Issue Position: Economy

Issue Position

Will the last business to leave Connecticut please turn out the lights? Even though that commentary has been around for a long time, and is meant as a joke, it isn't funny that businesses and jobs are fleeing our state as if chased by a plague.

Companies are leaving because of the cost of energy, ever-increasing taxes, and insurance. Connecticut is now rated third from the bottom on the list of business friendly states. We are losing an entire generation of wage earners in the18-34 age range who have found better opportunities elsewhere.

High school and college graduates alike are finding better paychecks less taxation and lower costs of living out of state. Connecticut Department of Labor reports say the state continues to lose thousands of jobs each year. This cannot continue.

At home after home in towns across the 8th House District, voters are telling me of their frustration with upward spiraling taxes in the face of stagnant or declining incomes, and the Legislature's unwillingness to do anything about them.

A couple told me of their son-in-law who had to uproot his family and take a job in California; a truck driver had to close his own business and go to work for someone else due to rising fuel costs; a local business laid off workers this year for the first time in its 50-year history. Unfortunately these are not isolated stories, they are the norm.

If there is one issue besides the cost of energy that rates the "hot button" label, it is taxes - and property taxes in particular. As more businesses close and jobs are lost, the costs of government fall increasingly on the shoulders of property owners.

In the 1970s and 1980s many towns across the state talked about building small industrial parks to attract businesses that would help keep property taxes in balance. These parks brought business and jobs, accompanied an across-the-board assist for local taxpayers.

But the Legislature eroded that part of the tax base by continually increasing the cost of doing business in Connecticut. That in turn led to the ongoing outward migration of businesses and jobs. Business can not survive in an environment that does not allow it to profit and flourish, and if business can't flourish, jobs can't either.

As the size of Connecticut's business pool continued to shrink, the Legislature was increasing the number of mandates it imposed on towns and cities. Many of these mandates -- laws requiring towns to take certain actions or provide services -- that usually were expensive, often came without the state funds to pay for them.

It is long past time to take action to rein in government spending, and the accompanying tax increases. Homeowners are strapped by property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes and hidden taxes on virtually every facet of our lives.

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