Connecticut! The Place Where Your Government Is Your Best Friend, and Where Your Grocer Is Your Bitter Enemy

From time to time, we are treated to a manufactured fake-news event promoted by the Connecticut Democrat Party in their sworn mission to damage Connecticut's fragile and failing economy.  This latest event concerning “elevated” grocery store prices led us to a pseudo-intellectual faux economic mission reverberating all over state-run media outlets last week stating that grocery stores of all sizes are "price gouging", are earning "excessive" profits, and telling us that only state government can fix this problem. During a charade of a press conference held on April 10, Democrat Attorney General William Tong stated: “We won’t stop!” in announcing the inquiry. “We will keep going until we have an understanding of this market.” (https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/connecticut-ag-launches-inquiry-grocery-price-gouging). 

 First, I had no idea Democrat Attorney General William Tong had degrees in economics and/or accounting and was an expert in grocery store logistics and management.  Secondly, I had no idea that grocery stores large and small were price gouging?  Third, I had no idea that Democrat Attorney General William Tong could instantaneously get his finger around the concept of runaway inflation which has been occurring since Democrat President Biden has taken office in 2021.  My good friend Tony De Angelo talked about this new Tong investigation at length on this past Tuesday in his weekly segment on the Lee Elci Show 94.9 (A MARKUP OF MISINFORMATION- Tony De Angelo) where Tony pointed out that the 63 page Federal Trade Commission report (“FTC”, “report”) sourcing this press charade, never even once mentioned the term “price gouging” therein. This is even more startling, considering  that the report was engendered by the far-left Biden-appointed Marxist-inspired Commissioner of the  FTC, Lina Khan. And as Tony pointed out, who can trust any representation the media-political machine makes in Connecticut, especially when one remembers the debacles of the Scott Franklin-BLM mural vandalism a year ago in Hartford, or much more the lies, graft, and mismanagement of Covid-19.

As a primer to the political class, there are many costs involved in running a business.  In order to remain in business, a business needs to make a profit.  A profit may be defined as when the amount of revenue is greater than the costs of producing/selling a service or product.  In the case of Connecticut's grocery stores, revenue must exceed the cost of products they are selling.  It is very difficult for any business to operate during a period of runaway inflation and dysfunctional energy costs such as we have experienced since the Biden regime took office in 2021.  Depending on what you may see, food prices over the past three years have gone up between 30 and 120%.   Food store operating costs have basically doubled along with increases in most other consumers products such as energy, housing, insurances and transportation.  Everything we need to live on has gone up dramatically. And everything we either have or do or purchase has a cost factor tied to energy. When one considers the fantastical and irrational wind-driven climate change-paralyzed energy policy of Connecticut, none of what we see is difficult to understand in the least of ways.

For those of us who are based in reality and candor, here is a mere sample of the costs that grocery stores incur when trying to sell those "overpriced" almonds or eggs in their stores: labor costs that include hourly wages, social security taxes, workers’ compensation insurance, mandated Family Medical leave taxes, benefits paid by the grocer including (but not limited to) paid sick, vacation, personal, holiday time off, medical and dental insurances. If there is a company retirement plan, it is an administrative monster to administrate; if there is not, the store must deal by law with the confused, horrific (and inept) “My CT Savings” plan presided over by a state Comptroller with no understanding of the present value of a dollar and his accompanying four-star CT administrative state Retirement Security Authority. But wait! There is more!  Like Insurance costs! These costs include insurance premiums paid on property including accident, personal property liability, vehicles owned by the grocery, and theft.  There are also the costs of transportation to get the products to the store (since fossil fuels have been attacked by the Democrat Party, prices have skyrocketed).  There are also the costs of transaction fees by customers using debit and credit cards.  Taxes are a large cost to the grocer that include but are not limited to permits, licenses, local property taxes, state corporate income taxes including surtaxes, sales taxes collected and sent to the state, state and federal taxes on fuel, state unemployment compensation taxes, and other miscellaneous taxes paid to the state.  There are also increasing utility costs that include one of the highest electric rates in the country, internet, phone, and natural gas.  The costs of all of the food that is sold by the store also have to be factored in. The costs of maintaining and cleaning the stores both inside and outside need to be added.  We should include the costs of shoplifting and theft in grocery stores as items stolen by criminals in Crime Free Democrat Connecticut are removed from inventory.  There are more costs both implicit and explicit including the actual time spent filling out governmental bureaucratic forms, but we can save that for another time.  In review of all of the above costs, it is clear that just about all of our elected officials have no clue of the costs and burdens involved in running the "profit gouging" grocery stores in Connecticut as they are the people responsible for causing the increases in the first instance due to their burdensome and horrifically costly policies.  

