Issue Position: Facts

Issue Position

Connecticut's Fiscal and Economic Facts

There is a wealth of sources available on the Internet to support these and other facts about the fiscal and economic health of Connecticut. Voters are encouraged to investigate their own sources with regard to these facts and make their own decision.

Albert Einstein described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Check back periodically for additional Facts

FACT: Republican voter registration in Connecticut is at an historic low of 20% of all registered voters, but in the 2010 election the Republican Party won 15 additional seats in the 151 seat General Assembly. How was this possible? Connecticut voters of ALL PARTY AFFILIATIONS are waking up to the existing financial and economic crisis facing the state and SEEING RED.

This significant 10% REPUBLICAN gain was the result of disillusioned Democrat and Unaffiliated voters deciding they had had enough of a 30-year Democrat controlled ONE PARTY legislature that is unrestrained and out of control in taxing, spending, borrowing and wasting your money and state resources. They woke up to the fact we MUST restore fiscal common sense and accountability to Connecticut's legislature by VOTING REPUBLICAN.

Only YOU can stop the insanity and put CT back on the road to prosperity.

ARE YOU SEEING RED YET?

FACT: Over the past 42 years, CT's population has grown from 3 million to about three and a half million. That's about 1/3 of one percent growth per year. Yet over this same time period - like an invasive weed - government spending has grown well over 200% - that's THIRTEEN TIMES the population growth rate. Inflation's been a contributing factor, but the primarily culprit is an unrestrained ONE PARTY legislature.

FACT: With your taxes, State government has grown to be one of the largest employers in CT. In 1975, CT had 45,000 state employed workers. Today, according to CT's Department of Administrative Services' 2010-2011 Report, it takes 87,761 full-time and 13,291 part-time employees - that's over 100 thousand state paid workers for a population of just 3.5 million. Why does Connecticut need 27 public employees per thousand residents when Florida - with a population 5 times that of CT - needs just 10 and the national state average is 15?
Source:
2010-2011 DAS Report - Page 25 available at http://das.ct.gov//Digest/Digest_2011/Administrative%20Services,%20Department%20of.pdf

FACT: Connecticut residents - especially the wealthy - have options and they are leaving. Between 2000 and 2010, nearly 98 thousand people abandoned Connecticut going to states like Florida, which has no state income tax, no retirement income tax, no inheritance tax and a limited estate tax.

In the face of reality - and despite the fact that Connecticut's Department of Revenue Services supports the elimination of the estate tax - Governor Malloy lowered the estate and gift tax thresholds from $3.5 million to $2 million and kept the rate at 12 percent. This guarantees CT will remain uncompetitive to America's fastest growing tax friendly states.
Source:
http://www.alec.org/publications/rich-states-poor-states

FACT: In 2012, Tax Freedom Day arrived on May 5 in Connecticut - ranked # 1 nationally. That is the day when Connecticut's taxpayers finally have earned enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year.
Source:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/17.html

FACT: In 1970, Connecticut had just over 3,000,000 people; today about 3.5 million - an increase of about 15%. What has grown most vigorously during the past 4 decades was political spending on public employees. In 1975 the state employed 45,000 workers. By 2000, there were 92,000 employees. Today, according to the CT Department of Administrative Services there are over 100,000 full and part-time state workers. That's more than 27 public employees per thousand residents. In contrast, Florida - population 16,400,000 - has grown at triple the national rate and carries all the special burdens of rapid infrastructure growth and large elderly, immigrant and minority populations, still has only 171,000 state employees, including state university staffs. How is it that just 10 public employees per thousand suffice in Florida and the national average is only 15, but 27 can't seem to keep up with the work of Connecticut?
Sources:
http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=Yankeeunions.htm%20&location=Unions&buttonname=Unions

