The Greatest Foe of Affordability Is The Connecticut Government And Its Ruling Elite

 What is the root cause of this American “affordability crisis” we hear so much about these days? The truth lies in something no Democrat wants you to know. The affordability crisis started in the 2020 election of the incompetent and incontinent President Joe Biden in a highly suspect election that laid bare the very integrity of our democratic processes. After this election rigging, decent Americans were horrified by seeing four years of reckless spending sprees, incompetent DEI personnel picks, economic bungling, the shutdown of the Keystone Pipeline and the arrogant and reckless policy of open borders. All these grievous and sickening errors ignited an inflationary inferno that scorched the pockets of everyday families, as groceries, gas, and housing became luxuries only the elite could afford without a second thought. After his 2024 election, President Donald J. Trump set his mind to undo this economic disaster, as the irrational and insane fight bitterly every day against him while he deals with the affordability crisis they themselves created.

But what exactly is this concept of “Affordability”? Affordability is defined as “able to be afforded: having a cost that is not too high.” For Connecticut taxpayers, the definition of affordability seems to be a constantly moving target as interpreted by the delusional ruling elite. Before President Trump was elected in 2024 we listened daily to the nonsensical blather of hopeless functional incompetents such as Karinne Jean-Pierre and Kamala Harris tell us that “Bidenomics is working” or “Inflation is under control” while it is more than evident the affordability conditions then were far worse than now. But as readers of my column know, the rules of fact and common sense do not apply to the delusional ruling elite.

But let’s drill down on Connecticut affordability. Does affordability in Connecticut mean that the Democrat Connecticut state government dictates to its legal and illegal citizens what they can and cannot have? Does affordability mean that the Democrat Connecticut state government builds housing and then dictates how much rent can be charged? Does affordability mean that the Democrat Connecticut state government can control all zoning in the state (as seen in HB 8002), and you, dear citizen, can screw off? Does affordability mean that the Democrat Connecticut state government will start running state-run grocery stores? Does affordability mean that the Democrat Connecticut state government will now insure all drivers in the state, since car insurance has increased dramatically due to the massive amount of car thefts and road takeovers over the past five years, and insurance companies no longer want the risks of insuring a lawless state? Does affordability mean that the Democrat Connecticut state government continues to use Connecticut taxpayers’ money to pick and choose economic winners via its non-transparent and malignant Department of Community and Economic Development ("DECD") or its taxpayer-paid penny stock "boiler room" operation known as "Connecticut Innovations?"

Like their incompetent predecessors in the Biden regime, the concept of Connecticut’s “affordability” is a vague construct by the Connecticut Democrat Party, their state-run media and attendant state-paid media image consultants. Here are some real economic facts showing that Connecticut is not affordable to work and live in: The first problem area is naturally, taxes. The state has one of the highest state and local property taxes in the country. High state sales tax, user and license fees, and excessive business taxes in every way, shape, and form continue to burden Connecticut taxpayers to the point of no return. I have stated numerous times: why does a state as small as Connecticut spend over $26 billion a year in its budget? Needless to say, no one on the state food chain would dare admit that a reduction of state spending would increase affordability for citizens because preservation of their bureaucracy takes precedence over the citizen, (and why has that not sunken in by now?)

But let’s move down the line. Please look at what Connecticut taxpayers pay for state employee salaries, benefits, and pensions, as it should astound any working person in the state. The state spends a mere $6 billion a year in pension payments; that does not consider the future unfunded liabilities of the state pension system. Connecticut already has $100 to $150 billion in short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities. What is the plan to pay off this debt? There is none, and never has been one as just about everyone in political land chortles about the need for the “fiscal guardrails”, which “fiscal guardrails” do not take into account this bulbous and unsustainable amount of legacy debts and liabilities.

But what about fuel? The ruling elite does not care. For the sake of all things green energy, Connecticut gets to pay one of the highest electric rates in the country. Part of this high cost of electricity is an economically insane public benefits charge that costs Connecticut electricity consumers a mere $1 billion plus per year. This public benefits charge is a slush fund that is doing little, if anything, to reduce the cost of electricity in the state. The ruling elite runs from cheap and simple fuel options such as natural gas. But the ruling elite has solutions! Like wind power. This pathetic sea mammal and bird killing industry is the biggest con job ever sold to the American taxpayer. After four decades and literally trillions in subsidies, tax credits, and mandates, wind power limped its way to producing a laughable 10.5% of U.S. electricity in 2024, and that’s the cherry-picked “nameplate” fantasy number. In the real world, thanks to its pathetic 35–42% average capacity factor (meaning the blades are spinning uselessly or standing dead still most of the time), wind actually delivered less than 5% of America’s total primary energy needs. Https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3 https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/energy-subsi

dies. But who cares? Your elites know better than you.

