By Edward Dadakis
Columnist
I’m a huge fan of the I Love Lucy television series. Growing up, I must’ve seen every episode many times over. My sisters loved to make fun of me because I could tell them what the whole episode was about after just watching for 15 seconds.
If you too enjoyed the show (and who didn’t?), you’ll recall that whenever Lucy pulled some knuckleheaded stunt (almost every week), Ricky would turn to her and say with his Cuban accent, “Lucy, you’ve got some ’splaining to do.”
Well, after their knuckleheaded stunt of chasing GE headquarters from Connecticut, Dan Malloy and legislative Democrats “have some ’splaining to do” to the citizens of Connecticut.
But rather than explain, Democrats are spinning and dodging so fast they’ve got to be dizzy blaming everyone in sight except themselves. Despite prima facie evidence to the contrary, Democrats deny they had anything to do with GE leaving Connecticut.
Insisting their tax policies were irrelevant to GE’s departure, Democrats claim it was GE’s desire for an urban rather than suburban environment that caused their move. Malarkey!! Perhaps that is why they chose Boston, but there is no question that GE left Connecticut over taxes, excess regulation and a bleak future. A recent report from Moody’s has confirmed as much.
GE is simply the highest profile case proving the abject failure of liberal Democrat policies of enormously higher taxes, enormously higher spending, and enormously greater regulation. You add these policies to the arrogance of state Democrats denying that anyone or any company would leave Connecticut and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. My fear is that GE isn’t the last company to abandon our state.
Unless Democrats snap out of their state of denial and honestly address this problem, Connecticut will never solve its “permanent fiscal crisis,” as Malloy’s budget director Ben Barnes calls it. It begins by reining in out of control spending and observing the constitutional spending cap. If that means freezing all state pensions, let the process begin. Because after two enormous tax increases (2011 and 2015) Connecticut’s fiscal future remains grim.
As a result, more and more people are moving away. The Hartford Courant reported about 26,000 more people moved out of state then moved in between July 2013 and July 2014. That amounts to the third largest percentage population decrease of any state. You can bet that the departure is skewed toward the more high-paying taxpayers. The impact is already being felt as information emerges that income tax receipts this year are lower than expected. Despite the emergency December legislative session in which Democrats claimed to have fixed the deficit, all reports are that a huge deficit is still looming.
Democrats have had fair warning about the drop in income tax receipts. Two years ago, a survey said that half of Connecticut residents wanted to leave the state. Instead of looking for a solution, legislative Democrats doubled down on failure.
Democrats also need an attitude adjustment. Perhaps they can alter their presumption that they are entitled to take as much as they want from the earnings of people and corporations. Maybe they will stop ridiculing taxpayers with such suggestions as, “You can pay the higher taxes we’ve imposed just by not using the yacht one weekend.”
And if they want to chase more people and companies out of state, they should keep talking about a mansion tax on any house valued at more than $500,000. Connecticut taxpayers are doing their part by paying more than their fair share; it’s time Democrats start doing their part.
Driving GE from the state is just one of the results of the Democrat policies that have done enormous harm to our wonderful state. Perhaps this November, Connecticut voters will send a Republican majority to the state legislature. Then we can finally start the healing process and make our state great again.
Edward Dadakis, a lifelong Greenwich resident, has served more then 35 years on the RTM, having been first elected as one of its youngest members. He is a former chairman of the Greenwich Republican Party and currently represents our 36th Senatorial District on the Connecticut Republican State Central Committee.