I am also confused as to how "price gouging" can exist given all these costs?  And if most of these grocers are private businesses, what right does Connecticut's state government have to either impose limits on their "highest" profits and or tell them what they can or can't charge in their stores based on exceptionally low profit margin which are traditionally 1 to 3% of gross sales? But I know it is possible to get more votes in an election year by bashing an entire visible industry like evil capitalist grocers.  This burden is especially obscene as this same government placed such costly and ridiculous protocols on grocers to stay open during the pandemic while erasing their meager profit margins. But during that same pandemic, didn't King Ned Lamont's The Unaccountable’s family hedge fund Oak HC/FT, make some incredible profits at Connecticut Taxpayers expense during the same Covid-19 crisis and such fact is not even disputed by his sycophants, toadies, and lackeys? Why has that not yet been investigated by William Tong? We also see sales tax revenues at an all-time high due to inflation.  Why isn't this considered "price gouging"?  Why isn't there an investigation launched to study this, as well? 

Why would any rational person want to own and operate a business in Connecticut?  Connecticut still has over $100 to $150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities. Connecticut is still a bottom five state in our country in all business categories including high taxes, excessive regulations, a pitifully poor infrastructure, and is still incapable of creating new jobs to get out of the recession of 2008-09.  Rather than deal with this compounded corrupt and inept mess, the solution for Connecticut Democrats is to slam the grocery industry and put them in their place.  I can only imagine the contraction in the grocery industry in the state after this latest farcical attempt by elected rulers to demand, demean and destroy their profitability.  Yet, this is another example of a state government's excess and its economic illiteracy and incompetency as to how the economy works.  The food shortages and food deserts will be coming soon due to your local closed and out-of-business "profit gouging" retail grocery store, thanks to the omnipotent Connecticut Democrat Party. 

 

 

Connecticut's Corruption and High Taxes

Regardless of the whitewashing and fawning pap one may hear or read at the onset of another legislative session, Connecticut nonetheless continues its descent into economic and social senselessness via an administrative state fiat aided by a lapdog "elected" state legislature. As just two examples of the pride of King Ned Lamont the Unaccountable and his Omnipotent one-party ruling class, are the recent sham election of Bridgeport's Democrat convicted criminal Mayor Joe Ganim and his magically appearing absentee ballots, and the excessively high salaries paid out by the secretive State Family Leave department funded by Connecticut Taxpayers for this money draining program.

The City of Bridgeport, once a proud working-class industrial city, is now an absolute, unspeakable mess run by a powerful Democrat Party political machine that makes the old New York Tammany Hall Democrat political machine look like a nursery school. The hatchet job Ganim and his minions did to the voters of Bridgeport in his "re-election" in his crime filled city would be the plot for a Woody Allen movie if it were sadly, not reality. One must remember Ganim was convicted of racketeering, extortion, and other crimes. He spent seven years in prison beginning in 2003 before he amazingly enough voted back as mayor of Bridgeport in 2015. One can also argue that crime does pay in Bridgeport as one may wonder why a convicted felon who ripped off the city is allowed back in? Obvious voter and ballot fraud was committed when Democrat official Wanda Geter-Pataki (who also was accused in 2019 for basically the same thing), apparently stuffed absentee ballots into a drop box outside of the Margaret Morton Government center in a surveillance video. John Gomes, who was running for Mayor against the Ganim machine in the primary, filed 22 (twenty-two) separate complaints of voter fraud against the Ganim campaign. To make this sick and sad situation even worse, the Gomes campaign was apparently caught on video tape doing the same ballot stuffing thing. After hearing the testimony, a judge allowed for the general election to continue on November 7, 2023, whereby Ganim won by a mere 175 votes! Inexplicably, the Judge also ordered a new primary to take place on January 23, 2024, and surprise again Ganim won! Whether yet another election will take place in February remains to be seen at the time of this writing. Needless to say, this corruption is blessed by the incompetent and un-serious Democrat Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas who famously stated that “Election integrity is essential for public trust, and I would like to affirm my confidence in our state’s overall election security,” “This situation is not about partisan politics, it’s not about a broken electoral system, this isn’t even about absentee ballot systems. It is about a few bad actors and an under-educated electorate.” (https://insideinvestigator.org/sots-bridgeport-ballot-scandal-result-of-bad-actors-and-under-educated-electorate). Therefore, the problem of corruption in Bridgeport is because of "an under-educated electorate" where fraud, incompetence, and denial have nothing to do with it. (Get that).