 

Affordability in Connecticut starts at the state government level. Republican candidates for Governor need to make this their main platform in 2026 in addition to dealing with the malignant Lamont-based corruption. Why is the state spending so much money on salaries, benefits, and pensions? Why is the $100 to $150 billion in short- and long-term debt and unfunded liabilities not being addressed? Why not create a state DOGE to begin clearing out the fraud, inefficiencies, and wasteful spending that take place in a $26 billion budget? And from Day 1 of their term, state that they want all department heads and agencies to cut their budgets by 10-15% in Year One, followed by 5% cuts for the next three years. Couple that with a 1% decrease in the state income and corporate taxes each year for the next four years. Force government officials to find savings in their departments. And do it without the traditional stoic bitching and complaining that it cannot be done—because it can be done and has been done in numerous other states. Connecticut taxpayers want results for a change, not the same stale political rhetoric. And it is quite achievable. My friend and colleague Tony De Angelo did an excellent job discussing the need for candidates to be serious in this regard and to quickly adopt the Gasoline driven Trump Energy Policy on his December 4 THIRTY WITH TONY. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyn17QSx-XE . But I have doubts if any standing incumbent or candidate from either party can actualize these fundamental factors, let alone grasp them. These folks cannot even grasp that once fuel prices come down, so do all prices, because everything (everything) is made with fuels.

Connecticut needs to address these issues from the top down- yesterday. Connecticut has a bloated, economically inefficient, and non-transparent state government that needs to be pared down and seen through. Connecticut needs a leader that will reform the consuming mess that has become the state workforce, root out corruption, force the state to take a course in Management-101 and dedicate their loyalty to the taxpayer (the shock of all that is). Because Connecticut taxpayers must stand on their heads to find ways to save money just to survive in the state. Connecticut government and its ruling elites must be no longer permitted to do so.

2026 Is Calling In Connecticut. Who Will Answer?

 In 1687, Connecticut declared a day of Thanksgiving to be November 3rd. They were rebuked by the Royal Governor of the Dominion of New England, Sir Edmund Andros, who ruled from his seat in Boston. When he learned of their chosen date during a visit to the colony, he immediately sought to annul the decision on the grounds that only he had the authority to name a day of Thanksgiving. Citizens in Connecticut and other New England colonies disliked being ruled by an Englishman and resented the English laws imposed on their new land. The seeds of the American Revolution were sown.

In 2025, Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut, known affectionately by his battered subjects as “King Ned”, “The Unaccountable” , “Ned the Unrecallable”  “The Perpetual Governor” “The Prince of Greenwich” (and a whole lot of other terms and epithets unsuitable for print), arrogantly and disdainfully signed into law a community destroying zoning disaster bill known as HB 8002, a litigious manifesto guaranteeing the destruction of the long-standing character of Connecticut as we know it. Aided by his legislative operators and driven by private-equity interests from by he personally profits and is obligated to perform for, his signing of HB 8002 ushered in the age of the final destruction  of the Nutmeg State. Justifiable hatred and vitriol spouted from citizens in all corners of the state be it in print, online, or on talk radio. Virtually no taxpaying, homeowning, or non-politically connected citizen could arrive at a conclusion as to why the political system intended to destroy all that they had lawfully achieved. Like their antecedents, these poor souls disliked being ruled by an arrogant, disjointed despot and resented the horrific and nonsensical burdens thrown upon them by the incompetent people that were elected to represent them. 

Have the seeds of the Connecticut Revolution finally been sown?

Much to the chagrin of the arrogant political class, it is no longer 1687. Legal citizens wounded by the processes of arrogant government are now demanding transparency and accountability from said government. For in point of fact, the rule of law in Connecticut is decreed with no input from Connecticut taxpayers, no public hearings for new laws mandated on the population, there is never any referendums, and there is no regard for the state Constitution. There is serial disregard for the set of laws that govern the state, either by state judges or state officials. It is now quite clear that Connecticut is ruled in a cruel and oppressive manner by a self-appointed and self-profiting political hierarchy that hates and abuses its ordinary citizens and feasts upon the elimination of personal freedoms, economic freedoms, and personal property rights (as just seen with the enactment of HB 8002 into law).

