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Budget And Business Stability Take A Hike In Connecticut

Very quietly and without any fanfare, Governor Dannel Malloy on May 11 began negotiations on the state budget with Democratic legislative leaders Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney and House Speaker Brendan Sharkey. The two leaders days earlier had given their approval to a finance committee approved budget that raised taxes considerably and was light on spending cuts. A budget produced by Republicans was its opposite number. Perhaps taking Mr. Malloy at his word, the Republican budget was balanced and contained no new taxes – just the sort of budget Mr. Malloy might have approved, if he took seriously his own campaign pledges. Several times during the gubernatorial campaign season, Mr. Malloy embraced a no new taxes budget plan. The budget Mr. Malloy presented to the General Assembly was out of balance and, said its critics, rather severe on groups of people who are forced by circumstances to throw themselves on the mercy of strangers.

Something has to give.

Mr. Malloy’s gentlemanly discussion with the two Democratic shakers and movers in the General Assembly occurred at the same time Republicans were holding a public hearing on budget proposals. Hearings are becoming rare in Connecticut’s one party state. Mr. Malloy’s first budget, which contained the largest tax increase in state history, was cobbled together without any Republican Party input, as befits an autocratic state. The recent finance committee budget was not vetted at a public hearing and, of course, Mr. Malloy’s meeting with Mr. Looney and Mr. Sharkey was held behind closed doors. Before entering those closed doors, Mr. Malloy expressed his displeasure with all budgets not his own.

The Republican budget hearing, Mr. Malloy suggested, was a dog and pony show that could be safely ignored. Executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group Tom Swan was unimpressed. The hearing, said Mr. Swan, was not officially authorized; but then the arrarachicks in any one party state usually proceed on their merry way without consulting the general public, and one could hardly expect Democratic leaders such as Mr. Looney and Mr. Sharkey to hold a public meeting on a budget proposal they approved in the absence of a public hearing.

The Republican hearing – which centered on the unintended and unadvertised consequences of the finance committee budget rather than the Republican alternative budget, gave Republicans, Mr. Swan groused, the opportunity to posture shamelessly while they "regurgitated talking points" about the relationship between businesses in the state and progressive budget proposals. The progressive budget thrown out by the Democrat controlled budget writing committee was, Mr. Swan enthused, "far superior to any other options currently on the table” – including, one must suppose, Mr. Malloy’s unbalanced budget proposal.

Mr. Malloy predictably disagreed with Mr. Swan’s assessment. While he has no intention of holding over the heads of Democrats a veto of the finance committee budget – that would be rude -- he preferred his own proposal. Interview by reporters on the day of the Republican budget hearing, Mr. Looney and Mr. Sharkey said they had not listened on CT-N to the Republican hearing and then bustled off to their private audience with Mr. Malloy.

"We believe that hard decisions have to be made," Mr.  Malloy told reporters. "We believe that we need to be concentrating on building a sustainable budget. We began that work four years ago. We continued it two years ago. This is not the time to reverse our path or trajectory." These sentiments, suggesting a stern disapproval of the finance committee budget proposal, very likely caused Mr. Swan to break out in fever bumps.

The Democratic budget drops the sales tax rate from 6.35 to 5.85 percent effective next July and for the first time extends the sales tax to 25 services previously not taxed. Along with some clever legerdemain removing pension payments from the budget cap for instance – the finance committee proposal added new revenue to Mr. Malloy’s out of balance budget sufficient to produce a small surplus, which quickly disappeared when projected revenues fell short of the mark.  The finance committee budget increases the marginal tax rate from 6.7 to 6.99 percent for those who earn more than $500,000. These adjustments are expected to produce a tax and fee receipt increase of about $1.8 billion. Given the new – some would say punishing --  billion dollar revenue increases piled on top of a recent $2.6 billion Malloy tax increase, the largest in Connecticut’s history, it is not surprising that the Swan approved budget should have occasioned commentary from state businesses and the workers they employ.
                                                                                                                          

The Republican hearing, which sent attendees into two over-flow rooms and featured about a hundred people who signed up to speak, was well attended by the general public, and it is a great pity the two Democratic leaders of Connecticut’s General Assembly could not spare a few moments to audit the testimony of their constituents. Even in a one-party state, it would be wise for autocrats to pretend to lend an ear to a vox populi bitten by insupportable taxes and business crippling regulations. Autocratic indifference to the plight of common folk in 1789 gave rise, as we know, to a French Revolution that swept a self-satisfied, tin-eared administrative state from power. Guillotines were everywhere.

Comments

peter brush said…
This is not the time to reverse our path or trajectory.
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Like a missile or satellite our democratic bureaucracy has been deliberately set in motion, but is now fundamentally out of control. Whereas our Nutmeg ancestors gave us a self-governing republic we now have social welfare fascism hell-bent on ever increasing taxation and social engineering. One would think that perhaps after five or six decades of failed and bankrupting public policies we highly educated Nutmeggers might take reality into account, might be, as they say, "somewhat realistic," but we are an ideological trajectory.
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Daniela Giordano, public policy director of the National Alliance of Mental Illness, said that people could end up in prison or homeless if they can't receive the services they need.

"No one wants to see new taxes, but we want to have fair taxes," Giordano said. "The finance committee put together a package that promotes balance and fairness in our system."

Giordano told Republicans that their alternative plan was "somewhat unrealistic" for relying on labor savings when the state employees unions have not yet agreed to such savings.
------------------
President Merkin Muffley: And why haven't you radioed the plans countermanding the go-code?
General "Buck" Turgidson: Well, I'm afraid we're unable to communicate with any of the aircraft.
President Merkin Muffley: Why?
General "Buck" Turgidson: As you may recall, sir, one of the provisions of Plan 'R' provides that once the go-code is received, the normal SSB Radios in the aircraft are switched into a special coded device which I believe is designated as CRM-114. Now, in order to prevent the enemy from issuing fake or confusing orders, CRM-114 is designed not to receive at all - unless the message is preceded by the correct three-letter recall code group prefix.
President Merkin Muffley: Then do you mean to tell me, General Turgidson, that you will be unable to recall the aircraft?
General "Buck" Turgidson: That's about the size of it. However, we are plowing through every possible three-letter combination of the code. But since there are 17,000 permutations... it's going to take us about two-and-a-half days to transmit them all.
President Merkin Muffley: How soon did you say our planes will be entering Russian radar cover?
General "Buck" Turgidson: About 18 minutes from now, sir.

"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"
Steve Berke said…
I enjoyed reading your article. Please make more interesting topics like this on.
I'll come back for more :)

From Japs a researcher from Always Open Commerce

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