I’ve lived in Connecticut, in the Groton/New London area. Outside of New Haven and Hartford – which are your typical big cities (and there’s nothing wrong with that, per se) – the state is as beautiful as it gets in southern New England. I’ve also lived in Newport, Rhode Island for a few years, so I know what I’m talking about when it comes to that part of the northeast.
But Connecticut is apparently fast becoming a fiscal train wreck, even though it’s one of the richest states in the nation. Unfortunately, the Nutmeg State is also at $74 billion in debt and is teetering on the edge of being in worse financial shape than Puerto Rico:
"Connecticut, the richest state in the nation, has racked up $74 billion in debt. Its finances have more in common with Puerto Rico than Massachusetts, as the home of America’s financial wizards struggles to pay off its massive obligations big as the bills com due on decades of mismanagement.
While ballooning payments for public employees’ guaranteed pension and health benefits for public employees and teachers are the main cause of Connecticut’s fiscal misery, the state continued borrowing with the abandon of a teenager let loose in a Forever 21 with her parent’s credit card. Jobs lost during the recession have not returned. Its youth and future tax base is fleeing for New York and Boston. Fortune 500 companies are following them out of town.
And it could get worse before it gets better."
It all appears to come down to generous (some would say overly generous) state employees’ pension plans combined with unrestrained borrowing against anticipated future revenues. But was doing so all that smart? Not looking that way at present.
Why don’t we add most of the Northern & Mid-Atlantic States from MA-WI, and throw in CA as well?
Yeah, it’s getting a little ugly out there, for sure.
I feel for the millennials. They hit crazy college cost and debt, bad economy on graduation and soon will get parents with massive money problems as pensions implode. Throw in some Medicare/ Medicaid and social security issues and they just drew a short stick timing wise.
Why don’t we add most of the Northern & Mid-Atlantic States from MA-WI, and throw in CA as well?
Yeah, it’s getting a little ugly out there, for sure.
I feel for the millennials. They hit crazy college cost and debt, bad economy on graduation and soon will get parents with massive money problems as pensions implode. Throw in some Medicare/ Medicaid and social security issues and they just drew a short stick timing wise.
Yes. And their inheritance has been spent by wastrels and blaggards. Well, we reap what we sow. And the reaping may be fierce if we don’t set our house in order immediately.
I feel for the millennials. They hit crazy college cost and debt, bad economy on graduation and soon will get parents with massive money problems as pensions implode. Throw in some Medicare/ Medicaid and social security issues and they just drew a short stick timing wise.
Yes. And their inheritance has been spent by wastrels and blaggards. Well, we reap what we sow. And the reaping may be fierce if we don’t set our house in order immediately.
The average college debt for a 2016 grad is about $37,000. These cry-babies are whining about that but they would gladly spend that for a car or on clothes and vacations all while complaining that they don’t make enough money at their starter jobs. Guess what? Neither did we? So now the complaint is that their parents are wasting these little pansies inheritance?! Good, they don’t deserve it and would have a lot of nerve expecting anything.
Check my signature line. I’m glad that my son doesn’t need and doesn’t expect anything from me when I die!
We would probably do better with the lager than the animals lol. Moosehead is good its from New Brunswick although they might have licensed it to breweries in Ont. I will have to go to the beerstore and do some "research"..
Connecticut pop 3.5 million debt 74 billion. Ontar I owe pop 13 million debt 290 billion. But we do have some Moose we could sell.
If it’s Moosehead lager, count me in on the buyer side, buddy.
The main cause is the governor is incompetent and has created a huge mess for the next one.
He’s consistently been driving businesses out (G.E. and the gun manufacturers as examples), over regulating (his gun laws), and he loves to spend as noted in your post.
I feel for the millennials. They hit crazy college cost and debt, bad economy on graduation and soon will get parents with massive money problems as pensions implode. Throw in some Medicare/ Medicaid and social security issues and they just drew a short stick timing wise.
Yes. And their inheritance has been spent by wastrels and blaggards. Well, we reap what we sow. And the reaping may be fierce if we don’t set our house in order immediately.
The average college debt for a 2016 grad is about $37,000. These cry-babies are whining about that but they would gladly spend that for a car or on clothes and vacations all while complaining that they don’t make enough money at their starter jobs. Guess what? