CT Democrats continue their drive to make this state as unpopular as possible for businesses and the middle class which will only serve to drive more tax payers and businesses out of the state.

New budget includes $200 million income tax hit on middle class
http://ctmirror.org/2015/06/01/new-budget-includes-200-million-income-tax-hit-on-middle-class/

A last-minute component of the new two-year state budget deal includes a $100 million-per-year income tax hike on Connecticut’s middle class, sources confirmed early Monday.

That hike would not come in the form of increased paycheck withholding, but rather by reducing the credit households can claim to offset their local property tax payments from $300 to $200. It also would change eligibility rules that further reduce the relief some households would receive.

More importantly, this has the potential to weaken a major Democratic initiative to expand middle class tax relief through increased aid to municipalities. This new tax hike, coupled with the value of a canceled sales tax break on clothing, slightly surpasses the increased aid being sent to cities and towns.

The new proposed reduction in the property tax credit is part of a larger effort to reform municipal aid and the local property tax system.

The new budget will dedicate about one-half of 1 percent of receipts from Connecticut’s sales tax – or about $435 million over two years – to cities and towns to mitigate property taxes.

The property tax relief effort includes several components, including a two-step effort to cap municipal property taxes on motor vehicles at 29.4 mills. According to nonpartisan analysts, this would save local taxpayers in nearly 60 communities more than $80 million per year when fully implemented. The initiative also bolsters payments to communities to offset the revenue they lose because property owned by the state, private colleges and hospitals is exempt from local taxation.

<see link for rest of article>

Roughly 40% of our taxes are paid out to state employees, their pensions and health care. We have over 80,000 state employees and growing to serve a rapidly dwindling populace. I see a problem here.

Yeah, they have NO clue what so ever.

I'm leaving this cruddy, corrupt state.  My wife lost her job 2 months ago and may have an opportunity in Charleston SC.  Just moving up the schedule. ...

If you think the state employees are the problem your mistaken. The majority of our tax money is being shit out to the low income family's and non working bums  throughout various programs. The amount of free money the state gives out blows away the salarys of the state workers

Actually the largest expenditure in the state budget is, like with many cities and towns budges, education at 28.9%. Non-Functional is the next largest slice at 24.6%. Human Services follows at 17.2% with Health & Hospitals at 10.2%.
http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/Budget.php

GENERAL FUND APPROPRIATIONS for FY 15
Education: 28.9%
Non-Functional: 24.6%
Human Services: 17.2%
Health & Hospitals: 10.2%
Corrections: 8.5%
General Government: 3.9%
Judicial: 3.4%
Reg. & Protection: 1.6%
Cnsrv. & Development: 1.2%
Legislative: 0.5%

Don't worry, a new casino and liquor stores being open later will save us.

I appreciate your use of facts.  Hopefully someday soon others in the state and maybe...God forbid....in this thread, will make use of them for future rants.  Some people are unfuckingbelievable.

Guess the governor will play off his no new taxes pledge on the legislature who can't seem to spend money fast enough.

By no means do my wife and I make a lot of money....
But it's outrageous how we make good salaries and barely break even with our CT taxes.
If you go back in time when my grandfather was my age, he was the sole worker with 2 kids and was able to own 1 home and 1 rental home on 1 salary.
All as a grunt at EB...WTF are we doing wrong?

It will get a lot worse before it gets better.

Conndj I appreciate your input and point of view.

As a state employee your almost as guilty as me working in Finance/Wall Street. I jk.

You want to know exactly what the State is spending money on:

Governor's proposed 2015 budget

You can go through it line by line.

Line by line facts.... Very interesting

Actually, salaries paid to state employees IS a major factor when you consider that there are 80k of them in this tiny state.  The fact is that, under any administration, state positions seem to continue to grow like mushrooms after a warm rain and never go backwards.  And, while not in every case,  the salaries they are paid are truly excessive in compared to civilian roles.  Civilians,  like most of us, are at-will employees and we don't have the guarantees of employment, advancement, and security afforded to state employees.  And, before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I'll be the first to admit that state employees were treated poorly for decades.  No kidding.  Times were different and now, all these decades beyond those dark days, we should be finished with the 'reparations' that were gifted to them (35 hour work weeks for example) and we should be on an even keel today.  This state has tied that millstone of state-employee guarantees around it's neck so when you look at the budget, almost 1/2 of it pays them first, never to be challenged or reduced just like what we're exposed to.

I'd like to plug this website here:  http://ctsunlight.org/

Just click on any of these tabs to see every single salary or pension being paid out. Count how many pages down from the top at the DEEEEEP, for instance, to see when someone isn't making $100,000.  How many "executives" do we need there anyway?   And, I'm not saying that I'm against paying for quality.  I just don't think we're getting our money's worth but we can't do anything about it because they are "protected" by the governor's mansion.

Rome

Yep. Most people don't look at the numbers. Much easier to argue based on emotions or party talking points. "Personal Services" makes up a majority of the expenditure for many of the departments.

