Deja Vu All Over Again. Part 3. A Taxpayer Never Gets a Break in The Land of Steady Habits

Connecticut is a state known by many names. The Nutmeg State. The Gateway to New England. The Constitution State. But perhaps the most apt name for Connecticut over the past few decades is the Land of Steady Habits. This name is incredibly apt and deserved as the steadiest of habits for Connecticut has been its insatiable desire to tax, to spend, and to add to its bulbous and inept Administrative State in grotesque proportions. Again, Taxpayer be damned.
Week in and week out and year and year out, Connecticut Taxpayers do not get a break from paying excessive, new, and higher taxes coupled with the daily fear of crime and having their vehicles broken into and or stolen. The Legislative session of 2024 arrogantly signaled to Connecticut Taxpayers that there will be no respite from paying excessive, new and higher taxes any time soon, and no respite from living with the daily fear of crime and/or having their vehicles broken into and or stolen. Rather, Connecticut Taxpayers received more of the same in review of just some of the brutal bills that will end up costing Connecticut Taxpayers more in taxes and the costs of goods and services they must purchase, thanks to the arrogant Connecticut Democrat Party.
As discussed last week, the horrific HB 5431 "AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE STABILIZATION SUPPORT AND ARPA REPLACEMENT FUND" did indeed pass. Unbelievably, it does mandate for Connecticut Taxpayers to pay for unemployment benefits for striking workers. Why did this pass? Why has the definition of being unemployed changed? Further, why does the burden in the Land of Steady Habits never shift from off the backs of the private sector and small business?
But unfortunately, the oppression does not stop there. These same beleaguered small businesses will now see increased costs from HB 5005 "AN ACT STUDYING PAID SICK DAYS" that expands the types of employees that receive annual paid sick leave. It will also gratuitously expand the definition of “family members” for family leave purposes. This Act will also increase the rate at which leave accrues and broaden the diverse ways leave days can be used. These changes will of course cause an increase in the costs of operating a business which will only be passed on to consumers in the form of higher costs for goods and services. Again, why is there yet one other job-killing business-hostile policy lifted on to the backs of tired and poor taxpayers and small businesses? Yet one is supposed to believe that this Democrat Party-driven policy is a great benefit and blessing to the masses, and the shrinking coffers of the private sector can be damned.
Of course, in Connecticut’s Land of Steady Habits there are never (ever) any proposals from the legislature to lower taxes, cut, cap and end pensions, eliminate "quasi-public" organizations, or to otherwise shrink and streamline the Connecticut Administrative State. But predictably, we see the opposite. As a matter of social justice and right, several bills were brought forth demanding new and higher taxes and or increases in capital gains. After all, this is the Land of Steady Habits! It is the habitual hissing and popping of a broken record, repeating and repeating the same old refrain. More of what we have heard about for the past 34 years. More money will solve all of Connecticut's social ills (like crime), more money is needed for failing schools, more money is needed for underpaid Connecticut state unionized employees, more money is needed for the big, dangerous and corrupt cities such as Bridgeport and New Haven. The list is always endless, and the results are always horrific since nothing is ever mentioned in the state-run media about The Land of Steady Habits having $100 to $150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt along with a myriad of unfunded liabilities.
What do Connecticut Taxpayers really get for a $26 billion dollar plus yearly budget? What do Connecticut Taxpayers really receive for over $100 to $150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities? Connecticut can't declare bankruptcy. It should, given its current insolvent economic state that has grown worse since the establishment of the Utopian cure-all state income tax. No matter how much your income is, you will never pay enough in taxes. No matter how much your taxes increase they will never keep up with the massive social ills, waste, and the increasing and crony driven Administrative State in The Land of Steady Habits that just keeps getting bigger and bigger year-in and year-out.
Taxpayers never get a break in Connecticut, but rather will be broken. The Democrat Party of The Land of Steady Habits will make sure of that forever.

Deja Vu, Part 2. More Bad Connecticut Democrat Party Legislation In 2024, For You. (HB5431)

Picture if you will the end of a state legislative session. The legislators, tired but fulfilled, congratulate each other, and relish the satisfaction of participating in a groundbreaking session of lawmaking and policy that sets a tone for fiscal stability, economic development, and citizen safety for the state. After a rousing address by the Governor, the legislature departs, basking in the glow of a job very well done in the best interests of the public.
And in stark contrast, picture the end of the Connecticut State Legislature’s term on May 8, 2024.
Since the late 1980's, Connecticut's State Legislature painfully ends every session after finding new ways of hemorrhaging more Connecticut Taxpayer money, taking away more personal freedoms, and helping wreck and destroy businesses in the state. The "short" 2024 legislative session was no different than all of the past 34 years of Democrat Party induced economic and societal decay and destruction. In true racketeering legislative style, the one bill that had no public hearing whatsoever and was summarily rammed through the wickets has been nicknamed by Democrats and labor leaders as "The Striking Workers Assistance Fund". It is HB 5431 "AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE STABILIZATION SUPPORT AND ARPA REPLACEMENT FUND" (https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&which_year=2024&bill_num=5431).

