[Raider111]

Originally Posted by Sigequinox

It's more than "not taxed" is what it is. Not like groceries are a one time purchase either. I can:

-Fill up on gas for the week
-Go snowboarding
-Pay all 3 of my internet subscription services for the month (netflix/hulu/amazon prime)
-buy my wife flowers
-pay garage parking at school for 1-2 months
-buy lunch for an entire week @ work
-drink copious amounts of red bull to dredge through all my responsibilities for 2 weeks
-dog food for month
-electricity for over a week
-water for like, a year
-take out dinner so wife and I don't have to cook
-17 power ball plays (or is that "too last week?")
-movie with overpriced popcorn AND soda for two
-100 rounds of 9mm ammo
-groupon massage for wife
-actually dozens (hundreds?) of things on groupon in that price range
-uber from house to one of CTs crappy cities
-driveway plowed after big storm
-1 year supply of gas and fuel stabilizer for snow blower, mower and chain saw
-write 35 erroneous and unsigned 1$ checks to CT tax department to waste their time and money as they do mine
-xmas present for nephew
-xmas present for niece
-rent a textbook from amazon for one semester
-EZpass for 3 trips to visit friends and family on LI
-35 more dollars worth of groceries?
-a 48.6% chance of turning into 70 bucks on black at the Mohegan Sun casino (joke)
-blah blah blah


Plenty of things vying for my 35 dollars. Happy to hear you have enough means to not care. But again, like original responder asked, what will CT do with it? Plenty I can do...

I interpreted as $30 total grocery bill with $4 tax = $34. That poster's posts are generally clear as mud, my mistake.
Helluva list though, you have one for $4 handy?

[Sigequinox]

Originally Posted by Raider111

I interpreted as $30 total grocery bill with $4 tax = $34. That poster's posts are generally clear as mud, my mistake.
Helluva list though, you have one for $4 handy?

ha, if that's the case, "my bad". and no, 4$ is a tough one...Maybe 48.6% chance of turning it into 8 dollars on No Minimum Degenerate Gambler Day at the casino?

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by Sigequinox

ha, if that's the case, "my bad". and no, 4$ is a tough one...Maybe 48.6% chance of turning it into 8 dollars on No Minimum Degenerate Gambler Day at the casino?

48.6% -- Not at our casinos. Tightest slots I've ever played.

[Sigequinox]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

48.6% -- Not at our casinos. Tightest slots I've ever played.

Roulette my friend. Just me, 2 Chinese guys and a bunch of old ladies all chain smoking cigarettes and living a life of pure chance

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by Sigequinox

Roulette my friend. Just me, 2 Chinese guys and a bunch of old ladies all chain smoking cigarettes and living a life of pure chance

I'm nominating this for CD post of the year.

[BPt111]

Connecticut Residents Face 2nd Highest State-Local Tax Burden in U.S. | Bridgeport Daily Voice

[Mr_250]

Has anyone been following the news about the budget lately? GE took over and that was the rage but take a gander at where we stand on the current budget forecast.

Some key points.
Personal income revenue is down $75m and expected to grow because of Wall Street.
Corporate income tax is up $50m
Some agencies are running multi million dollars over budget.

All and all, the thing that I see is the personal income down. Proves we are losing good paying jobs and replacing them with lower paying jobs (see home prices as well.)

Next year is forecasted to be a $500m deficit but Lembo is coming out in 2 weeks on a way to erase that. My guess, increase taxes and cut aid to towns which will again increase our taxes.

The GE thing sucks but like a bandaid the pain is only temporary. I'm more concerned with the heart.

[ctguy87]

I think 2016 is going to be a tough year. Fairfield County is heavily tied to Wall Street and hedge funds - the stock market, posting impressive gains for the last 7 years, is at best leveling off and at worst tanking. I think it'll be a down year (compared to the rest of this decade) in hiring, bonuses, wage growth, stocks, etc. which will have a direct correlation on state income tax revenue. While CT doesn't exactly have an oil industry, it makes up a major component of the markets, and it will suffer throughout 2016.

The severity is still to be determined.

[mlassoff]

Just on the train after a meeting in Stamford convened by Congressman Himes and attended by entrepreneurs service providers and a few government officials. The meeting was scheduled before the GE announcement, but was about the economic future of Connecticut.

A couple of takeaways:

1) The state government doesn't seem to have a cohesive vision when it comes to the economic future.
2) Economic Development programs we have are very siloed and don't seem to collaborate where the greatest good could be done.
3) Brain drain-- Our most talented college graduates leaving-- is one of the biggest obstacles we face. We have a bit of a chicken and egg problem here. To get new, innovative ventures going we need entrepreneurs and investment. We don't have the density of entrepreneurs to interest investors, so Connecticut investors invest elsewhere. We don't have a plethora of investors so many serious entrepreneurs go elsewhere.
4) There's a lot of work to be done on a cohesive sense of community among entrepreneurs, preentreprenuers, etc. in CT. Strong starts have been made with The Grove, reSET, and other concerns, but we're not all marching in the same direction and theres little to coalesce around as in Boston, Austin ,etc.
5) Our school programs are siloed as well.

Did you know we're an aerospace state with out a serious aerospace engineer program the university level

There were many other take aways as well. There are a lot of smart people who care deeply about this problem and want to see in Connecticut succeed.

Not one person-- entrepreneur or otherwise raised the issue of taxation. Regulatory issues were mentioned, but nothing about the tax structure being a strongly prohibitive factor.

[JayCT]

Despite all the doom and gloom being spread here, Connecticut still has the second highest concentration of millionaires in the country. Maryland is first but much of that I suspect is tied to Washington DC. Jay

CT has second highest concentration of millionaires | HartfordBusiness.com