Posted on August 31, 2017
To the Editor,
After delaying the issuance of a balanced state budget for more than two-months, Connecticut’s House Majority leadership finally unveiled an alarming proposal to raise upwards of $2-billion by increasing sales tax in this, the most tax-burdened state in the nation, from 6.35% to 6.85%. They are also eyeing a new luxury tax, a new hotel tax and increased taxes on smokeless tobacco products. And, to add insult to injury, word on the street is they are also planning to increase fees for DMV services, so we can pay more for being poorly serviced by a broken state agency that frustrates and wastes countless hours of state residents’ time.
These Legislative Democratic “leaders” believe they have the right to do what others cannot: spend more than our income. In my household, when income is flat, we do not spend more and, when income is down, we find a way to reduce spending. But, instead of living within its means, our state, under 30-years of this tax and spend fiscal foolishness, has lost its way and appropriates more money every year, including this year and next, under the Democrat’s budget proposal.
I believe we are overdue to put an end to falling revenues caused by the taxpayer flight that is causing the merry-go-round to come up short with every ride around the calendar. Enough of thinking taxpayers, businesses, hospitals and municipalities, like my home town of Newtown, as their personal piggy-banks. Our deficits, as high as June’s $5.1-billion, are evidence that the tax and spend dream is really a nightmare.
There is hope! Yes, it will be hard – but no harder than the human-services cuts and special-interest pork supported by the House Democrats’ budget proposal. It’s time to reject the 30-year build-up to insolvency and give fiscal responsibility a chance, before there’s no one left to turn off the lights. We simply must change the way our government operates, leveraging technology, capturing efficiencies and creating a leaner, more responsive, taxpayer-centric State of Connecticut.
Connecticut has never had a revenue problem. The issue, case-in-point, lies within poorly-conceived financial labor agreements and wasteful spending. Until those two items are addressed, increasing taxes again will only provide a reprieve before Connecticut’s coffers run dry again, leading to more and more taxation. It’s the witching hour; time to find a new spell that reduces spending by way of structural changes and pension reform. If we do not – the financial woes of our beautiful state will continue to snowball.
Locally, Newtown has fought and won many battles to maintain state revenue-sharing dollars in the past. But we have never experienced the irresponsible actions of having our educational cost sharing dollars zeroed-out and out municipal aid cut by 99% at the hands of a lame-duck Governor wielding his executive order authority, all because the majority party refused to present a budget before the end of the fiscal year, on June 30 and still will not deliberate. That’s nothing short of legislative malpractice.
You should know that educational cost sharing and municipal aid are not a gift. They are funded by taxpayers and needed by our communities, not state charity. They’re a fraction of our own tax dollars returned to Newtown to compensate for the state’s overbearing educational mandates and payment in lieu of taxes on state properties that do not actually pay local property taxes. It’s our money, but the Governor wants to take it away from us. As a result of being a well-run town with a high credit rating and demonstrating our fiscal-conservatism by paying our bills on-time and in-full, Governor Malloy has determined our educational and municipal funding should be swept and diverted to poorly run cities, despite the local tax implications on suburban hamlets, like ours.
So, what’s the answer to this quagmire? Structural change and the stability needed to reverse our state’s red-ink and stop the cycle of tax increases which, in turn are being irresponsibly spent. There are several other no-tax-increase budget alternatives to raising taxes and I have been supporting these better options since April, not understanding why they do not currently serve as the starting points for an adult budget negation. But, yet again, House Republicans have been denied a seat at the table by the legislative majority.
The two largest tax increases in Connecticut’s history have been dealt under the Malloy Administration and backed by the Democratic Leadership of the General Assembly in the last six years. Where have those previous revenue increases gotten that state? Deeper in the hole! In fact, these two record tax hikes yielded lower state revenues and hurt us by providing a detrimental false sense of monetary safety, which gave way to increased state spending by the Democrat majority, while Connecticut’s pension obligations skyrocketed.
I urge the legislative majority to open its eyes to other options, rather than temporarily shifting dollars among certain accounts and raising everyone’s taxes, a plan the Governor has repeatedly promised to veto. There are fully-vetted, quality, no-tax-increase budget options available that do not punish taxpayers for the state’s inability to manage Connecticut’s finances.
Sincerely,
Mitch Bolinsky
State Representative, 106th District