the curriculum, and sadly, a whole lot more.

Depending upon your political point of view, Connecticut's two state solution allows one side to control most aspects of life in the state.  The other side has a daily battle to survive in an obvious socialistic state as they fight for economic and personal freedom.  To an outsider, and to those actually living and working in the state, one wonders most of the time why incoherent gibberish is deemed as truths and facts in the state.  This past legislative session in the opinion of many made it clear that Connecticut is truly a tale of two states.  A state for the ruling political elite, and a state for the economic slaves called Taxpayers who are forced, by law, to support this dysfunctional and corrupted mess called state government.

Since the advent of the pie-in-the-sky state income tax, we have all been told how much greater Connecticut would be with a stable source of revenue coming in.  And 33 years later, Connecticut is still pretty much in a nonstop economic recession with a net migration of population moving out of the state, businesses bankrupted and or moving out, a excessively high tax rate, a poor infrastructure,  rampant crime, theft and murders, an illegal drug crisis and many more issues that truly impact the quality of life in the state.  This legislative session again presented the two states of Connecticut clearly with massive bills being voted upon without the ability to read them and or know what was in them, more money being thrown at social issues as it has been for 33 years to correct them, more thrown at the desperate attempt to keep young people in the state, and the never decreasing state spending that always solves the state's problems (when it never has).  The pox of government pensions was resolved magically through a Democrat Party plan by just paying less now and forcing future generations to figure out how to pay for them, later.  Somehow it saves money along the lines of what happens when one pays the minimum due on a credit card each month,  but who cares anyways?   And this legislative session confirms once again how badly Connecticut state government operates and works for the entire nation to see.

In the opinion of many the only resolution to Connecticut's two states is simplistic.  Move out. Move out of Connecticut if you are one of the economic slaves called Taxpayers who are forced by law to support this dysfunctional mess.  Many have already, especially those who are receiving a state taxpayer funded pensions that now laugh at those remaining in Connecticut to pay those pensions. Move to a more free state and a lower taxed state, because state government shows no care for you, anyway.  Move to a state that allows for a better quality of life.  It is not Connecticut by any means.  Connecticut has become a state where a King-like Unaccountable Democrat Governor can use the state as his families personal profit making tool with zero transparency.  It has become a state where local towns no longer can control their zoning laws or property planning.  It has become truly a state that has raped its economic resources to a point of no return.  And it is 1776 all over again. 

The Connecticut Courtship of Communism

 What is communism?  Communism is defined as "a theory advocating the elimination of private property".  Communism is a failed political system in which its citizens have no rights,  possessions nor freedoms.  Communism is a failed political system where an elite ruling class own all the possessions of the economy having freedom and money and while dictating to others what they can and or cannot have.  Communism is hated by most of the citizens in formerly Communist countries such as Czech Republic, East Germany, Poland and Hungary to name just a few.  The past two weeks I had an opportunity to travel to several former Communist Eastern European countries and experienced first hand what is actually going on there.  Freedom is alive and well in these countries and there is still a great hatred of all things Communist from their past history.  Americans could learn a great deal by this type of travel and experience.

Freedom is a precious gift that is taken away completely by Communism.  In these former Communist countries I heard many stories of life under Communist rule.  The stories in some cases were horrific and there is great hatred towards the former regimes.  Torture chambers, deaths, the splitting of families, families forced to move losing their land, farms and homes,  personal property seized for "the good of the country", Russian invasions of Czechoslovakia and Hungary while citizens wanted freedom, and other horrors were part of everyday life in these countries.  I learned of a Hungarian family that was forced to buy back their home they built and paid for when their country became "free".  I saw the elegant Communist buildings of the ruling elite while citizens were forced to live in literal slums.  I saw the history of Communism first hand.  I saw the beginnings of economic freedom that are still being developed 30 years later in these same countries even though they have high tax rates.  I see how their high tax rates and excessive social services especially in Hungary may negate its growth in the future at their current levels (27% VAT tax and a 33% social type income tax-flat rate).  But most of all I saw that people treasure their freedom and still look at America as a beacon of hope for economic prosperity, economic freedom and wealth.  This is undeniable there.

Freedom is a precious gift that continues to be eroded in Connecticut.  A sickening group of legislative bills were presented this session that clearly sync with Communist ideas and theories.  I have written about them in the past.  For example the constant global warming, climate change rhetoric of the left now takes a new twist by trying to make the state somehow become "carbon net zero" in a few years.  The freedom to heat and cool your homes as you choose is basically stripped away with this type of law and legislation being force fed by Connecticut Democrats.  The nightmare of new zoning laws that pretty much strip land owners their personal property rights is alive and well with the new zoning regulations being dictated by an non elected zoning "czar" who will dictate what can and can not be built in certain areas of the town you live in.  The illegal stifling of the freedom of speech and the First Amendment is proffered by a group of imperious and Constitutionally-illiterate legislators under the guise of preventing "gaslighting and abuses". Guns as we know well in Connecticut should be taken out of law abiding citizens hands and handled only by criminals and certain police officers (if any are left in the state) through tough "gun control" bills that are loved by Connecticut Democrats in Crime Free Democrat Connecticut.  There are also the perpetual cries of more money thrown at education, poverty, drug abuse, and other assorted social issues that remain perpetually unresolved.  Voting will now become even more meaningless now with literally unlimited voting and "ranked choice" voting that strips away yet another freedom you used to enjoy. To me and many others these bills and an oppressive one party Democrat Party rule led by an unaccountable King-like multi millionaire Governor with no transparency, brings us a new form of Communism to Connecticut.   

But Connecticut's form of Communism (even though you are not supposed to call it that) is pretty much the same type that former Russian Eastern European countries dealt with minus the tortures and deaths that ensued.  But please put a pin there. One can also argue that the deaths by criminal shootings occurring literally on a daily basis in Connecticut are equivalent to the tortures and deaths abroad especially in the inner cities, coupled with a flourishing illegal drug trade transacted on a daily basis.  Yet crime is somehow down in the state and prisons are now empty.  What a bunch of Communist-driven lies.  What a failed government.  Freedom has never been free. And we see even more clearly a new 1776 happening all over again if it is not too late for Connecticut.  I wonder if I am only one who can see this?