FACT: With an unrestrained Democrat controlled legislature, CT is no longer "The Land of Steady Habits." When the state income tax was instituted in 1991, the state budget was $7.7 billion; two decades later it's exploded to over $20 billion a year _ and it isn't because of population growth. It's "lavishly compensated" government hiring and the uncontrolled spending habits of a 30 year Democrat controlled legislature that continues to increases taxes and puts the state deeper in debt to feed their habits. A March 2011 analysis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics documented that in the Hartford region, nongovernment wages averaged $23.23 per hour. Public employees received $34.47. Service workers in the real world earned less half their counterparts in the bureaucracy. Even in management and professional occupations, government sinecures had the edge: $40.03 versus $35.46.
Sources:
The Nutmeg State's 20-year suicide spiral; Lack of spending restraint has taken its economic toll; http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news23204.html
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp/ncbl1634.pdf

FACT: According to Forbes, the five states in the worst financial condition are Illinois, New York, Connecticut, California and New Jersey; all are among the bluest of blue states.
Source:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/25/democratic-states-bad-financial-shape-personal-finance-blue.html

FACT: According to the Huffington Post, in 2011 Connecticut ranked # 1 in the nation in Debt Per Capita of $5,402, which is 13.6% higher than the # 2 state Hawaii and a whopping 82.5% higher than the 10th ranked state.
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/states-debt-combined-may-exceed-4-trillion_n_1029162.html#s430050&title=1_Connecticut

FACT: Connecticut is # 1 in the nation with gasoline taxes! The state imposes a fixed, 25-cents-per-gallon tax when consumers fill up. But first a wholesale tax adds another 7.53 percent to the cost of gasoline - an expense built into the price paid by motorists. That's another 24 cents per gallon when gas is $3.18 per gallon. According to the Connecticut AAA, the average retail price of regular gasoline on March 20th stood at $4.03, a price topped by only five other states and the District of Columbia. But there's still one more fuel tax hike left over from the 2005 legislation - and it's a big one. Unless state law is changed before July 2013, the wholesale tax would jump by one-sixth, adding 8.81 percent to the price of gasoline. At current prices, that would add 4 cents at once. The Democrats' temporary cap would shave 1.4 cents per gallon off the tax burden - based on the current wholesale price - but then vanish in time to accommodate a tax hike three times its size.
Sources:
http://ctmirror.com/story/15784/democrats-gas-tax-pledge-leaves-them-tight-fiscal-mess
http://www.scribd.com/doc/82726304/Facts-and-Figures-2012-State-Gas-Tax-Rates

FACT: According to Moody's Investor Services' graph published in the New York Times, CT's Per Capita Debt increases significantly when the state's unfunded pension liabilities are included.
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/business/27pension.html?_r=1

FACT: According to CT News, Connecticut has the 5th highest rate of long term unemployment in the country. In October 2009, the CT unemployment insurance trust fund was declared insolvent by the State Department of Labor. Since then, CT has had to borrow over $800 million from the federal government to stay current on legally-obligated unemployment payments. Interest costs from this debt result in higher charges for employers. Nearly 150,000 workers are unemployed in Connecticut, and nearly half of Connecticut's unemployed have been out of work for six months or more. .
Source:
http://blog.ctnews.com/kantrowitz/2012/01/19/report-flaws-in-funding-mechanism-leave-connecticut%E2%80%99s-unemployment-trust-fund-unprepared-for-recessions

FACT: The State of Connecticut generated $19.5 billion in revenue from 378 sources in FY2011. Governor Dan Malloy and the General Assembly approved $1.4 billion in tax increases for FY2012.
Source:
www.yankeeinstitute.org (Sources of Revenue)

FACT: Comptroller Kevin Lembo is projecting a deficit of $95.7 million warning that spending trends and the ticking fiscal clock will make it increasingly difficult to cut agencies in order to stay in the black.
Source:
http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2012/03/02/news/doc4f4fe31d058be450504213.txt

FACT: In January 2012, Moody's Investors Service downgraded the State of Connecticut's general obligation bond rating to Aa3 from Aa2, affecting approximately $14.6 billion in outstanding general obligation bonds. Concurrently, Moody's downgraded the state's general fund obligations to A1 from Aa3, bonds supported by a Special Capital Reserve Fund (SCRF) make-up provision to Aa3 from Aa2, and the University of Connecticut General Obligation Bonds (State Debt Service Commitment) to Aa3 from Aa2.
Source:
http://www.moodys.com/research/moodys-downgrades-state-of-connecticut-general-obligation-bonds-to-Aa3-PR_235771

