Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, And Your Private Equity Investors

 For many years, the poor beleaguered Connecticut taxpayer has been lectured to by their morally-superior Connecticut politicians and representatives as to how the poor beleaguered Connecticut economy is stagnant because there is not enough “workforce housing” or “affordable  housing” in order to house workers that are needed to make businesses grow.  Lapdog and pandering “business leader” organizations such as the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (“CBIA”) that are influenced heavily by state directives and paid lobbyists, parrot these “economic assessments” giving them a false air of objectivity and technical soundness. If all of that is not bad enough, “white guilt”- manufacturing assemblies of uncertain form such as “Desegregate CT” and the “Open Communities Alliance” shame and berate innocent homeowners in fine and clean communities for “living on all of that space that they do not need.” It has been nothing but an incessant barrage from all state-connected sources telling you, the citizen, that citizen that never asked for anything from Connecticut government other than the basics it cannot deliver, that you are the enemy, and politics are the solution.

First, in my decades of observation of Connecticut and in being a Professor of Economics and a financial professional, no one has yet to see this burgeoning demand for housing. If there truly was an economic energy in Connecticut with a lack of housing, we would see state motels continually full. We would see campers and vans parked in lines on our avenues with people “camping out” waiting for that next elusive home or apartment to appear. We would see four our five young people routinely crammed in one-bedroom apartments in Hartford. But strangely we see none of that. As a pure matter of fact, we are seeing exactly the opposite. We see our unsafe and decrepit cities continually exhibiting new levels of decay. We see an exodus from the cities due to an economic hardening of the arteries. https://hartfordbusiness.com/article/major-hartford-real-estate-investor-faces-third-office-building-foreclosure/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Hartford%20investor%20faces%20third%20office%20foreclosure%20%7C%20Medical%20Billing%20firm%20moves%20HQ%20to%20CT&utm_campaign=HBJ%20Today%20112125 We see major business depart for serious states run by adults: https://hartfordbusiness.com/article/edgewell-to-close-milford-schick-plant-cut-293-jobs-as-part-of-broad-restructuring/ We see continual crime in what I call “Crime-Free Democrat Connecticut”. We see a corrupt and inept Department of Economic and Community Development wasting millions of dollars, now under Federal investigation. But yet, we never hear of any champion of “workforce housing” ever successfully explain why destroying neighborhoods and turning that part of suburban and rural-residential Connecticut into a steroidal version of “Father Panik Village-The Sequel” will generate organic economic growth and make things wonderful for all.

We realize that cars cannot run without fuel and people cannot build muscle on starvation diets, yet somehow with the Magical-Mystical Connecticut Plan Of "Economic Diversity” this will all take care of itself.Unfortunately, nothing could ever be farther from the truth. First, let us examine the concept of “Economic Diversity” that every Connecticut Democrat wishes to slam down your throat.

Unfortunately, there is and can never be no diversity in “economic diversity.” This is evident when one reads the monstrous and economically irrational Connecticut Bill (“Bill,” HB 8002) that was recently passed by the economically illiterate Connecticut State Legislature. There is not much to like—if anything—about this Bill, which is somehow named “AN ACT CONCERNING HOUSING GROWTH” (https://www.cga.ct.gov/2025/TOB/H/PDF/2025HB-08002-R00-HB.PDF) with said Bill forcing Connecticut’s 169 towns to achieve this nebulous concept of “economic diversity.” The Bill was forced down Connecticut taxpayers’ throats with no public hearing, no public input, and in many cases without even being read by members of the legislature. It essentially creates a false narrative that Connecticut’s 169 towns and cities must follow. The language of the Bill is a garbled mess of potentially litigious rhetoric but it is quite evident that its real effect is to eliminate local planning and zoning commissions from ruling over their own cities and towns and remove people from the very property that they worked so hard to own. Local dominion has been stripped from communities by the state with the creation of “Priority Housing Development Zones” allowing higher population densities by decree. These zones allow four units per acre for single-family homes, six units for duplexes and townhouses, and ten or more for multifamily properties. Projects of this size will no longer require local hearings, meaning local property owners near these projects will no longer have any real say over what happens around their own properties. In brief, one day a homeowner will open his front door and see a housing monstrosity going up across the street, and he will be powerless to stop it or raise an objection.

