Ten years ago on April 2, 2016, I wrote a blog on layoffs in
Connecticut's state government.
(https://swickspeak.blogspot.com/2016/04/connecticuts-imploding-state-government.html).
In review of the same, it was a shock, even to me, as to how far economic conditions
in the once-proud Nutmeg State of Connecticut have sunk.
In 2016, there were
45,000 full time state employees. In addition, there were over 46,000 state
pension retirees in 2014 that cost about $1.6 billion dollars to the state in both short term and long term
liabilities (http://ctsunlight.org/pensions/).
Fast forward to 2026, and there are over 74,000 state employees, being
an increase of roughly 61% in
ten years. As of 2024, there were over 54,800 state pension retirees
which is
roughly an increase of 20% in ten years.
(https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/all-employees-state-government-in-connecticut-fed-data.html)
The costs of those retirees in 2024 were roughly $2.5 billion dollars in
both
short term and long-term liabilities, being an increase of roughly
67% (https://ctsunlight.org/pensions). Of course, logic and reason would
lead
one to believe that the added taxpayer spending is attributable to a
burgeoning
population. But mind us all, this is Connecticut where reason and logic
have no
place.
I sadly submit unto you that Connecticut's state population in the past
ten years has stayed stagnant with estimates being between 3.6 and 3.7 million
people (not counting illegal immigrants in the state). To accommodate this
stagnant population that is largely supported by a handful of billionaires, Connecticut's
state budget has increased in the past ten years by $7.5 billion dollars or
roughly 40%. The costs of salaries, pensions and benefits now are roughly
20-25% of the state budget.
The costs of living
have increased dramatically in the past ten years in Connecticut, with the
state now having the second highest electric rates in the country that are
marked up 20% as a “public benefit” to us all. Another evident result of the rot and decline of the state is
that the business-toxic climate has driven the best, brightest, and most
productive far from state borders. Major world-class players such as General Electric, Aetna, Alexion
Pharmaceuticals, United Technologies, Raytheon Technologies, Carrier, Otis,
Edible Arrangements, LEGO North America, Duracell, Stag Arms, Frontier
Communications, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Edgewell Personal Care, Schick, Unilever,
Bayer, Pfizer, UBS, RBS/NatWest, GE Capital, People’s United Bank, Bob’s
Stores, Eastern Mountain Sports, Lord & Taylor, Stanley Tool, Subway,
Odyssey Logistics, Rogers Corporation, Diageo North America, Pitney Bowes,
Xerox, ESPN, WWE, Charter/Spectrum, Connecticut Sun, Norwich Navigators, and
the Bridgeport Islanders are just a partial list of the businesses that have
either severely peeled back operations or left the state entirely. When
higher-paid private-sector jobholders are replaced by either low-paid workers or
those requiring state subsidies, taxes increase and genuine economic activity decreases.
This is a simple lesson that a high school Distributive Education student could
easily learn, but such lessons have ostensibly been lost on politicians for at
least a decade, without a care.
To
give more color
to the business-toxic climate of Connecticut, kindly bear in mind that
Connecticut
has one of the highest tax rates in the country as it taxes many
different
goods, services and occupations but still has between $100 and $150
billion
dollars in short and term debt along with unfunded liabilities. Powerful
economic development incentives granted under the OBBBA of 2025 are
summarily
ignored by politicians of both parties as they cower at the name of
"Trump" who enacted these incentives and spitefully persist in the
failed and costly and shady patterns of the past. Connecticut
technically has yet to come out of the
recession of 1991 as it has not and can not create new jobs in the
private
sector. The only new jobs that can be created are even more state
taxpayer
funded positions and unchecked, non-transparent, never to be paid back
non jobs paid through surreptitious exempt organizations, funded by
Connecticut
Taxpayers and hand-picked by the corrupted and should-be abolished
Connecticut
Department of Community and Economic Development. This sick and sordid
ecosystem
has been the norm of Connecticut, and if such were indeed beneficial, we
would not be seeing and living such poor results.
Is it somehow possible that somewhere in the not-too-distant future this false house of cards
will implode? How can the state maintain this exorbitant spending on
nothingness and survive economically? Is every one of the current and more than
74,000 state employees necessary? Has their productivity increased to the point
that the state somehow, despite the real horrific, economic statistics that are
posted year in and year out, are essential to the betterment of the state? Are
Connecticut Taxpayers missing something? State officials seem much more worried
to protect abortion, illegal immigrants, removing parental rights, mandating proper
photo ID to return cans and bottles (but not to vote), and the further erosion
and destruction of the remaining personal freedoms to legal state residents,
but seemingly will not give one iota of thought to what would be necessary to
fix the state economically.
And
how can it be
possible not to raise taxes to support this mess? Will the remaining
Connecticut Taxpayers sympathize with the state employee unions who
claim
high-income taxpayers do not pay enough? Or will many actually notice
how many
have moved to lower taxed states as they have been for years and
follow? How much more do they want the top 1% of taxpayers to pay? Does
anyone
consider if the handful of billionaires supporting the state will
finally throw
up their hands in disgust and leave? Does anyone in government ever even
consider these very real possibilities?
The state election
is fast approaching. And it is shaping up to be a repeat of the past 36 years
of elections in the state. Does any established politician in the state
recognize the seriousness of the state's economic problems? And are you really
better off than you were 10 years ago? 4 years ago? 2 years ago, and or
yesterday? For today and every day, for weeks, for months and for years,
Connecticut's state government continues to implode. Wasted economic resources
and tax dollars continue to be seen daily in our state economy.
As I have stated
many times now, Rome did burn many years ago. Connecticut burns daily to the
point of no economic return as I stated some ten years ago. And the fire has become much bigger. And virtually no
one gets that.
Who, or what will lead Connecticut from the abyss of fiscal oblivion?
It is a question in search of an answer for over a decade, exacerbated by the
fact that hitherto no one has been willing or able to provide such an answer. Again, I pray, May
God save the once great State of Connecticut.