Rather than deciphering needless legislative Greek, you, I, and many others may be wondering what this law is and of course wonder how much it will cost Connecticut taxpayers. The bill’s creator, Democrat/Socialist State Representative Manny Sanchez of New Britain originally created a placeholder (aka dummy) bill that has been traditionally viewed as a piece of legislation that does not contain any content, later gets voted out of committee as a placeholder for last day or last minute legislation to be inserted, manipulated, and passed, over any objections by the minority party and of concerned right-thinking citizens watching from afar. Democrat/Socialist State Representative Manny Sanchez of New Britain facilitated the formation this deceitful work of pro-union labor/pro socialist-anti business rhetoric by changing the original name of the bill from “An Act Concerning Expenditures of the General Fund,” to “An Act Establishing the Stabilization Support and ARPA Replacement Fund.”

By way of information, "(t)he amended bill allocates $3 million of unspent funds from the “unexpended balance of funds appropriated to State Comptroller — Fringe Benefits, for State employees Health Service Costs” to create a new account dubbed the “Connecticut Families and Workers account.” Additionally, it mandates the Comptroller to devise a plan on how to spend the funds to support low-income workers."(https://yankeeinstitute.org/2024/05/07/the-house-masters-the-art-of-deception-advances-big-labor-priority-bill).
In simple terms, what is the need for a "Connecticut Families and Workers account" and what does it entail and why? Don't most Connecticut families and workers work to support themselves unless they are disabled or ill, and pay some of the highest tax rates in the country? Once the $3 million dollars in unspent funds is finally expended, how much in new or higher taxes will be implemented to pay for this new socialistic program and how many more cronies and politically connected will be hired with tax dollars to administrate said fund?
Also, from the limited information that has been provided, the bill forces Connecticut Taxpayers to pay for striking workers unemployment benefits. I wonder how this is legal given the current set up of the state's unemployment compensation benefits fund given the following statement:
"You can receive benefits if you meet a series of legal eligibility requirements
You must be monetarily eligible.
You must be totally or partially unemployed.
You must have an approvable job separation; the law imposes a disqualification for certain types of separations.
You must meet certain weekly legal requirements; weekly requirements include being physically and mentally able to work, being available for and seeking work*, and filing your weekly claim for benefits on a timely basis.
If you are identified as likely to exhaust unemployment benefits and are enrolled in the worker profiling and reemployment services program, you must fully participate in all assessment interviews, orientation, and referred reemployment services."(https://www.ctdol.state.ct.us/progsupt/unemplt/claimant-guide/eligibility.htm)
Can anyone explain how striking workers have an "approvable job separation" and who is responsible for determining said approval? By allowing striking workers unemployment benefits, hasn't the state basically redefined "unemployment", and thus ruled the unemployment benefits compensation fund of Connecticut invalid by definition? I will therefore assume that those businesses currently paying into this fund should stop, as the legal definitions of "unemployment" have changed, especially since humble private businesses must now support striking workers that often receive striker’s benefits. When and if enacted into law, should this bill now go to the Connecticut Supreme Court to rule on its legality based on the state's new and bizarre definition of one being deemed "unemployed"?

But as the sun sets over the Nutmeg State, we close the door on another legislative session where non-connected Connecticut citizens measure the success of the same by the smallest possible amount of damages sustained by acts of the Legislature. While bills concerning weighty matters like pizza and puppies become law, the reality 2024 echoes the same as years past where laws comprised on hundreds of pages handed out in the middle of the night must be voted upon with no debate nor any actual reading of the bill. Connecticut Taxpayers who generally have no legal representation in the Legislature must accept without questions the horrific, complacent, self-serving bills of King Ned Lamont The Unaccountable's omnipotent ruling Democrat Party. HB 5431 is just another step in the continuing economic quagmire of the Democrat conflagration of Connecticut Taxpayers and Businesses. And it is this scenario that the omnipotent and arrogant one-party rule Democrat Party demands re-election on in November 2024.

Continuing along this path, Connecticut will be truly damned.