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Letter to the Editor: Connecticut Budget Crisis — Unresolved

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To the editor:

With much yelling and screaming and some delay, the Connecticut Legislature finally delivered its 2016/17 budget on Friday, May 13. The good news is that the $19.7 billion budget does not include new taxes and eliminates money for raises of state employees next year. The bad news is that the out-of-balance wages and benefits of state employees were not addressed in the long-run, leading to deficits of $1.3 billion in 2017 and $1.8 billion in 2018. Senate President Looney, a Democrat, pointed out that raising taxes on the rich (as proposed by the labor unions) was contemplated, but ultimately abandoned, as last year’s large tax increases led to “diminishing returns” and “volatility,” as he puts it. Well, hello, taxpayers and corporations are voting with their feet when taxes go up.