EAST HARTFORD – A new Quinnipiac poll highlights how badly Connecticut’s people have been hurt by state government’s tax-and-spend policies. After being subjected to the largest tax increase in history in 2011 along with 77 fee increases, not surprisingly, fully 78% of voters say they are worse or no better off than they were four years ago, and they disapprove by lopsided margins of the way the governor has handled the budget, taxes, the economy and jobs.
What’s clear from the poll: Connecticut residents realize that Hartford’s efforts to tax and spend Connecticut into prosperity have been a miserable failure. Instead, we should unleash economic growth and restore prosperity through policies including: (1) Repealing the 77 tax and fee hikes imposed in 2011; (2) Reducing the the onerous regulations — like mandated sick pay and forced unionization — that discourage businesses from coming to Connecticut; (3) Lowering the state gas tax; and (4) Reforming the state pension system, phasing in a shift from defined benefit to a defined contribution plan for state employees.
Until state government adopts the low-tax, limited-government policies that are proven to create growth, an increasing number of Connecticut’s residents are going to be forced to leave to seek states that are friendlier to business creation and free enterprise.