But recall: This Bill is engendered by those dear souls that think it is best for you to not own the vehicle of your choice, let alone own any vehicle at all. That said, these dear souls wish to provide public transit for you, wherever you may be. The Bill leans on the cure-all of “transit-oriented districts” that must be approved by the state. These districts are clustered around taxpayer-subsidized transit, such as near-empty buses running around the clock and “reliable” trains that will transport workers to jobs in parts unknown at this time. This costly exercise will provide the same results as the illustrious CTfastrak to nowhere from New Britain to Hartford—a huge waste of taxpayers’ money and, many argue, unsafe to ride. But when it comes to another union project, these dear souls cater to their largest voting bloc and continually roll over and play dead, (and you as usual, can be damned).

Some of the evident problems with the Bill that impact many towns and cities in the state are laid out in legislative analysis (https://www.cga.ct.gov/2025/BA/PDF/2025HB-08002-R00SS1-BA.PDF), but even that state-manufactured source raises more questions than answers. For example, who runs a “Fair Rent Commission”? Is it an elected commission? What exactly is a “fair” rent? Is it free monthly rent? Ten dollars a month? Or a state-approved number pulled from the sky that, as usual, completely disregards the real costs of rental property such as property taxes, maintenance, and insurance? Who pays for the costs of this Fair Rent Commission? Will landlords be forced to foreclose and walk away from their properties as they cannot support them through choking legislation? Who cares? Your state Legislature is working diligently with you in mind! Look forward to higher taxes, increased crime, and an added social service burden, because it is your taxpayer duty to support whom your Legislature deems you must.

Then we see the concept of a “Municipal Goal.” What is it, and how is it derived? Who has the final say on it? Are all Municipal Goals effectively the same thing as “economic diversity”? How can Municipal Goals be achieved if there is none of this magical “economic diversity” taking place in that municipality? Again, look forward to higher taxes, increased crime, and an added social service burden, because it is your taxpayer duty to support whom your Legislature deems you must.

Beyond that, there are the inevitable downstream costs that are never  honestly addressed. Who pays for the additional costs of public education when all these supposedly new families with children move into a town? Class sizes, staffing, school buildings, special education needs—none of this is free. How many of the people coming in are legal? Who cares? The Legislature knows better than you, anyway. Who pays for the additional costs of road infrastructure and the increased traffic with all these supposedly new residents? Or will these new people be told they cannot own personal vehicles and must rely solely on public transportation? Again, look forward to higher taxes, increased crime, and an added social service burden, because it is your taxpayer duty to support whom your Legislature deems you must.

This Bill is a massive power grab and will be yet another force pushing Connecticut taxpayers to move out of the state, since they will no longer have meaningful control over their own property. It helps create a new layer of state bureaucracy where unelected, Democrat Party–connected individuals and businesses once again make decisions for Connecticut taxpayers. More failed state-run "somethingCT" programs with no transparency and no accountability are on the way. Again, look forward to higher taxes, increased crime, and an added social service burden, because it is your taxpayer duty to support whom your Legislature deems you must.

But finally, we are seeing the real reasons for this dastardly and nonsensical plan to destroy the last remnants of life as we know it in the State of Connecticut: That reason is, The Lamont Family. On the 11/20 edition of THIRTY WITH TONY, my friend and colleague Tony De Angelo, a weekly contributor to the Lee Elci Show on WJJF 94.9FM produced a riveting and documented show with extensive exhibits clearly walking us through the real reason behind why the fabric of the state is being ripped asunder purely by the real mission of Ned and Ann Lamont which is to capitalize Connecticut for their benefit using a sophisticated structure of nonprofit organizations and offshore tax havens. We all know that Tony has documented this situation for years. However we find on this show that the Republican Party admits they have known of this situation as well, but have never mentioned anything about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNWCrtUXAog

But always keep in mind that it is not too late to fight back. The Republican Party, along with ordinary citizens, needs to challenge this in the legal and court system and question the legality of stripping local control over private property from lawful property owners. Whosoever the Republican candidate of Governor is, must finally call out the blatant and sickening Lamont corruption and finally assume the role of an adult, otherwise please save our time and energy and do not even bother to run. Whosoever the Republican candidate for Governor must declare he or she will sign an Executive Order on Day 1 symbolically setting the lead to obliterate HB 8002, for once and for all, unions be damned. 

This is the reality of HB 8002: a Bill that will continue the rape of personal freedoms of those lawful citizens who remain. The Connecticut Democrat Party owns this new economic nightmare and the economic pain it will inflict on Connecticut taxpayers while trying to achieve its absurd, pointless, and unachievable vision of “economic diversity.” Meanwhile, the Republicans are in the “Last Chance Saloon” to right the wrongs by being bold and forthright which is uncharted territory for them.

For any meaningful change to the horrific, putrid, wreckage HB 8002 will cause, all of this must happen. It is either a beginning, or an end, and it is entirely up to the people who are there at this moment.