Due to this rape of government and governance process, many are hopeful that 2026 will see a second revolution taking place in Connecticut. The first will be celebrated 250 years later on July 4, 2026. The second might possibly occur on November 3, 2026, when Connecticut holds its elections. A new Governor could emerge from that election, along with a State Senate and State House that become Republican rather than maintaining the omnipotent, incompetent, and destructive legendary one-party rule of the Connecticut Democrat Party. Starting from now, all sorts of gaming and backroom political deals are being negotiated in both parties. The huge political plum of highly paid state nonjobs is being jockeyed for. Despite the continual failure and malfeasance of the (should-be-abolished-scandal ridden) Connecticut Department of Economic Development (“DECD”), the lure of  free taxpayer money in the form interest-free, forgiven “economic” loans, shady undisclosed loans, and race-based loans are now being discussed in the traditional horse-trading manner using Democrat Party donations, votes, and that are sought after sinecure of being a Commissioner of something-or-other, regardless of personal ability and qualification. And in the executive suite of this putrid boiler-room, the Lamont reign continues its gaming with its neat cloak of Cayman Island accounts, deals hiding in nonprofits such as the UCONN Foundation and ADVANCE CT,  and working through “quasi-public” organizations such as the now-clearly Lamont-connected (and covert) “Connecticut Innovations”, needless to say a subsidiary of that same, failed DECD.  

But is there hope for improvement? As of now, It is now clear that two young candidates have emerged in the race for Governor on the Republican ticket: former New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart and Greenwich State Senator Ryan Fazio. Stewart chose to run for Governor rather than seek re-election as Mayor after 12 years. The question on many minds is: if Stewart was such a good Mayor, why did a Democrat liberal named Bobby Sanchez become elected as the new Mayor rather than the Republican candidate replacing Erin Stewart? Does this lack of momentum carry over into her run for Governor as a Republican? As questions abound on social media as to her real commitment to Republican principles, or sometimes any principles that could be clearly ascertained.

It is my opinion that State Senator Ryan Fazio seems to have more to offer in his candidacy for Governor, as he demonstrates conceptual conservatism in several of his ideas and has been active in the Connecticut State Senate. Will this be enough to satisfy the Republican Party and its members? There are a great many voters who supported President Trump, contrary to what the Republican Party elites believed or gave credit for. Can they be given a candidate they can endorse and support both financially and in getting out the conservative message and vote, especially in the inner cities and among young voters? These are the same young voters who are accepting without question the horrors and lies of both socialism and communism.

However, both of these young candidates  have either not grasped, (or have ignored) the brutal destruction of Connecticut largely at the hand of the Lamont administration and of the Connecticut administrative state, to date. Will either candidate stand up to corruption? Will either candidate have the temerity and the intestinal fortitude to rail Ned Lamont (and where necessary, Ann Lamont) for the myriad and well-documented history of profiting from the state? Will either candidate have the ability and leadership skills to appoint competent Commissioners that will dismantle and revamp malignant bureaucracies such as the DECD? And this is a short list of critical tasks, but all are so critically needed to fix the wreckage called Connecticut. Ignoring these issues is an insult to every legitimate taxpaying citizen.

You see regardless of what you may be told, Connecticut is not in good shape financially or socially. The state has massive short- and long-term debt between 100 and 150 Billion dollars, an illegal immigrant problem, a massive crime problem, a huge corruption problem, a horrific illegal drug problem, an infrastructure problem, and a critical crisis in the ethics, honesty, information sharing, and transparency of its state government, all of which are funded by Connecticut taxpayers. It is an abysmal failure going somewhere to happen.

And as I have mentioned earlier, the fix-it list above is a short one. While Republicans are deciding, Connecticut’s Democrat Party continues its push toward more stringent socialist/communist means and methods: to eliminate opposition, eliminate public comments, eliminate options, and eliminate all transparency. Creation of an all-powerful, centralized, state-controlled government mindset is Job Number 1. The government can do no wrong, and you, as a Connecticut taxpayer, can do no right. For the "elephant" in the Republican living room is a question: Does either young candidate have the temerity and the personal and professional skill and running gear to deal with this oncoming train as well? Given present conditions, no, is an unacceptable answer.

Sadly, Connecticut is in such bad shape that the characteristics mentioned above are no longer nice to have, but are now critical requirements. It is your choice as a Connecticut voter in 2026 to break these atrocious chains of indentured chattel slavery that the Connecticut Democrat Party has wrapped around you. Its up to you to insist that your candidate has all of the necessary tools to fix the mess, once and for all. If a person that checks all of those boxes is elected as a Republican governor, rest assured that the Second revolution of Connecticut will soon be in the offing. 

For the humble, taxpaying citizens of Connecticut now know what the issues are, and frankly want and need to see a complete housecleaning of the Royal Castle and its associated Court Jesters. 

It is now 2025 and no longer 1687.

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.