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To the Editor:
Last week, Governor Ned Lamont invited businesses in states with restrictive abortion laws to relocate to Connecticut. Two days later, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, a pol with absolutely no medical experience, visited Waterbury’s Planned Parenthood office in an effort to piggyback on Lamont’s proposal and promote the Constitution State as the Abortion State. Secretary Becerra opined that if every state was like Connecticut, the USA would be better off. One has to wonder, with an economy in the gutter, better off than what?
Perhaps the duo seemed intent on deflecting attention from the dismal failures of the Lamont and Biden economies. Connecticut, once the wealthiest state in the Union sits at the bottom of nearly every metric. Whether business creation, business friendliness, or overall cost of living, Connecticut fails.
Since his election, Gov. Lamont has squandered the opportunity to identify and correct weaknesses within Connecticut’s economy, and, in doing so, create a welcoming, thriving business environment. With his eye focused on Nov. 8, 2022, the governor has been on a quest for new tax revenues to compensate for his inability or unwillingness to rein in profligate government programs. From highway tolls, to gambling, marijuana and now, abortion, the governor is forever in search of another tax dollar.
Regardless of one’s opinion of abortion, trying to attract businesses from other states for this single issue shows an incredibly cynical and narrow view of how businesses are created in a free market system. Perhaps Mr. Lamont is not the savvy businessman he purports himself to be.
Without federal bailouts, Connecticut’s finances would be underwater. With the likelihood of a recession, coupled with the ending of COVID relief, Connecticut will soon be scrambling to pay its bills. We will once again see inadequate funding of state employee pensions; raids on the Special Transportation Fund, and, of course, tax increases.
Connecticut has not yet recovered the jobs lost in the 2008 recession. If not for defense contracting, the economic vitality of Connecticut would be on life-support. Why Lamont has not focused on reducing government expenditures and a friendly business environment is an unknowable – but he has done a huge disservice to the overly burdened tax payers and businesses of the state with his total lack of vision.
Connecticut is dealing with the results of forty years of one-party rule, with too many legislators who have their own agendas versus the economic well-being of the state. Connecticut needs to hire new leadership across all offices, starting with the Governor.
Robert Ham
Cheshire, CT