Economy

Despite the Commerce Department’s report that Connecticut’s economy had grown 3.9 percent during the third quarter, the state’s economy has actually shrunk over the past year.

Newly released data from the Internal Revenue Service shows a record loss of high-income tax filers and their families in 2015 following the state’s second largest tax increase. A total of $2.6 billion in adjusted gross income was lost to other states as Connecticut experienced a net loss of roughly 20,179 residents.

The personal income growth for Connecticut residents was the slowest in the nation in 2017, according to a report by Pew Charitable Trusts. Personal income in Connecticut for 2017 actually dipped .6 percent into the negative, and the residents’ personal income growth rate since 2007 has been an anemic .6 percent.

Connecticut’s government spending outpaced the state's gross domestic product by a wide margin since 1990, according to a review of past figures compiled at U.S. Government Spending, an online database of state and federal spending.

A financial stress test of all fifty states by Moody’s Analytics showed that Connecticut is unprepared should the country experience another recession - even a moderate one. Connecticut was one of the bottom 15 states that were “substantially unprepared” for an economic downturn, which would lower tax revenue and increase state service needs to help those affected by a recession.

Connecticut has long been known for having a high population of wealthy individuals, but according to a recent report Connecticut has fallen far behind other states in producing new millionaires. Among the nine states which have the highest number of millionaires, Connecticut had the slowest growth in the number of households earning over $1 million, according to a report by the New York-based Empire Center for Public Policy.