Who is going to save us?
As a small business owner here in Connecticut (we employee nine people), as a long-term resident of Connecticut (nearly 60 years), as someone who has raised children here (two great ones who had to move out of state to get good paying jobs), volunteered in the community (love coaching youth sports) and as a person who loves so much of what this state has to offer, it is so sad to see Connecticut on the brink of disaster.
I have worked in the tobacco fields of Connecticut. I have worked at financial bedrocks such as Travelers. Along with my brother, I have started and grown a manufacturing company that not only makes parts for aircraft, oil and gas exploration and electric power generation, more importantly, we employee people.
With that said, it is incredibly sad that the State of Connecticut is on the brink of falling over the financial cliff. As a state, we have been in decline for nearly 3o years. We have not grown our economy. This is sad because this state was once one of the strongest economies in the country.
But we have passed the tipping point. Our leadership has been clueless for over a decade. The legislature, controlled by Democrats for over 30 years (or is it 40), has continued to grow the government beyond our ability to pay for it. Our previous governors, M. Jodi Rell and John G. Rowland, were powerless to change the way we spent money. Our current Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has doubled down on this tax-and-spend-and-tax-some more mentality.
With the news that we are looking at another billion-dollar-plus deficit in the next budget cycle, it is apparent that more tax increases will be coming. The other option in the near future is to drastically reduce the cost of government employees, but I have little confidence that the current administration will be able to negotiate with the public employee unions to reduce the size and cost of government. How do they do that when their re-election is subject to the union vote?
Is there a savior out there somewhere? Please, if you are reading this, please, I beg you to step forward now, because soon it will be too late as we fall over the cliff.
Rick Stathers owns True Position Manufacturing in South Windsor with his brother Jeff.