High earners are incredibly mobile and every taxpayer has their decision point. Wouldn’t it be nice if some of these folks could flee to no-income-tax Wisconsin?
Now he tells us. Gov. Malloy has spent two terms treating business as a bottomless well of cash to redistribute to public unions. Now that his state is losing millionaires and businesses, he has seen the light. But the price of his dereliction will be steep.
Last month the state Office of Fiscal Analysis reduced its two-year revenue forecast by $1.46 billion. Since January the agency has downgraded income-tax revenue for 2017 and 2018 by $1.1 billion (6%). Sales- and corporate-tax revenue are projected to fall by $385 million (9%) and $67 million (7%), respectively, this year. Pension contributions, which have doubled since 2010, will increase by a third over the next two years. The result: a $5.1 billion deficit and three recent credit downgrades.
According to the fiscal analyst, income-tax collections declined this year for the first time since the recession due to lower earnings at the top. Many wealthy residents decamped for lower-tax states after Mr. Malloy and his Republican predecessor Jodi Rell raised the top individual rate on more than $500,000 of income to 6.99% from 5%. In the past five years 27,400 Connecticut residents, including Ms. Rell, have moved to no-income-tax Florida, and seven of the state’s eight counties have lost population since 2010. Population flight has depressed economic growth—Connecticut’s real GDP has shrunk by 0.1% since 2010—as well as home values and sales-tax revenues.
Corporate revenues also took a hit after General Electric relocated to Boston. Mr. Malloy then offered tax breaks to hedge funds and companies to stay in Connecticut, which has further eroded revenue.
The Governor—a slow learner—seems finally to have accepted that raising taxes on the wealthy is a dead fiscal end.
Is Paul Soglin moonlighting as Conn. gov?
Typical liberals. Fleece the productive and achievers until they refused to be whipped anymore….thought slavery was outlawed in 1860s…those Democrats just want to keep bringing it back.