FACT: Connecticut is ranked # 3 in the nation for having the largest state debt burdens relative to their residents' personal income according to new measurements from Fitch Ratings. The metrics are based on unfunded pension obligations plus the state's net tax- supported debt. The median value for all states measured is 6.9 percent of personal income with CT scoring a whopping 23 percent. Fitch said, "States with the highest combined metrics . . . have seen credit deterioration in recent years reflecting in part their liability burdens." This is indicative of why Fitch Ratings in June 2010 and Moody's Investors Service in January 2012 downgraded the State of Connecticut's bond ratings. Sources: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/144674705.html http://www.ctmirror.org/sites/default/files/documents/2010-06-03_CT_GO_PR-final.pdf

FACT: Connecticut now has the dubious honor of being the worst state to spend your golden years, according to John Brady, the president of TopRetirements.com who by odd coincidence also lives in Connecticut. Now truth be told, Brady said Illinois actually tied Connecticut as being the worst state in his research. But ultimately Connecticut earned the inglorious honor of being the worst place for retirees; its property taxes, personal income taxes, and cost of living are higher than that of Illinois.
Source:
finance.yahoo.com

FACT: According to the Partnership for Strong Communities, CT faces a "harsh reality." They confirm, "We have lost a higher percentage of our 25-34-year-old population since 1990 than any other state but Maine and New Hampshire. The demographic difficulty denies our businesses the skilled labor they need to grow, our communities the concerned residents and volunteers they need to prosper and our families the close connections to children and parents they need to thrive."
Sources:
http://www.pschousing.org/homeconnecticut
http://www.pschousing.org/homeconnecticut-program

FACT: And you thought the 2010 one year budget of $19 billion-the largest budget in Connecticut's history-was bad? The Malloy and Democratic legislature approved a two-year, $40.1 billion budget last year.
Source:
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/b5b72e0f346a40a18c0c7de41d4d8cc6/CT-Connecticut-Budget

FACT: "As Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's budget unravels, he is proposing more spending. Unless the economy improves drastically, taxpayers should be prepared for another raid on their wallets in the next two-year budget. The legislature's Office of Fiscal Analysis puts the shortfall between projected revenue and spending in this year's budget at almost $145 million. It was supposed to have a surplus of $88 million."
Source:
http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/01/31/opinion/doc4f2881dc93f5f080002849.txt

FACT: According to the Salisbury Affordable Housing Report, Salisbury had the highest poverty rate - 7.8 percent - of the six Region One towns (Canaan, Cornwall, Kent, North Canaan, Salisbury, and Sharon), plus Roxbury, Warren, and Washington. This compares to a rate of 4.5 percent for all of Litchfield County and 7.9 percent for the entire State. And yet most "rural" towns receive back less than 10 cents of every tax dollar sent to Hartford.
Source:
http://salisburyct.us/documents/affordablehousingrReport2010

FACT: Connecticut owes its employees billions of dollars in future pension benefits, a fact that is currently hidden in the footnotes of its financial reports. In addition to the money invested in the state's pension funds, Connecticut owes employees about $25 billion in future pensions; adding this deficit to the balance sheet will nearly double the state's liabilities from $32 billion to $57 billion. Connecticut already has more liabilities than assets. The state's net assets will fall from negative $9.3 billion to negative $34.3 billion. That means if the state liquidated its assets and tried to pay off its debts, each resident would be left with a $9,800 bill to pay.
Source:
http://www.raisinghale.com/2011/09/30/new-pension-rules-will-nearly-double-debt

FACT: Connecticut has the second highest electric utility rates in America and its hurting both consumers and businesses. Hawaii is # 1 and they're a Polynesian archipelago over 2,000 miles from the North American mainland in the central Pacific Ocean. And yet barely 300 miles north of Connecticut is Canada - the world's second-largest producer of hydroelectricity and a big generater of nuclear energy. Both Quebec and Ontario are part of the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) with utilities in New England and in New York State, but while Nutmeggers are paying over 17 cents per kilo watt just 300 miles north our Canadian cousins are paying less than 7.5 Canadian cents per kilo watt. And the US-Canadian dollar exchange rate today is 1 to 1. CT citizens deserve to know more than why? They need solutions to the high cost of electric energy.
Sources:
http://www.electricrates.us/articles/16360/United-States-Electricity-Rates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Canada
http://www.ontario-hydro.com