Lets face it. No one is interested in really dealing with the budget issue. No one is really interested in having a serious discussion on this subject and ways to fix it. To have a serious discussion in this issue means people (voters, tax payers, non tax payers, politicians, and others) have to confront some very ugly truths about their own actions that have lead to the current state of affairs. The reality is that much like with private business the state employee's salary and benefits are a major budgetary expense. To deal honestly with the budget means setting aside one's political ideology and dealing with basic math. No, its much easier to simply demand more taxes to pay for one's pet projects, for more pork, more state employees, or the promised benefits package promised to state employees. Many politicians know they won't be voted out for passing huge tax increases so why not continue to raise them and let someone else at some future point deal with the consequences?

CT will continue to circle the toilet bowl because no one, not the voters and not the politicians are interested in seriously solving the problems that face this state. So those who ultimately foot the bill, the private sector tax payer and private sector businesses leave in droves as the taxes, rules and regulations are ever increased. At some point the state will be unable to squeeze the money it needs from the private sector to fund the government staffing, programs and spending. At some point when the scales finally tip there will be no more money available to take from the people. At some point this house of cards that has been build over the last 50+ years by progressive politicians will collapse.

There are huge tax increases on businesses. My boss told me that they will have to pay taxes on things like paying an engineering firm for their services so a product could be taxed multiple times by he time it hits the customer.

It's not just this budget that is the isssue but the general health of the stae going forward.  At some point we will have to deal with the massive underfunded pension liability of the state employees, which depending on who is doin gthe calcuilations id somewhere between $24.5 Billion and $76.8 Billion:

"The analysis conducted by J. Scott Moody, CEO of State Budget Solutions, and Wendy Warcholik, of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, concluded that Connecticut’s unfunded pension liability is much greater than the $24.5 billion reported by the state. Moody and Warcholik found the “real unfunded pension liability is $76.8 billion, or 213 percent higher than current forecasts.”

Now this not just a pulic sector issue or even just a CT issue.  Teamsters and other Unions are just as underfunded and every state has the same issue.  There are litterally Trillions of dollars pledged as obligations to retireees and nobody has any idea where the money is going to come from or if the organizations and funds are just going to default/restructure so retirees get lees than promised.  It's fucked all around.

this looks like is will pass. major company's are going to fly out of ct.

I saw that too. Just one of many industries to which they want to start applying sales tax. For the firms who work for in-state clients, the cost will filter down to the tax payers. For those of us focused on out-of-state clients, we will have to move. I can't see any other answer to adding a 6% penalty to CT firms only.

The CT house passed the $40 billion budget.

Hartford Courant Link

ETA:

bend over, here it comes

I know of 2 large firms that are about to say the exact same thing to Malloy and company. I hope these firms fire everyone and just leave. Both are financial services.

i would laugh if all of the majors left. Walmart/ home depot/ lowes would be hilarious

Majors? Think GE, Aetna, Travelers.

My daughter moved to Georgia a year ago and loves it there.  Got a job at twice what they were paying her up here to do the same thing.  My plans are to retire in Maine with the rest of my family and get the hell out of here.  No way am I paying for Malloy's billions in roads for another 30 years.





 

I have this neighbor that is only 35 years old.  Lives with her boyfriend and has been on state aid for years and years.  I don't know how she does it but they give her assistance and she's on the state Husky insurance plan for free.  Oh yeah she just had her third kid, all on the state.  The other two are grown so why not start over?  She started very young.  I don't know how they get away with it.  



 

Walmarts net worth is almost triple that of ge

ge is big, but is almost dead even with home depot , lowes close behind.

In net worth, yes. In contributions to the economy of CT, not even close.

ETA:  Walmart employs 50% more people than GE, but GE pays the avg employee several times as much as Walmart.

so your saying ct residents spend more money at ge, aetna, and travelers every year then walmart, home depot and lowes?

No, I'm saying GE, Aetna and Travelers pump several times more money into CT in the form of wages than Walmart, HD and Lowes.

ETA: and those are the jobs that support the real estate market and property valuations which fund municipalities.

they pump more money yes, but volume of jobs, im not sure. Walmart alone employees close to 9000 employees in ct , i think ge has a number in that area.

it seems that they are about even over all not that i do the research.

These are 10-year old employment numbers but:
Walmart ~ 9k
GE ~6k
Aetna ~7k
Travelers ~6k

Lowes and HD didn't even make the top 25.

lowes and hd make up for about 6000 total jobs

edit 6000 jobs

The issue isn't so much the large companies leaving or laying off people its how these new and raised taxes will affect small businesses where most people who pay taxes are employed. Couple this increase in taxes with the double digit increase in health care Obamacare rates next year and its liable to be a double whammy that will cripple many small businesses within this state.

For the large companies who threaten to move. I would venture to guess that most of them are making waves as a bargaining effort to get the state to throw money at them (tax incentives) to keep them here. Malloy and the other progressives don't care if the  local hair salon in your town goes out of business and lays off 10 people as that won't make news headlines. But when a corporation with several thousand employees announces it is investigating moving out of state, that is majorly bad optics for Malloy and the rest of the legislature that will be reported in both the local media and the national media. One only has to look around at all the empty store fronts where there used to be businesses 5 or 10 years ago to see that the state isn't interested in trying to encourage small business growth.

