[nep321]

Also, here is Malloy's new plan to tax power generation for electric companies. The state will raise $58 million per year, because of this.

Malloy's Generation Tax Plan Sparks Controversy - Hartford Courant

[basehead617]

Originally Posted by Tin Knocker

Read up on how we came from a bunch of **** poor farmers & merchants to the richest most powerful country on the earth. It wasn't because of big govt & high taxes.

You're right, it was built on the backs of slavery first and foremost, and following that, slave wages to waves of immigrants - not to mention wretched working and living conditions for the vast majority of laborers.

Be careful what you wish for, those days could be upon us again.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

No, it's pushing the middle class out.

Yep, and what it's really doing (Speaking for the Hartford area at least) is keeping upper managment back office positions in CT, while the build work campuses in other parts of the country and world where the < 100K workers live and prosper.

I see it more and more. You have corporate execs in Avon or whatever, and the poor in Hartford and not much inbetween.

If it gets draconian enough, they'll just claim residence in FL or whatever and still live here.

Originally Posted by HeadedWest

Here's one view from NYC: Connecticut's gift to New York

I saw that, and what a slap in the face to our state...considering it's true.

[Tin Knocker]

When your talking about a state thats among the least business friendly and the least tax payer friendly its surprising anybody isn't leaving. As noted its a great place to be poor, just a poor plact to try to make a living or run a business. It is nice to know that they will take care of us after we get taxed into the poor house.

You dont need graphs & tables to understand a state that refuses to pass a budget it can afford is doing bad. Just common sense.

[Tin Knocker]

Originally Posted by HeadedWest

Here's one view from NYC: Connecticut's gift to New York

Beautiful aint it? I like this quote,

As for spending cuts -- well, "Connecticut would not be Connecticut if we cut $3.5 billion out of the budget." You see, says Malloy, "we are a strong, generous, hopeful people."

I guess that means its a matter of state pride to operate in a deficit & not deal with reality? How is acting irresponsibly a sign of strength? How is taking from the citizens generous? How is a refusal to deal with the reality of day to day life in CT hopeful? What we are is weak confused sheep & this governor doesn't care which of us are slaughtered in order to keep his dreams alive.

Out of 45,000 he can only find 150 jobs we can spare, with a 3.5 billion deficit. We need legislation making operating in a deficit illegal. We do things backwards. We need to work with what we have or reduce spending just like every household in America must do.

Its also stupid to depend on cigeretts & gas as we do. Even if we did operate within the real budget, money we already have, as time goes on less & less people smoke & more & more smokers die what replaces that lost revenue? Also as time goes by & cars get more & more efficient or turn to alternative fuels we will lose revenue generated by that. At some point the "tax bubble" will burst just like the one that screwed us up.

Why is it that otherwise intelligent people cannot see the folly of operating a govt with a total lack of financial responsibility? If you balance your checkbook, and we all do, you understand that with $500 you can only spend $500 and if that means you cant have what you had last month then it means you cant have what you had last month. Pretty simple.

NOBODY is owed more than the taxpayers in any given govt & only once thats realized will this stupidity stop.

[Tin Knocker]

Originally Posted by basehead617

You're right, it was built on the backs of slavery first and foremost, and following that, slave wages to waves of immigrants - not to mention wretched working and living conditions for the vast majority of laborers.

Be careful what you wish for, those days could be upon us again.

Not true. Slavery did little outside of the south & the south stayed backwards because of its dependence on slaves. Had they been more manufactureing oriented they might have won the war. We won because we had the industry & we had the industry because of successful capitalism.

We were all immigrants so I wont argue that thats what the country was built on. I will argue that if we go back towards bad working & living conditions it will be due to poverty caused by our current trend in just raising taxes instead of adressing issues.

[Tin Knocker]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

Some of both I think... Certain political segments certainly make more use of internet political chat venues than others...

I think they all know that most of us would much rather the state govt take the hit than the taxpayers, they just ignore it. How they determine how we feel dont matter if they simply ignore it.

There is no state government that completely limits its responsibilities to education, law enforcement, etc. The social safety net, child welfare, economic development are also critical state functions that lead to higher QOL and economic stability within a state.

