A GOP talking point dims: CT economy didn’t shrink in ’12

Republicans were gleeful a year ago when a federal agency reported that Connecticut was the only state whose economy shrank in 2012, a dismal mid-term report card for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. It turns out the state’s economy actually grew by one percent.

An annual report issued Wednesday by The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis revises its figures for 2012 and pegs Connecticut’s growth for at .9 percent in 2013, which ranks the state 39th.

That’s nothing Malloy, a first-term Democrat seeking re-election, is likely to put in a campaign ad, but it does take away a punchy GOP talking point that Sen. John P. McKinney, R-Fairfield, was quick to use a year ago:

“Just today, we learn from the Bureau of Economic Analysis that Connecticut is the only state in the country where our economy shrank in 2012. We’re dead last in economic growth.”

Now, we’re 39th.

Alaska was dead last in 2013, when its economy shrunk by 2.5 percent. Number one was North Dakota, with growth of 9.7 percent.

The rankings in New England: Vermont, 22nd (1.9 percent growth); Massachusetts, 28th (1.6 percent); Rhode Island, 33rd (1.4 percent); Connecticut, 39th (.9 percent); New Hampshire, 40th (.9 percent); and Maine, 41st (.9 percent.) New York was 46th (.7 percent) and New Jersey was 37th (1.1 percent.)