GE employs a lot more than 6k jobs in Ct I can tell you that first hand.
GE Capital- Norwalk has about 5k alone,Stamford another 700, Danbury another 100-200
GE corporate in Fairfield another 3k
Than throw in GE asset management,synchrony,GECA,GECI,GE Medical, and the other GE business scattered around.
But just by using your numbers I guarantee the 6k GE jobs add a lot more to Ct tax rolls than the 9k Walmart jobs,hell I would say you could say 6k GE jobs add more to the tax rolls than 20k Walmart jobs

Agreed.

GE threatening to leave a state because of idiotic tax policies? It's like Déjà vu all over again.

I'm cool with daisy dukes making a comeback, but bell bottoms? No, just no.

GE has paid 0 in taxes for I think 4 or5 years in a row. It would not surprise me if GE moved its operations to a tax friendly state

It doesn't necessarily have to be a tax friendly state. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the 12345 zip code become a tax free zone for a decade or two.

GE/Aetna/Travellers will all get a bribe. I think the insurance companies will take Dannel's bribe.

I'm sure something like this will happen. They will make an offer they can refuse like not taxing those particular company's for 5-10 years. Keeping them here and keeping the smokescreen going .

So has this shit passed yet?  Waiting for the butthurt from GE and the rest when they leave, I really hope they leave.

Yup passed . Ship is gonna sink faster than the titantic now

A few days back the head of finance at GE sent an email out asking employees to contact their legislatures and the the governor to express their displeasure over the tax increases....that's pretty telling about the butthurt GE feels over the tax increases.

im wondering what dumb statement the state will make when these company's actually announce leaving.

"This is a pro competition law, and the evil big corporations are afraid to compete with the small CT businesses." "This new budget shows that CT stands with small business"

or somehow they will blame the gun owner or NRA

The Hartford Courant, not known for it's conservative bent, had a scathing editorial today.  Sen. Kissel sent it out to the field today for us to read.  It paints a pretty dire picture pointing out how the state employees weren't even asked for any help in this budget at all.  At least when Rell was in the gov's seat, she wasn't really a strong conservative voice for us but she was a hefty speedbump, keeping the majority Dems at bay with the veto pen when needed.  The 'bluebloods' in this state put the Dems in power (with the help of extremely poor candidates from the republicans in town)  thinking that that's what CT needed.  Now, however, after 6 years of their tripe, one wonders if they will have the votes to remain in power after the next election.  Had you asked me this two years ago I would have said that they most assuredly would.  Today, not so much.  It might be that the citizens in this state are finally waking up to the fact that we're so broke it's not funny and we may not be able to turn the corner very fast now that we've gone down so deeply on this path of spend and tax.   Changing the course of the ship of state is not an easy thing to do.  Too many of the crew may have abandoned her and that would make it even harder.  

I believe that we will now see companies pack up and leave.  This morning on Jim Vicevich's show one medium size company ceo called in and had a somber discussion with Jim about their intentions to leave in the very near future having had enough.  He also said that any responsible company would be having this discussion in their boardrooms this morning asking for suggestions about how they should proceed.  I listened hard to this fella.  You could tell that he's much rather be working to build his business rather than wondering how they will move lock,stock, and barrel.  It is going to happen.  Mr. Malloy and his ignorant tax and spend friend Mr. Looney will be waving good-bye to the tax base of many towns including Fairfield county that, really up to now, hadn't really been bothered.  

All my wife and I want to be able to do is sell our home at a fair price and move on.  With the way things are going tax-wise, people may be able to afford the mortgage but will not want to be paying the tax bill......not when it might be 1/2 again of the mortgage! That's where we're headed.

Rome

the voters will never wake up. the corruption runs deep and is spit out by the media first hand. the mob believes any bullshit story that come out of the capitol. so in theory, the governor and his loons can run the state as they see fit, and nothing can be done about it. even after the state collapses and all the good jobs are gone, they will be able to continue down this road by shoving money around and raising taxes.

Yup

I didn't hear the business guy call in, but I tuned in shortly after it. A guy from Torrington was saying how the guy was lying, and nobody was leaving CT and that the budget is great because he will be saving 400 bucks on car taxes. The rest of it doesn't matter because he doesn't smoke and can avoid buying stuff and nobody is going to move to Florida because it is one big swamp full of gators.

That's the kind of voter you have in CT.

Why would the people who continue to vote for their free stuff ever wake up? These people never feel the pain of higher taxes or a crappy economy, because the money keeps flowing. EBT cards are refreshed, rent is subsidized or paid for, electricity and heat are subsidized, phone and internet are subsidized, shit you can even get a fucking taxi, paid for by the state, to get you to your free healthcare appointment.

Take a look at the map from the last election. Awful lot of red in that picture, and look where the highest concentrations of blue are. Draw your own conclusions.

ETA: Direct link to the interactive map...2014 Election results by town

Exactly.

The red is leaving, and the ghettos are gonna take over. I cant wait to GTFO.

its not just the inner city ghetto, its the union workers as well. malloy gives them anything they want in return for votes