Agreed, but there are many that do it with MUCH lower taxation than CT.
Many states get by without taxing motor vehicles as private property & many states dont whack a homeowner with, in my case almost $7000 a year in property taxes for a house, they dont hammer smokers or drivers as much & some dont have an income or sales tax. We have EVERY tax imaginable & all of them are higher than most other places, yet its not enough? QOL doesn't mean much if you cant afford to live. My children need to go to college too some day.

Taxes are the only part of the governor's plan that you choose to focus on. The combination/elimination of government agencies is a plan that will lead to considerable cost savings as well. The government has services it must provide. These are services that lead to the common good. No one is saying taxes don't hurt and these increases don't come at a bad time, but at he same time there has been years of institutional budget neglect in Connecticut and we all knew this day was coming.

I'm aware that theres services they need to provide, Now, if Malloys combination/elimination of governmental agencies will cut costs considerably then why does he need to raise taxes? How much can it possibly save if as I read its only eliminating some 150 jobs?

You mispoke when you said "There has BEEN years of institutional budget neglect" It continues unabatted obviously. He isn't fixing anything, he is contributing to it. But you are right when you said "we all knew this day was coming" It was bad enough with the RINO closet liberals that made it look like we had anything but a severe liberal tilt. Now theres no doubt about it & it'll drag us deeper faster than before.

Huh? I am quite sure you didn't.

Thats because you dont know my situation. I'v been living at a loss in this state for over 2 years since being laid off. Not a great time to try to start a business but a person needs to do what they need to do. Things are looking up slightly though, due in no way whatsoever to the new regime, and I hope to actually be able to replace some of my savings this year.

See, the answer when you are broke & your world falls apart is not in govt programs, or in the case of govt higher taxes. The answer is an HONEST evaluation of expenditures & cutting everything you can. At the same time you need to look at ways to boost income in a realistic way. I chose to go out & get a home improvement license & start doing ANYTHING I could to make money. I guess I coulda gone down town & filed for assistance or something, but thats not really doing anything to improve my position, just perpetuate it, just as raising taxes doesnt do anything to improve a failed economy, it just perpetuates it.

At any rate if you add up my property taxes, sales tax, gas tax, license costs & income tax it adds up to more than I actually turned in profit.
I'm not complaining about my life, it is what I made it & I actually love working in construction. I'm simply complaining about a state that never has enough money but thinks the answer is always to take more. Sometimes the answer is looking at you in the mirror. Our biggest problem in this state is the state itself. There is no excuse for us being in the red. Often people point at other states to justify ours, but in reality thats absurd. Few if any have as many taxes as we do all near the tops nationwide.

Example. I own property in NH. Their property taxes are higher than average & higher than ours. BUT, theres NO sales tax, theres NO income tax, gas & cig taxes are much lower too. In a situation like that one can understand relatively high property taxes. But in a state that taxes EVERYTHING, one would tend to think those taxes individually would be more moderate. Not the case here though, we are near the top in every tax we levy, yet its not enough. Its very hard to concieve of any reason this needs to be like it is.

[Astrid9]

I don't know...but it isn't helping the middle class much with taxes going up again. The income tax only applies if you make over $50,000 but that doesn't go far in Connecticut, so it will hurt the middle class. One of the reason me & my husband are getting the heck out of CT!

[JayCT]

There is already a thread going that is talking about the tax increases. We do not need another one talking about the same thing. I am therefore merging the two threads together. JayCT, Moderator

[nevada49]

I am retiring in a couple of months and looking to relocate to another state. I am only looking at low tax states. This state is near the top in every tax category and every time they raise taxes that is supposed to solve the problems, or so they say, but then they are standing there with their hand out again for more money. Other states seem to get by taxing people less. Tin Knocker mentioned New Hampshire, a real low tax state, but not on my list, as I am looking for warm weather. Not only no sales tax and no state income tax, but they get no federal highway funds because they do not enforce seat belt or helmet laws, their weather is worse than ours, but their highways are in great shape compared to ours. So how do they do it? Maybe some of our legislators should take a trip up there and find out. They also have those great state liquor stores, low prices and no sales tax.