Droves Of People Are Leaving Our State Because We Tax Them Way Too Much. If We Give Them A Little Bitty Bonus To Stay, They Will Not Leave. Then We Can Continue Taxing Them Way To Much.

I apologize for this Blog Posting being so long but there is a lot of Silliness in Connecticut.

Somewhere in Connecticut’s past this bullet-pointed conversation happened in their State House...

Ø We need more money.

Ø I have an idea. Let’s tax the other 49 States.

Ø We don’t have the power to do that.

Ø Are you sure we don’t?

Ø I’m not certain and I will check on it but, for the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that we don’t have that power. Let’s continue to kick around some ideas about how we can increase revenue.

Silence...

Ø What about cutting spending?

Ø Come on now! We were not sent up here to not spend money. We were sent here to spend money and we have done an excellent job of that, if I do say so myself.

Silence...

Ø I guess we will have to tax the people here in Connecticut.

Ø Do you think they will stand for that? We have started to hear rumblings that they have started to take note of what we have been doing to them.

Ø They have rumbled before. We have not pushed them to the breaking point. Besides, Football Season starts this weekend and they will not pay any attention to us till early February and, we all know what follows February, March (Basketball) Madness. Trust me.

Ø OK, I’ll defer to your political savvy. You were right about the last 12 tax increases.

Ø Let’s go to Happy Hour.

Ø You know you said the same thing after we decided to enact the last 12 tax increases.

 

What caused The Fella to start pecking out a Foolishness...Or Is It? about little ole Connecticut? To find the answer, read on and learn about Connecticut’s Tale of Taxation Woe...

Ø Connecticut’s progressive tax experiment has hit a wall.

Ø Tens of thousands of residents are leaving for lower tax states.

Ø 25 years ago Connecticut was a low-tax haven for Northeasterners.

Ø In 1991 the state enacted an income tax and it was later made steeply progressive.

Ø The Slippery Slope started doing its slippery thing but, as is usually the case with taxes, it was upward slippery.

Ø In a fine example of Taxpayer Trickery, the top rate on individuals earning $500,000 or more has been lifted to 6.99%.

Ø The beleaguered taxpayers of Connecticut breathed a huge sigh of relief because they had feared that the rate was going to go up to 7%.

Ø Many taxpayers were heard to say, “I’m going to find out if my representative voted to keep the rate below 7%, and if he did, I’m going to be sure to vote for him again”.

Ø In 2012 the Tax Foundation ranked Connecticut’s state and local tax burden second highest in the country behind New York.

Ø Due to recent Property and Income Tax Hikes, Connecticut may now be in the lead.

Ø You don’t need a Yale degree to figure out that the tax hikes have been a disaster.

Ø A net 30,000 residents moved to other states last year.

Ø Since 2010 seven of Connecticut’s eight counties have lost population.

Ø In the last five years, 27,400 Connecticut residents have moved to Florida.

Ø More than 3,000 Connecticut residents have moved to zero income-tax New Hampshire in the last two years.

Ø In a fine example of the Blind Leading the Stupid, many Legislators are denying that tax policies influence personal or business decisions.

Ø After losing General Electric last year, the Governor bribed the hedge funds Bridgewater and AQR Capital with $57 million in taxpayer subsidies not to leave the state.

Ø Other beneficiaries of the Governor’s corporate welfare include Cigna, NBC Sports, ESPN and Charter Communications. (If these giveaways continue, Connecticut is going to have to raise taxes.)

Ø Legislators have now taken the subsidy idea one step further by proposing a tax credit averaging $1,200 for grads of Connecticut colleges who live in the state to stay in the state after graduation.

Ø It is estimated this tax credit would cost the state $6 million each year assuming only 10% of eligible college grads sign on.

Ø They better pray that more than 10% don’t decide to take the State up on this silly offer. (If these giveaways continue, Connecticut is going to have to raise taxes.)

Ø The elephant in the room is a main reason young people are escaping is the lack of job opportunities because businesses are leaving because of high taxes.

Ø Since 2010 employment in Connecticut has grown at half the rate of Massachusetts and more slowly than in Rhode Island or New Jersey.

Ø Meanwhile, Legislators are worried about a projected $1.7 billion budget deficit next year because tax revenues keep trailing projections. (No Chit Sherlock!)

Ø To make matters worse, the state’s teacher pension bill is projected to grow by a third over the next two years.

Ø The Legislators who are causing all this mess have a solution. Some of these mental midgets want to impose a 19% tax on hedge funds’ carried interest.

 

By now you are thinking I made all this up.

 

It looks like many of the $1,200 We’re Gonna Stay Here (Wink Wink) Graduates will use the money to spend on Graduation Parties and then they will move out of state to get a job.

 

I have an idea! They ought to do is build a Wall around Connecticut!

 

Did I just hear you say a Wall is a silly idea? Do you want to read something sillier? If so, scroll back up this Foolishness and read Connecticut’s Tale of Taxation Woe again.

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella