UConn To Malloy: It’s Not All Roses and Marigolds After All

The romance between Fred Carstensen of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis (CCEA) at UConn and the administration of Governor Dannel Malloy suffered a setback when Mr. Carstensen discovered that new data supplied by the federal government indicates a slowdown in business activity. For reasons that are not clear, the dip in job growth in Connecticut surprised Mr. Carstensen, the Candide of economic analysts in the northeast.

In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!

Prior to the passage of a state budget that imposes hefty revenue enhancers on Connecticut’s tax-whipped businesses and its suffering middle class, the CCEA predicted in February that Connecticut might well add 44,000 jobs in 2015 and 2016. This rosy estimate, Mr. Carstensen now says, was based on federal data that has been massively revised – and not for the better.

Earlier federal data showed strong job creation and output growth in Connecticut, but more recent data concerning the state’s gross state product (GSP) reduced promising estimates by more than $4 billion; the revised growth figure fell to a lowly 0.6 percent.

Based on the new and more accurate federal figures, CCEA is now reporting that Connecticut ‘s GSP growth in 2014 lags behind that of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and – adding insult to injury – “even Rhode Island.” The slowdown in business activity in Connecticut means that job creation in Connecticut during the next two years “will likely stall and may even now decline,” according to the revised CCEA report.

One policy in particular, the hospital tax, is especially onerous, Mr. Carstensen tardily advises.

In fiscal year 2011-2012, Connecticut imposed a $350 million annual tax on its hospitals, returning $400 million in state grants to the industry, a budget maneuver that allowed Connecticut to qualify, under Medicaid rules,” for a 50 percent federal reimbursement on its payments, or $200 million,” according to a report in CTMirror .

In order to accommodate persistent budget deficits, the Malloy administration and the Democrat dominated General Assembly steadily reduced its give-back amount to hospitals – but, significantly, the hospital tax remained constant. Reimbursement rates rose, state grants to hospitals were reduced and, predictably, the state forfeited its federal aid. This year, CTMirror reports, “will get back less than $96 million, and the state will receive about $65 million in aid – about $200 million less than it would have had payments to hospitals remained at 2011 levels.”

If Robert Burns, the author of “To A Mouse,” had been in charge of UConn’s Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, the Center’s job growth predictions might have been more accurate:

But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,

Casey Chadwick’s Uneasy Life after Death

Casey and her mother Wendy "I just started grief counseling. I'm always sad. I'm sad and in pain and I miss her." Wendy Hartling Hartling is the mother of Casey Chadwick, murdered in 2015 by Jean Jacques , an illegal Haitian immigrant. Jacques was convicted of the murder of Chadwick in a New London Superior Court jury trial and sentenced by Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed to a 60 year term in prison. Since Jacques is 44 years of age, the sentence was, in effect, a life sentence. Connecticut Commentary coverage of the Chadwick murder may be found here , and here and here . Jacques could not have been sentenced to death because Connecticut’s Democrat dominated General Assembly, under pressure from the state Supreme Court, had abolished Connecticut’s death penalty law in 2012 . The slaughter of Chadwick was particularly brutal. Her body had been found by a friend who, opening a door to a closet, discovered Chadwick stuffed in a dark corner drenched in blo...

Understanding North Korea Through Dramaturgy

The U.S. military is sending the Vinson Strike Group, including the carrier and two guided-missile destroyers, to operate in the Western Pacific Ocean in response to Pyongyang’s recent missile tests. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, asked about the strike force, issued a terse statement: “The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.” Is this a post-Syrian bombing mission? Will the US take out North Korea’s missile launching sites, possibly with the unspoken concurrence of China? Never let a bombing go to waste. There are some in the United States who think any such incident should be used to rid North Korea of that runty little totalitarian cock-of-the-walk who keeps his countrymen starved, in fear and at his knees. Since we only have one chance, they say, go for the clean sweep -- no more Kims. Connecticut Commentary is reprinting an earlier piece about the Kims here. Best read with a glass of port.

The Blumenthal Burisma Connection

Steve Hilton , a Fox News commentator who over the weekend had connected some Burisma corruption dots, had this to say about Connecticut U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal’s association with the tangled knot of corruption in Ukraine: “We cross-referenced the Senate co-sponsors of Ed Markey's Ukraine gas bill with the list of Democrats whom Burisma lobbyist, David Leiter, routinely gave money to and found another one -- one of the most sanctimonious of them all, actually -- Sen. Richard Blumenthal."

Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

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