Connecticut: sinking in debt with a fleeing population
Running out of other people’s money: Connecticut, run for years by Democrats, is sinking in debt with a population that is shrinking as people flee.
The administration of Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat who has been in office since 2011, projects a budget deficit of more than $5 billion over the next two years, thanks to generous pension benefits and the burden of servicing its big debt, plus falling tax revenue due to the exodus of large employers and residents reaching retirement age.
Its budget woes, as well as concerns that they will be repeated year after year, helped lead General Electric in 2015 to consider moving its headquarters out of the state. Last year, it did exactly that.
The state’s population is falling: Its net domestic out-migration was nearly 30,000 from 2015 to 2016. In 2016, it lost slightly more than 8,000 people, leaving its population at 3.6 million. Indeed, recent national moving company surveys underscore the trend, showing more people leaving Connecticut than moving in. In 2016, the state also saw a population decline for the third consecutive year, according to Census Bureau estimates.
One of the companies, United Van Lines, reported that of all their Connecticut customers, 60 percent were leaving compared to 40 percent who were moving there. Only three other states had higher rates of people moving out – New York, New Jersey and Illinois. One out of five of those leaving said they were retiring. [emphasis mine]
Isn’t it interesting that the four states with the most people leaving are four states that have been largely run by Democrats for decades. And in those cases where Republicans have been in charge, they have taken the moderate go-along-to-get-along approach, essentially rubber-stamping the high spending and high tax agenda of the Democrats that dominate the political region.
Unfortunately, it is this agenda that dominates Washington and the federal government, and the Republican leadership there seems quite willing to do the same as the moderate Republicans in this states. Worse, we don’t have another country we can escape to.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Running out of other people’s money: Connecticut, run for years by Democrats, is sinking in debt with a population that is shrinking as people flee.
The administration of Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat who has been in office since 2011, projects a budget deficit of more than $5 billion over the next two years, thanks to generous pension benefits and the burden of servicing its big debt, plus falling tax revenue due to the exodus of large employers and residents reaching retirement age.
Its budget woes, as well as concerns that they will be repeated year after year, helped lead General Electric in 2015 to consider moving its headquarters out of the state. Last year, it did exactly that.
The state’s population is falling: Its net domestic out-migration was nearly 30,000 from 2015 to 2016. In 2016, it lost slightly more than 8,000 people, leaving its population at 3.6 million. Indeed, recent national moving company surveys underscore the trend, showing more people leaving Connecticut than moving in. In 2016, the state also saw a population decline for the third consecutive year, according to Census Bureau estimates.
One of the companies, United Van Lines, reported that of all their Connecticut customers, 60 percent were leaving compared to 40 percent who were moving there. Only three other states had higher rates of people moving out – New York, New Jersey and Illinois. One out of five of those leaving said they were retiring. [emphasis mine]
Isn’t it interesting that the four states with the most people leaving are four states that have been largely run by Democrats for decades. And in those cases where Republicans have been in charge, they have taken the moderate go-along-to-get-along approach, essentially rubber-stamping the high spending and high tax agenda of the Democrats that dominate the political region.
Unfortunately, it is this agenda that dominates Washington and the federal government, and the Republican leadership there seems quite willing to do the same as the moderate Republicans in this states. Worse, we don’t have another country we can escape to.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The situation is even worse than described.
For 20 years governor after governor has complained that he/she was hamstrung by an ill-advised 20-year agreement made with state employee unions. The agreement is set to expire this year, so, naturally, Malloy’s proposed action is to make another terrible 10-year deal!
Once our kids get settled in 5 years or so, we’ll join the exodus.
I came to CT in 1963, the Governor was the first of the big time spenders….Dempsey…He spent a lot on some really ill thought out projects, then the next big spender was Ella Grasso. She was not as bad as people think, but the party wanted to buy votes and stay in power, when she checked out, it was Bill the Bartender, 1.5 Billion disappeared somewhere under his reign. He was followed by the State Mammal, the Whale…he tried to rein in the spending, a bit…followed by a Repub who got caught stealing State services and property to build his house….Ms Rell was his successor, but failed to get enough votes from the dead folks in the cities, and we got the current creature….I was an Officer and Aviator in the Army National Guard and had some conversations with Ella T., especially about the spending on vote buying….Not in those words, but she told me that was the plan…..more or less. I left for the sunny South in 1991, as it was plain to see what was next….At first my friends and family thought I was nuts, now they are all moving South…..The major influence seems to be the insurance industry and various psychopathic legislators, along with the yuppies. I was also a lobbyist for gun rights and veterans, and I did see the corruption first hand, so that might have been an advantage for me….It seems the State wants no middle class, no industry, and no tax base—go figure!! (Note: Most of Connecticut’s problems seem to stem from Yale and progressives, at least it looks that way to me after 29 years of suffering there….)
Some are moving so they can live in a state that supports the second amendment .
vonmazur-
interesting backgrounder.
Garry– how much do you folks pay for electricity in Connecticut? (all-in, I’m paying 15 cents a KwH, in SW Michigan.)
Tangentially, we just raised our State gasoline-tax by 7 cents a gallon, to Fund roads.
(I was trying to compare our respective State Budgets, but they don’t make it easy.)
“select all images with Cars, click skip if there are none”
[does a Truck, count as car?]
Gary Numan –
“Cars”
https://youtu.be/Im3JzxlatUs
(3:52)
Bear in mind that the main economic engine for the CT, NY, NJ area is New York City.
If NYC reelects DiBlasio so he can finish unwinding everything Giuliani and Bloomberg did to save the city, and corporations start to move out, it’s over!
PS still no reCaptcha problems
Garry,
You have identified the key problem with all “Deep Blue” states with hopeless finances and shrinking populations – public employee unions. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, California – the public employee unions run them all and all are being rapidly run into the ground. Here in California, the two biggest pigs are the teacher’s and prison guard’s unions.
If only the fiscally sound states could refuse these refuges?