To the Editor:
Andrew Jackson supposedly said, “One man with courage makes a majority.” Had he met Leora Levy (“Leora Levy Continues to Work Hard,” Greenwich Sentinel, May 6), he wouldn’t have confined his observation to men only.
I’ve known Leora and her husband, Steve, for over 20 years and can attest to her boundless energy, sharp intelligence, relentless commitment, and ceaseless persistency to get Republican candidates elected at all levels in the town, state and country. Hopefully she’ll be successful in getting elected to the Republican National Committee. She certainly deserves it.
And few states need her skills, services, and results more than Connecticut. Since Governor Malloy and the Democratic legislature passed in 2011 the $2.5 billion increase in personal, corporate, and estate taxes, the state has suffered a net loss of 2.7 percent of its population, exceeded in percentage terms by only New York, New Jersey and Illinois.
The cumulative income of those departing exceeded the cumulative income of those arriving by nearly $2 billion each year, further diminishing the tax base. The top destination of those departing has been Florida, which has no state income tax or estate tax, and whose permanent residents (of which I am one), have their property tax increases capped at no more than 3 percent per year. While reviling and bashing the “1 percent” is all the rage in the media, academia, the entertainment industry, and among Democrats, low tax and no tax Florida runs consistent budget surpluses, while high tax Connecticut can’t close a billion dollar budget deficit.
Sadly, the people hurt most by the misguided policies of the governor and the Democratic legislature, are the ones they supposedly set out to help. In a state that has had a 20 to 25 percent black and Hispanic population over this period, the Blacks and Hispanics have comprised over 50 percent of the unemployed, meaning that their unemployment rate is more than double the statewide average. And this disadvantage has developed while Connecticut went from having had better than National rates of unemployment to worse than National.
From September 1997 to February 2012, Connecticut’s unemployment rate was consistently below the national average. From March 2012 on, it has been above the national average every single month, and as of March 2016, the gap is the highest it’s ever been, more than 10 percent higher. In addition, blacks and Hispanics earn from 55 to 72 percent of what whites earn. Connecticut youth (16- to-24-year-olds) have fared no better, experiencing unemployment rates that are double the statewide average. Therefore we see the Democratic and liberal solution to income inequality, which is making everyone worse off.
So now it’s shocking, but small wonder that in the 30-plus years I have lived in Greenwich that it’s the first time that I’ve seen the top block of Greenwich Avenue now appears to have more retail space vacant than occupied. However, this is just a microcosm of the far larger problem that Greenwich home prices have failed by a wide margin to attain their pre-financial crisis high, as they have done in many other parts of the U.S. The confluence of Dodd-Frank, which decimated and eviscerated the banking, finance, and investment industries on which this community so heavily depends, Obamacare, which raised the cost of health insurance for all those who pay for it, regardless of the source, and Comrade Malloy’s over-tax, over-spend, and over-regulate policies have brought one of the state’s and country’s most affluent communities to its current condition.
This country needs 100,000 Leora Levys to make America great again. Until we get them, thank goodness Greenwich and Connecticut have the one and only.
Robert Davidow
Greenwich and Palm Beach