FACT: The New Britain-to-Hartford Busway project Rep. Willis voted for is a prime example of a Democratic majority economic decision that will continue to drain the state coffers forever. This project is nothing more than a Democratic "Jobs Bill" that was sold to and supported by the unions. The projected daily additional bus "boardings" at the beginning (the fiscal year ending in June 2015) are 2,400 with an annual operating deficit of $12.5 million. This is projected to grow to 4,900 daily "boardings" by 2030 and an annual operating deficit of $22.06 million. In addition, the project will create a number of temporary construction jobs but only 100 permanent jobs. The president and CEO of the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce - Michael D. Nicastro - writing in the Hartford Courant said, "If this were a private entity, the CEO would have fired the product management team. But this is government. So instead of concern for the price and instead of consternation at the obscene and never-ending operating losses, the response is "Yahoo, let's do it" from every level. State, federal and all the bureaucracies in between think this is just great." By the way, those same unions are now angry that many out-of-state construction firms are winning the bids and getting jobs, which is the result of this project being federally funded.
Source:
http://articles.courant.com/2011-10-18/news/hc-op-nicastro-busway-1018-20111018_1_busway-venture-capital-hartford-and-new-britain

FACT: According to a new tally by the Yankee Institute, the State of Connecticut will impose at least 77 separate tax increases over 24 categories as part of the changes recently made by the General Assembly. There is a tax that will touch every single CT consumer.
Source:
http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/2011/06/69-higher-taxes-for-ct

FACT: On March 9th, economist Steve Lanza, publisher of The Connecticut Economy, said "Only about 40 percent of Connecticut's unemployed still are collecting benefits ...That means there are a lot of folks out there who have exhausted their unemployment benefits. Connecticut can expect to gain about 2,300 jobs per quarter in 2012, or about 9,200 for the year. That's about half of what we would expect to see if the economy was really healthy. . . It's also less than the more than 12,000-plus jobs Connecticut gained in 2010 when the economy still was buoyed artificially by huge federal stimulus dollars." The state has only regained about one-quarter of the nearly 120,000 jobs lost in the last recession and at the current pace it will be several more years before Connecticut regains the rest; assuming there is economic recovery.
Source:
http://ctmirror.com/story/15692/states-recovery-picks-speed-still-has-years-go

FACT: The Hartford Courant article entitled What's Massachusetts Got On Connecticut? asks the question: "Why can't Connecticut be more like Massachusetts? Our neighbor to the north repeatedly outperforms Connecticut when it comes to jobs, state budgets and economic competitiveness. Massachusetts is similar in demographics, income and education to Connecticut, and its successes may offer lessons on how to manage state government." Answer: "Connecticut uses an old model of recruiting companies from other states, the study concluded, offering generous tax incentives to bring jobs here. Instead, the report suggested adopting a new model to accelerate innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit that will create new companies in the high-technology economy from within the state." Is it any wonder that the Republicans in Hartford voted NO as the Democrats voted YES for the State approving $291 million in funding to entice Jackson Laboratory of Maine to open a research lab in CT: $192 million in a secured, forgivable construction loan and $99 million in grants for research and related activities. When fully developed over the next 20 years, the project will supposedly create 6,800 permanent jobs. The total 20-year capital and research budget for the institute is projected to be $1.1 billion.
Source:
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-santangelo-20120407,0,3811512.story

FACT: Connecticut is # 2 in the nation (according to a 2010 report) with the second-highest unfunded pension liability per capita at more than $4,500 per resident. According to the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut, since 1997, Connecticut has been locked into an increasingly untenable a 20-year labor agreement relationship with its employees. Under that contract, the state is obligated to pay 10 times as much for employee pension costs as workers do - the second-highest ratio among the 10 largest state pension systems, after Florida. But it has not been paying what it owes into the pension system.
Source:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/02/990424/-Connecticut-wrestles-with-budget-gap-and-union-vote

