Piling On Taxes

(The following open letter to Governor Dannel P. Malloy has been received for publication.)

Gov Malloy:

You have proposed a state budget that you say, “spreads the pain around” out of necessity. Don’t you think that state residents already have enough financial pain? Inflation has affected food and energy costs already, and prices are only going to go up. Gasoline prices are already $3.79 per gallon, with the highest gas tax in the nation! Many people are underemployed, unemployed, or on fixed incomes and property taxes are high, and continue to rise in this town and many others.

It is easy for you to go down a huge list of new taxes you want to impose, and then just rake in the money! That’s not very imaginative, is it? Then you promised to try to get $1 billion dollars in give-backs from the public sector unions? A Democrat governor getting huge givebacks from unions? Wow, I’m really interested in following your success there!

Two-thirds of your budget is being funded by tax increases — and so except for these union givebacks you are going to try to get, where are your spending cuts? What? No spending cuts? Well, I have an idea to throw out there.

I pulled up your proposed budget on the Internet, and I discovered at least 17 government-funded committees or departments that I think may not be crucial to Connecticut residents at this critical time. Some of the names are: Office of Healthcare Advocate, $1,277,000; Office of Workforce Competitiveness, $2,687,000; Board of Accountancy (no, really — accountancy), $384,000; Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, $505,000; Department of Construction Services, $9,445,000; and on and on... At least 17!

Couldn’t you, the governor, look at all of the departments/committees that are funded for our small little state, and put a significant number of them on temporary hiatus? Use that saved money to fund your budget? Projects in all small areas perhaps should be put on hold until we have our budget under control? Maybe one or two, or five years? Can’t you make a concerted effort to shrink government for the time being, instead of piling on more taxes? The state government has been run by Democrats for the last several years, and so I say Gov Rell’s hands were tied when it came to spending. So I put the responsibility for our fiscal situation squarely on the Dems. You, Gov Malloy, could be the first Democrat to shrink government and reduce spending, even if it is only temporarily. Please try this instead of piling on taxes.

Respectfully submitted,

Marybeth Hibbard

33 Taunton Lake Road, Newtown                                 March 9, 2011