[blakesq]

Originally Posted by RunD1987

Need to raise taxes, but also make long term budget goals. Can't do what we did to the hospitals again and the State is still in debt.

Yeah, raise taxes immediately and reduce spending at some indertiminate point in the future, that has worked so well in the past!!!

[Henry10]

Here is a comparo chart showing CT's tax burden through the 40 years, CT is now about the same with NYS and NJ, i.e. highest state and local tax burden.






Here is a Growth comparison with TX, ND, UT, Oregon, etc.

[East of the River]

Originally Posted by Henry10

Reagan had to spend enormously on defense. CT doesn't need to spend a cent. And yes, we can't just plop tax cuts and deregulation in ome day, but CT needs to start a correction in a methodical way. This will bring investment and consumer confidence up. Private investment (aka Capitalism) will flow in gradually. We can't fix in a few months problems we created in decades. But a corrective program, based on Capitalism and economic growth -- this we need to do.

Right but the state has a huge amount of debt and unfunded obligations. So we can't really just cut income and say it will be alright that's just as silly as raising taxes but not cutting spending.

[Mike 75]

The thing is none of this should be a surprise. State employee benefits and pensions have been a ticking time bomb for years now, but there has been no sense of urgency by the Malloy admin to address it. Its made worse by the fact that many of the large cities in the state are insolvent and the state funnels to them billions of dollars to keep them afloat. The reality is you can have one or the other, but not both. What has made this worse under Malloy is that these two gravy trains directly benefit large parts of the Democratic base, and he's been delaying choosing between the two, hoping that things would get better. They haven't, and now we're faced with this mess of a budget.

[Mr_250]

I doubt this budget is going to get passed the way it is. No way to get $1.5 billion back from state employees and no way 4200 jobs per year are going to be let go. First, the loss of 4200 jobs is not good because they are people and it would hurt the economy especially around Hartford where most work.

This was a Hail Mary from Malloy with no expectation to be completed. In the end you'll see higher taxes on corporations and wealthy. Some members of the administration already said this DOA and we now need to find new revenue streams.

Typcical bad cop good cop.

[Henry10]

You charge 3 dollars for a banana, and you cut it down to $ 2.50. And that's a favor? Oh, I forgot. The correct term is "austerity"

[Henry10]

Higher taxes for the wealthy and corporations -- sure. That'll fix CT's economy.

[East of the River]

Originally Posted by Henry10

Higher taxes for the wealthy and corporations -- sure. That'll fix CT's economy.

I agree it won't as states compete with each other. We need to keep our taxation slightly below our neighbors at the least.

[civis]

Originally Posted by Henry10

Taxation is just one piece of the puzzle.

CT has comparatively a very high level of taxation. CT has comparatively high level of social services. CT has comparatively a very high level of regulatory burden, CT has comparatively a low level of economic growth.

Sweden had the same things. The point here is the direction which Sweden took, and that CT should take. Encourage Capitalism, deregulate, privatize, cut services (aka spending). Not a rocket science.

I think you are delusional about Sweden - they didn't cut any "services". They still have twice more vacation time, almost fully paid unlimited sick days, free child care, free education and free health care, and laughably low property taxes - all these things cost a fortune in the US.

They do have higher income tax rates overall, as most other Nordic countries, which employ socially oriented economies, yet still highly competitive and efficient.

The problems with the US are:
1. racial segregation, which doesn't allow non-whites successfully integrate into the society, which eventually puts enormous stress on social system (crime, drugs - as a result excessive police force, excessive number of jailed people , excessive number of welfare clients).

2. Extremely inefficient governments, with what it seems high level of corruption, and lack of true competition especially from big corporations - result of legalized bribe schema called "lobbying", which create huge tax loopholes for businesses and price fixation by major players in health care and other areas.

3. Fake democracy system - only rich can be elected, which represent mostly rich, resulting in dis-balance in the society and very low number of voters.

I don't see anything done to resolve this neither by previous president, nor by current - for obvious reason, they also represent mostly rich.

[Henry10]

Originally Posted by civis

I think you are delusional about Sweden - they didn't cut any "services".

You either didn't read the article, or don't care for the facts. Sweden absolutely cut services (among other things). And did more than cutting.