Further, the obvious question then becomes as to why seemingly no one in the political universe seems the least bit interested in calling the election process fraudulent and aggressively crying out for the arrests and prosecutions of bad actors involved. The Unaccountable and several Democrats are even now urging John Gomes to give up all together. "Joe Ganim has won three times. At some point you gotta get back to governing. That would be my advice," Lamont said on January 30, 2024. But of course, Ned needs Wanda and her counterparts in the cities to manufacture continued gubernatorial victories and all the fraud, illegal absentee ballots cast, and irregularities about both the primary and election can be quickly and promptly disregarded. We disregard all, since Joe Ganim is the Supreme Ruler of Bridgeport, a ruler that Bridgeport Taxpayers must yield to by giving up their right to vote and to self-govern. It is a typical Connecticut Democrat Party mess and is naturally blessed by the Connecticut Democrat Party.

Of course, Connecticut would not be Connecticut without tax-sucking administrative state programs and bureaucracies. While state-run media churns faux and puffy stories of “Connecticut Fiscal Stability” one can never (ever) pay enough taxes in Democrat Connecticut to support this "stability". A prime example of this failure is The Connecticut Paid Family Medical Leave Act. For this program, the Tax is .05% of your earnings, up to $160,200. For this tax, there is no reimbursement for employees close to retirement nor for employees who never utilize the CT Paid Leave program. Further, the privileged class of state workers does not contribute to the fund. So, the rest of us must pay, and shut up.

The plan pays for up to 12 weeks of leave at a maximum weekly benefit of $941.40 as of 2024 according to their website (https://www.ctpaidleave.org/?language=en_US). AFLAC is the third-party claims administrator for the program, yet the actual Paid Family Medical Leave Authority employs 40 people as of 2023 at a payroll of a mere $3.9 million dollars, mind-boggling when an administrator is already in place: (https://openpayroll.ct.gov/#!/year/2023/department/Paid+Family+Medical+Leave+Auth).

What is even more interesting with this questionable program is a well-hidden report dated July 2023 that presents some amazing information (https://www.cbia.com/resources/hr-safety/connecticut-paid-leave-2023-annual-report). For example, on Page 22 of this report it shows a beginning fund balance of $446.3 million dollars, Contributions earned of $443 million dollars, investment income of $16.5 million dollars, incurred claims of $318 million dollars, other expenses of $45.8 million dollars and a net fund balance of $542 million dollars. Analyzing the figures in another way one can argue that those individuals who are paying this tax are being overtaxed if there is such a high fund balance at the end of this apparent fiscal year projected report. Why does this fund have this much money in it? Why is $542 million dollars taken out of Connecticut Taxpayers pockets? It is clear that the .05% tax is excessive given the small amount of claims that is being paid out and for the amount of private plans/self-insured plans that have been approved by the state. Ostensibly a large part of this rate goes to support a number of state employees in duplicative nonjobs, standard for the course in the Kingdom of Ned, the Unaccountable. Once again, hardworking Connecticut taxpayers who are diligent in their employment and not prone to take off time subsidize an entire legion of political appointees, bureaucrats, and a fair number of excuse makers and slackers, because this is the Connecticut way.

These are just two examples many that one can offer about a Democrat ruled state that embraces and encourages economic sloth, waste, and social senselessness. Elected leaders (or “Elected” leaders) take no constructive action other than to continually march to both economic and social ruin wanting the taxpayer to pay and be proud of the destruction they do on a daily basis. Think about losing your right to vote as we see in Bridgeport with a sham election. Think about how this same voter fraud in cities has been the defining factor in close statewide elections. As you listen to the endless blandishments from both parties praising The Unaccountable for “adhering to (fictional) fiscal guardrails” think about all of the increasing taxes you pay in Connecticut to support the continued Connecticut path to spending and failure as you struggle to survive economically. And just think about how the Connecticut Democrat Party's omnipotent one-party rule has made a once great state a cesspool of corruption, crime, sexual perversion, child abuse, incoherent gibberish, and excessively high taxes that you must accept as an obedient slave to King Ned Lamont the Unaccountable and his Omnipotent one-party ruling Democrat Party.

