[murk mags]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I agree. And yes, there are better places to live in Connecticut with lower taxes than Waterbury. But people seem to think it is strictly black and white which is just not true. Jay

And I agree, there are much better places to live than Waterbury. That being said, I do not see the point of buying another property in a tax heavy state that I feel I don't get jack for, nor do I fit in. I do not want to take the chance buying something else here in a state with finances in the ruin. Who knows how long the market will keep up for. A crash can severely impact any state, especially a state already struggling

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by ads94

That's not how budget cuts work. The majority of state aid to towns goes towards schools. When the state cuts this, the only thing the towns will do is... raise taxes, making our already high property taxes even worse.

It is my understanding that most, if not all, state and town employees of any note (e.g. salaried ones) are covered by contracts, union or otherwise. These are not things you can just say "we are cutting!" and then go to town on them.

There is no way to make "everyone feel the pain." SEBAC has an ironclad agreement that we cannot just toss out. By slashing everything else without making any revenue increases, you will get to the point where Connecticut's budget is 80% employee benefits, 10% debt payments, and 10% "other," to make qualify of life in the state miserable.

Frankly, this is the biggest reason Govt employees need unions. Every time the Govt comes up short someone wants to take it out of the employees pay and/or benefits. That isn't workable long term. The state has already made changes to the pension plans for all new hires. There is no more gravy train.

People are also forgetting that teachers DO NOT pay into social security so their town/state pension is their social security. If someone who has a state pension, but also qualifies for social security (perhaps by working a number of years outside of teaching) their social security payment will be adjusted down. This is referred to as the "Govt pension offset" or some call it a "windfall provision"

Please educate yourselves before spouting off about Govt employees and their benefits. All the benefit info is available online for free so you can research for yourself.

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by murk mags

How do you get out of something like this? People and businesses are fleeing... the people that put into the state coffers via taxes. The ones that collect welfare seem to stay and obviously they put very little, if anything into the system. If we keep raising taxes, more people will keep moving out. We keep cutting funding, people will find another place to live.
Property taxes in the Waterbury area are insane... 10.5K/year. The same sized house in Texas with 20 acres and you're paying like 1000/year.
How do you entice somebody to stay in the state when there are other options? There are many "For Sale" signs about. Many people I have talked to either say they are def moving or would like to move. It's very sad because this state back years ago was a great place to live. The scenery is awesome here too, and the proximity to NYC and Boston make it great for businesses.
The main thing is, how do you entice people to stay here? How do you keep businesses in the state? It's true that going to live elsewhere, especially the south, you'll probably make less. However, this is made up easily by saving on taxes. I did a quick cost of living calculator here on Citydata. I compared Waterbury and Tyler, TX. If I made 60k here, I'd only have to make 35k in Tyler to continue to live at my current standard. Another calculator I did on nerd wallet, I compared Hartford to Tyler. I'd need to make 45k in Tyler to continue to live my current lifestyle on 60k in Hartford.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-l...haven-vs-tyler

After you move to Tyler, TX please come back here and give us price comparisons. You should also forward that to your former CT representatives and tell them that's why you left.

It can be as simple as
Ct salary xx
TX salary xx
CT Property tax xx
TX Property tax xx
CT sales tax xx
TX sales tax XX
CT income tax xx
TX income tax xx

[ads94]

Originally Posted by MrGompers

Frankly, this is the biggest reason Govt employees need unions. Every time the Govt comes up short someone wants to take it out of the employees pay and/or benefits. That isn't workable long term. The state has already made changes to the pension plans for all new hires. There is no more gravy train.

People are also forgetting that teachers DO NOT pay into social security so their town/state pension is their social security. If someone who has a state pension, but also qualifies for social security (perhaps by working a number of years outside of teaching) their social security payment will be adjusted down. This is referred to as the "Govt pension offset" or some call it a "windfall provision"

Please educate yourselves before spouting off about Govt employees and their benefits. All the benefit info is available online for free so you can research for yourself.

You summed it up pretty good. I really dislike people who take aim at the current crop of state workers, or even the ones that retired when they had the chance. It was all perfectly within their rights to do so, and SEBAC has the full right to try and negotiate the best possible savings for their workers.

State employees are demonised constantly here and across the state. I am pretty sure there's far better pension and retirement plans in the private sector now than the current benefits offered by the state.

[hvexpatinct]

Why the heck don't teachers pay into SS in CT? They do in the majority of states now, and it seems like there is a bit of a correlation with budgetary challenges related to pension funding and states that don't have teachers contributing to SS.

[MikefromCT]

Originally Posted by ads94

You summed it up pretty good. I really dislike people who take aim at the current crop of state workers, or even the ones that retired when they had the chance. It was all perfectly within their rights to do so, and SEBAC has the full right to try and negotiate the best possible savings for their workers.

State employees are demonised constantly here and across the state. I am pretty sure there's far better pension and retirement plans in the private sector now than the current benefits offered by the state.

If that were the case, those of us in the private sector like myself would still be getting company pensions, and better pay. It used to be such that working in the public sector received modest paychecks but they were assured job security and had some retirement package. Now there's no tradeoff. Now they receive higher pay, better benefits, and more lucrative retirement packages. Then there's the private sector, where worker productivity has increased by over 200% since 1979 but their pay has only risen 6%.

[hvexpatinct]

Originally Posted by ads94

You summed it up pretty good. I really dislike people who take aim at the current crop of state workers, or even the ones that retired when they had the chance. It was all perfectly within their rights to do so, and SEBAC has the full right to try and negotiate the best possible savings for their workers.

State employees are demonised constantly here and across the state. I am pretty sure there's far better pension and retirement plans in the private sector now than the current benefits offered by the state.

I know probably a dozen couples where one spouse works in the private sector and the other in the public sector in CT. Every single one is using the public sector health plan because it is cheaper. I only had access to a pension in my first public sector job in the early 2000s and had to cash out in around 2005-2006.

[allanny13]

In Bloomberg today:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...talk-of-exodus

[BPt111]

Originally Posted by allanny13

In Bloomberg today:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...talk-of-exodus

If it happen more part time Flordia residents

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by allanny13

In Bloomberg today:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...talk-of-exodus

It is really confusing what the Republicans are doing with this tax bill. They’re going to increase taxes on the biggest big spending group with SALT elimination. And a fragile real estate market that’s just recovering could suffer too.