Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Over the past 25 years, Connecticut has increased taxes by leaps and bounds. The first leap began when then Independent Governor Lowell “The Maverick” Weicker muscled through the General Assembly an income tax measure. Governor Dannel Malloy increased taxes twice. During his first term, he and the Democrat dominated General Assembly imposed on the state the largest tax increase in its history; and this was followed during his second term by the second largest tax increase in state history. Yet, despite all this new revenue flowing into state coffers, non-partisan budget analysts inform us that the budget deficit during the current fiscal year ending last June is $170 million. Looking forward to fiscal year 2017-18, the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA) has projected a deficit of about $1.3 billion. The budget deficit that had occasioned the introduction of the Weicker income tax was about $1.5 billion. The income tax itself was a permissive flag that inv...

The following address was given to the Wallingford Rotary at IL Monticello Restaurant in Meriden on Sept 2. I want to thank Mark Davis for inviting me to speak to you today. As you know, he’s been involved in the Wallingford Rotary for years. After you’ve put in productive years with Rotary, you acquire bragging rights, and this Rotary has much to boast of. Mark doesn’t hold back. He and others regard Rotary as the best volunteer social organization in the country and he’s proud to associate with this  Rotary in particular, which started in 1923 and has given nearly a million dollars in grants to nonprofits. You are to be congratulated on your energy, business intelligence and community concern.

It’s a little early in the political season for politicians and political watchers to be losing their tempers. But, then again, the stakes are high, particularly here in usually placid Connecticut, first in the nation in per capita debt. In an eye-opening op-ed column , retired state House Republican press secretary Joseph Santangelo reminds us that we are fast approaching the edge of the abyss. Connecticut’s tax supported debt is the highest in the country at $4,490 per person. Even Taxachussetts’ debt is lower. Nutmeggers owe $58.9 billion in unfunded obligations, which includes “outstanding debt, state employee pensions, teacher pensions, and retired state employee health and life insurance benefits, according to the state Office of Fiscal Analysis. For every man, woman and child in Connecticut, that means we each owe about $16,800, with no repayment plan in sight.” Assuming a recovery – The last post recession recovery in Connecticut was painfully slow; it took the state m...

Mark Davis of Channel 8 News, wise in the ways of provocation, created a momentary stir awhile back when he asked Sen. Hillary Clinton whether she had ever dated Connecticut’s Attorney General Dick Blumenthal while the two were students together at Yale. The question hit the usually scripted Hillary between the eyes, and she seemed for a moment genuinely surprised. But she quickly recovered, flashed her signature toothy smile, and momentarily dodged the question, which she thought “very personal.” Then she said “No, we were friends. We’ve been friends for a long time, and I think he’s a great public servant, and he’s done such an amazing job for the people of Connecticut, and I look to relying upon him and having his advise going in to my campaign and into the White House.” Asked the same question, Blumenthal said, “I never had the nerve to ask her, especially after Bill was involved.”