Once again, taxpayer, be damned.

This Is Connecticut? (Really)

 

On Monday January 8, 2024, Governor Ned Lamont switched into full campaign gear in order to offset the economic and social nightmare that Connecticut has become under his non-transparent and profitable tenure in office. In shifting into this gear, King Ned the Unaccountable wrote a fantasy tale of what Connecticut has become under his iron fisted omnipotent one-party Democrat rule. The article can be found here:(www.wsj.com/articles/connecticut-is-leaving-the-welcome-mat-out-housing-taxes-families-95ae3567?mod=letterstoeditor_article_pos8)

The letter is fascinating to me as the Governor, who last recorded an income from 2021 of $54 million dollars of unknown sources, writes that, "Republican orthodoxy says our migration is all about taxes. We recently enacted the largest tax cut in state history, eliminating the income tax for most working families and taxes on pensions for most seniors. Democratic orthodoxy argues that families are moving to Connecticut because we are a family friendly state, with paid-family leave, expanded daycare and one of the country's best education systems." It is confusing as to how Connecticut is a "family friendly state, with paid-family leave". The Governor does not explain to the reader that the "paid-family leave" is engendered by a tax upon income for non-municipal workers in the state. The tax is levied at .05% of personal income up to $160,200 a year for a maximum of $801 in taxes one must pay to support this program. If you never use this program, you will get zero back from it. Simple high school math (which is out of the range of most local politicians) indicates that the fund cannot sustain itself due to the payout benefits it offers. Therefore, it is inevitable to assume that this tax will increase in the near future. Budgeting, payouts, and revenue for this program seemed locked in constant secrecy but that is normal for Connecticut state programs. It is ironic to note that those who have massive levels of income at the income levels of the Governor only pay $801 a year while an individual who actually works and earns $160,200 or less, pays the same amount for this tax as a high-income earner would.

Connecticut also has had a net migration of people moving out of the state and is ranked by U-Haul as the #42nd state that people are moving to (www.uhaul.com/Articles/About/U-Haul-Announces-Top-Growth-States-Of-2023-30660/). I guess being ranked in the bottom ten states that people are moving to is viewed as a great accomplishment by the Lamont run Democrat Party of Connecticut and somehow inexplicably shows families are "moving into" the state by moving out.

Lamont states also; "For most of our citizens, our income tax is lower than the Sunbelt states. In Connecticut, we have reversed the budget deficits and trends of the past, in part due to the new families and higher-income taxpayers who now call Connecticut home." Lamont seems to be either confused or duplicitous as Connecticut is still burdened by $125 to $150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities. There is no plan whatsoever to pay down this debt, nor does one know supposedly how much these "higher-income taxpayers" are paying in taxes to pay down this $125 to $150 billion dollar in short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities. The taxfoundation.org ranks Connecticut 47th out of 50 states on their 2024 State Business Tax Climate Index. Connecticut is the 4th-worst state in the nation for taxes. Simply put, Connecticut continues to be a bottom feeder in most business and economic categories. I do not see new businesses and industry are flocking to the state unless they have some sort of economic tie to the Lamont's family hedge fund Oak HC/FT. Of course, Connecticut Taxpayers still have no clear answers to many questionable investments and arrangements tied to Lamont through Sema-4, Digital Currency Group, and its affiliates, ADVANCECT, 4-CT, Boston Consulting Group, UNITE US, Mt. Sinai Genomics, “The Horsebarn Hill Investment Fund”, Tidal River Fund, McKinsey, and the Lamont-based Cayman Islands shell companies. Needless to say, it is quite curious as to why Lamont did not mention these connections in his letter.

The fables in the letter continue with Lamont on the environment: "On the regulatory front, I won’t apologize for Connecticut enforcing environmental standards to better protect our air and water, but we’re also making the regulatory review and approval processes more efficient." Lamont fails to state that he is a driving force along with unelected and irrational highly-paid bureaucrats in following California environmental laws to eliminate all gasoline powered vehicles by 2035 forcing people into electric vehicles, nor did he mention how the Saudi Public Investment Fund (an investor of his family’s hedge fund Oak HC/FT) is a major producer and player in the e-car space. I wonder if people moving into the state know this. Further, Lamont travels around the state in a large fossil-fuel vehicle with several state paid attendants in tow. (I wonder as to how many new residents know this fact, as well).

