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Wednesday, May 4, 2016

The Connecticut Budget Deal

The Connecticut Democrats have reached a deal on how to balance the state budget.  They are going to "cut" $830 million in spending.  Governor Malloy was involved in the end of the negotiations.  As usual in Hartford, the Democrats did not even bother to involve the Republicans in the process.

The details of the deal have not been disclosed to the public, but they are being voted on today in the legislature.  It's amazing really when you think about it.  The Democrats make a deal for major budget cuts, but they won't tell anyone about the nature of the cuts until moments before they vote on them.  That's supposed to be democracy?  All that we know is that there will be some layoffs of state workers and that some agencies will suffer cuts. 

You may wonder how it can be that such a large cut is needed to balance the budget.  After all, it was just last year that the Democrats put in place huge tax increases that were going to balance the budget for years to come.  As usual, however, the big tax increases led to people moving business outside the state and otherwise changing their behavior to minimize taxes.  The state economy was hurt but the revenue raised was no where near what had been predicted.  We have higher taxes, a worse economy, poorer future prospects, and we still have major budget cuts.

Sadly, it does not seem that the Democrats in Hartford will ever learn.

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