America Continued from page 16 CONNECTICUT:


Americans for Tax Reform, and a leading advocate for lower taxes. “A bigger government wants more


to eat and more to do and it expands in every way because you made it big- ger, stronger, tougher, meaner, and richer.” Look around today and the eco-


nomic carnage of Connecticut’s sharp tax hikes are everywhere. According to CNBC, Connecticut’s


total state tax burden today is just over 10 percent of income, the sixth highest among the 50 states. As of October, despite its proximity


to New York City, its unemployment rate was 4.2 percent, compared to the record low national average of 3.7 per- cent.


From 2007 to 2017, when the U.S.


economy grew 13 percent, the Con- necticut economy actually declined — to 9.1 percent. Norquist says its citizens were “cheated.” “They were told, ‘Come here, we


don’t have income taxes.’ And then they put in an income tax, and their houses were worth less as a result, their jobs were worth less, their pay was worth less,” Norquist said. “Connecticut was one of the last


states that didn’t have an income tax, and they were promised that if they put in an income tax, the other taxes would go down and that this would help property taxes and everything else, and also increase government services. And that’s exactly what didn’t happen.” Connecticut’s economy has done somewhat better in 2018, but it still lags behind most other states benefit- ing from the recent strong economic growth. As conservative economists might


have predicted, due to the heavy eco- nomic impact, the tax hikes didn’t live up to their billing. Revenues initially rose after the 2009 and 2011 hikes. But they soon


18 NEWSMAX | JANUARY 2019


The Place Not to Be I


n a hit 1940s duet, Bing Crosby and Judy Garland crooned about Connecticut as “the place to be.” Today not so much. Young people, especially, think it’s the place not to be.


They’re leaving in droves. According to a USA Today analysis, Connecticut has the fourth fastest rate of population loss in the nation. The reason: Taxpayers are voting with their feet. In 2016, the state’s population


dropped by 0.2 percent. “Many of those leaving Connecticut are young, college- educated professionals,” the newspaper reports. Only West Virginia, Illinois, and Vermont experienced a faster rate of population loss, according to that report.


leveled off and began to drop in 2014, according to the pro-free market Yan- kee Institute for Public Policy, which is based in Connecticut. But at least Connecticut’s taxation- on-steroids plan put the state’s budget on a sounder financial footing, right? Wrong.


According to George Mason Uni-


versity’s most recent survey based on Fiscal Year 2016 statistics, Connecti- cut was in the second-worst fiscal con- dition of any state, just ahead of last place Illinois. The state’s biggest fiscal problem


may be its unfunded commitments to its public-sector workers. In the unholy alliance between public-sector unions and politicians willing to write checks that future office holders would have to make good on, Connecticut has run up obligations to its own workforce that it may not be able to pay. Its healthcare fund alone


is short $36 billion, accord- ing to a study by the Ameri- can Legislative Exchange Council. Still, that’s small pota-


toes compared to the state’s unfunded pension liability, which ranks behind Illinois’ as the second worst in the nation, at $71.2 bil- lion as of 2017, according to Moody’s. To put that in perspective, it is 359.8 percent of the state’s annual revenue. Yankee Institute President Carol


LAMONT


Platt Liebau tells Newsmax: “A lot of our distress stems from a truly disor- dered relationship between the state and its government unions. “Government unions wield an enormous amount of power here. There’s been little meaningful effort to rein in any sort of obligation that is provided for government employees.” A deal with Malloy extended gen-


erous state worker benefits through 2027. Liebau says the unfunded liabili- ties have become “a millstone around the neck of Connecticut’s economy, dragging it slowly under water — or not so slowly.” Despite the state’s growing eco-


nomic challenges, observers are skep- tical much will change until Connecti- cut voters balk. Connecticut backed Hillary Clinton over President Donald Trump by 14 points. But in the midterms,


another Democrat, Ned Lamont, squeaked into the governorship by three points over a Republican businessman who ran on phasing out the individual and corporate state income taxes while reducing other taxes too.


So will the tightness of his race


prompt Lamont to change the state’s direction? Says Norquist: “There’s no reason


to think he’s not just another tax and spender.”


CROSBY, GARLAND/BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES / LAMONT/BOB FALCETTI/GETTY IMAGES


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