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One Month Later, Rell Budget Proposal Still Unsound
Hartford, March 7, 2007 -- On the one-month anniversary of the release of Governor M. Jodi Rell's budget, the Yankee Institute for Public Policy has released "Fiscal Flapdoodle: Governor Rell's Five Budget Myths."
"One month ago," said Yankee Institute Executive Director Lewis M. Andrews, Ph.D., "Connecticut taxpayers were shocked to learn that the governor wanted to raise taxes to fund an enormous expansion of state government. Since that time, the Institute has been examining the claims behind Rell's tax and spending plan. What we've found is very disturbing."
The myths documented in "Fiscal Flapdoodle" are:
Myth One: Higher spending will improve the quality of education in Connecticut.
Reality Check: There is no evidence to support this claim, and the Rell administration is ignoring education-choice alternatives that promise better schools at a lower cost to taxpayers.
Myth Two: Hiking Connecticut's income tax will enable the governor and legislators to provide property-tax relief.
Reality Check: Since the adoption of the income tax in 1991 did not provide relief, raising its rate in the hope of providing a break for overburdened local taxpayers is naïve.
Myth Three: Big Government is "an investment in our future."
Reality Check: Forty years of research confirms that however well-intentioned, a massive welfare state creates perverse incentives and unintended consequences. Tax-and-spend policies also negatively impact a state’s economic health.
Myth Four: The state should create a new program for citizens who lack health insurance.
Reality Check: Connecticut's uninsured problem is less severe than "universal coverage" activists claim, and market-oriented policies -- not more subsidies -- are the answer.
Myth Five: "Mass" transit will alleviate Connecticut's congestion problems.
Reality Check: Despite its high population density, few Connecticut commuters use government-run trains and buses, and that is unlikely to change.
"The Nutmeg State has the highest tax burden in the nation," said D. Dowd Muska, Yankee's Philip Gressel Fellow for Tax and Budget Policy. "Connecticut's inflation-adjusted, per capita spending has quintupled since 1970. Clearly, the governor's budget is another step down our state's well-trod path of fiscal irresponsibility. Even worse, it's justified with vague rhetoric about 'investments' and 'getting it done.'"
Andrews added: "This report contrasts the Rell administration's shallow sloganeering with a heavy dose of hard-hitting policy research, tax data, and economic analysis."
"It's time for the governor to start over, and craft a budget that recognizes limits, holds government accountable, and lightens the state's crushing tax burden," concluded Muska.
The Yankee Institute for Public Policy is a think tank that creates new ideas for better government and lower taxes in Connecticut. It is based on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford. An independent research and education organization, the Institute receives no taxpayer subsidies.
Muska is available for print, radio, and television interviews. Contact Mary Crean at (860) 881-5589 or mary@yankeeinstitute.org.
D. Dowd Muska is the Yankee Institute's Philip Gressel Fellow for Tax and Budget Policy.
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The Yankee Institute for Public Policy, Inc. is a nonpartisan educational and research organization founded more than two decades ago. Today, the Yankee Institute's mission is to "promote economic opportunity through lower taxes and new ideas for better government in Connecticut." The Yankee Institute for Public Policy, Inc. is classified by the IRS as a 501 (c) (3) public charity. Contributions are deductible to the extent allowed by law.