Personal hypocrisies notwithstanding, Lamont and his Democrat Party also wish to eliminate most fossil fuels relying upon nothing in particular in order to generate electricity and heating/cooling sources in the future. If the state regime wishes to protect our air and water, why is there a massive push to complete the hopelessly corrupted marine life-killing New London State Pier project of "clean" wind turbines at a cost of nearly $400 million Taxpayer funded dollars featuring cost overruns of roughly 330% from initial cost estimates? What politically connected individuals made a profit off this economic debacle? (insideinvestigator.org/in-the-wind-the-escalating-cost-of-connecticuts-state-pier/)

In addition, why has the state commandeered local zoning and the building of apartments and housing, thereby eliminating a system that has worked well for years? As is standard for The Unaccountable, his Wall Street Journal letter is economically incoherent and illogical especially while his political operatives push to gain the upper hand in this battle by taking away local zoning laws and regulations from towns and cities and placing them directly in the hands of these same sycophants and operatives. He stated; "As for housing costs, our state gets an incomplete. We have a shortage of housing supply, and more people are trying to move into our state, driving up prices. We are working aggressively to speed up the zoning process and double the state’s investment in housing. We are building multifamily homes in our cities. Parking lots and old commercial buildings will be transformed into livable communities that are a short walk to a train station, park or great restaurants." Sadly, Connecticut residents endure this nonsensical “housing shortage” blather continually, in a state where being a landlord has been made into hell by a shortsighted and incompetent legislature, and a state with decaying cities ranked #42 by the U-Haul hard dollar indicator of net outmigration from the states and fourth worst in national tax policies.

If you are thinking of moving to Connecticut please think twice. The Utopia described by Lamont is much different than the harsh social and economic reality of a state that is in a constant state of economic and social decline and danger. Crime runs rampant in the state, yet we hear little about that since it does not affect the Governor and his ruling elite. We are somehow led to believe that it is "Crime Free Democrat Connecticut" even though the opposite is true especially with car thefts. Since the beginning of the Lamont Administration to today the Lamont ruled Democrat Party places their profits over people especially over Connecticut Taxpayers. I simply puzzle as to how the fine publication known as The Wall Street Journal simply repeated the pap and blatant falsehoods espoused by His Royal Con-Man King Ned Lamont the Unaccountable without any due diligence as to the veracity of his statements.

If you are considering a move, it would behoove you to move to one of those terrible Republican states that actually have a strong business climate, lower taxes, less crime, and a better way of life for you and your family. Sad to say, this is not Connecticut by any means.

Connecticut's New Tax: Connecticut's Unsustainable Paid Family Leave Law

AN ACT CONCERNING PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE.

To establish a paid family and medical leave system in Connecticut.

Introduced by: Labor and Public Employees Committee

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Imagine leaving work and being paid up to $1000 a week for 12 weeks.  Imagine you are a small business with five or ten employees and all get to go out for 12 weeks under Connecticut's new paid Family Leave Law.  But under this new law small business owners must apparently "chill" and figure out how to run their businesses with less employees.  And or hire temporary employees only to fire them after a short period of time and thus pay higher state unemployment taxes.
The costs to Connecticut taxpayers would be $14 to $18 million dollars to start this program, an unknown amount of money to administer the program and a mandated .5% tax on all employee wages to supposedly pay for the program. How this tax will cover the upcoming onslaught of those individuals who are going to use and in many cases abuse the program is beyond me.  However I am confident that this tax will not be enough and thus they will be many increases of this tax in the future.  Again like the crumbling foundations tax Connecticut Taxpayers must pay we will be subsidizing another poorly run state program that will do little to help those who truly need help in taking care of family members.  This new payroll tax will take approximately $35 to $45 million dollars out of our economy monthly to help pay for this program in the short run.  Thus $35 to $45 million dollars will no longer be spent or saved in Connecticut on a monthly basis.  This loss of spending and saving will continue to make Connecticut's economy lag behind the rest of the country.
Why doesn't our state legislature meet with businesses and industry officials and develop a private sector solution to this supposed problem?  I would tend to believe that many employers in the state work with their employees who have issues that they must deal with ill family members.  Since when did taking care of your family become a function of state government? 
I am opposed to this new law that is being considered.  It is irrational to think that our state government bureaucracy has an ability to help people in need taking care of their families. 
Connecticut's has yet another new tax.  Connecticut's Unsustainable Paid Family Leave Law Tax.  More lies force fed to Connecticut Taxpayers.