FACT: In today's digital and computer driven society, standardized testing is making our students unqualified to fill high tech jobs. The Yale Center for Scientific Teaching reports that Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (a/k/a as STEM fields) aren't taught the right way in the United States. The result is STEM-related job openings go unfilled in CT! eRichards Consulting, a CT recruitment firm in Shelton, reported that over 15 years they have never seen such a lack of qualified people today for skilled STEM jobs. At the end of 2011 they couldn't fill more than 40 vacancies for IT professionals. The problem is "Because of the pressure to perform on standardized tests in reading and mathematics, science is getting squeezed out of the elementary curriculum." Data show that American students actually do well in math and science in the early years (http://nces.ed.gov/timss/results07_math07.asp) but by the 12th grade their performance has plummeted (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind04/c1/fig01-08.htm) and by the time students get to college, they're often woefully underprepared for rigorous math and science courses.
Source:
http://ctmirror.com/story/15589/broken-stem-our-failure-teach-science-technology-engineering-and-math-hurting-us

FACT: Today, one in five Americans - more than 67.3 million - are dependent upon Washington for assistance. Over 70 percent of the federal government's budget goes to pay for housing, food, income, student aid or other assistance, with recipients ranging from college students to retirees to welfare beneficiaries. The average entitlement individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,748, more than the nation's average disposable personal income ($32,446). And this at the same time that nearly half of the U.S. population (49.5 percent) does not pay any federal income taxes. With America about to witness the largest retirement of people in world history, and with the number of "taxpayers" who pay no taxes only continuing to grow, unless things change dramatically, the producers in America will stop producing, and our entrepreneurs and capitalists will depart for better opportunities and markets. This is what's happening in Connecticut!
Source:
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/09/morning-bell-dependence-on-government-highest-in-history/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

FACT: CT has some of the most onerous taxes in America. When people and businesses are considering relocating for better opportunities and quality of life, taxes are a significant consideration. Here is a comparison between Connecticut and Texas (in red text) that is one of the highest growth states for migrating businesses and people.
Source:
http://www.retirementliving.com/taxes-alabama-iowa#CONNECTICUT

CONNECTICUT
Sales Taxes
State Sales Tax: 6.35% (food, prescription & non-prescription drugs exempt).
Gasoline Tax: 48.6 cents/gallon
Diesel Fuel Tax: 46.2 cents/gallon
Cigarette Tax: $3.40/pack of 20.

TEXAS
Sales Taxes
State Sales Tax: 6.25% (non-prepared food, prescription and non-prescription drugs exempt); local option taxes can raise the rate to 8.25%.
Gasoline Tax: 20 cents/gallon
Diesel Fuel Tax: 20 cents/gallon
Cigarette Tax: $1.41 cents/pack of 20

Personal Income Taxes
Tax Rate Range: Low - 3.0%; High - 6.7%
Income Brackets: * Lowest - First $10,000; Highest - Over $250, Number of Brackets: 6

Personal Income Taxes
No state personal income tax
Retirement Income: Not taxed.
Retired Military Pay: Not taxed.

Property Taxes
Taxes and real and personal property are assessed and collected by individual towns or other taxing districts. All assessments are at 70% of fair market value. An annual property tax credit or rent rebate is available to residents, age 65 or older, or to a surviving spouse of a previously approved applicant who is age 50 or older. Regardless of age, totally disabled persons are also eligible. Income parameters apply.

Property Taxes
Property tax is imposed by local taxing units. For homeowners 65 and older, $10,000 (in addition to the regular $15,000 homestead exemption) of the property's assessed value is exempt from school taxes and $3,000 is exempt from other local taxes.

Inheritance and Estate Taxes
Connecticut imposes an estate tax which taxes the transfer of estates valued at $2.0 million or more at a progressive rate starting with 7.2 percent of the first $100,000 over the threshold and rising to 12 percent for the amount above $10.1 million. This is applicable to estates of decedents dying on or after January 1, 2011.

Inheritance and Estate Taxes
There is no inheritance and the estate tax is limited and related to federal estate tax collection.

Source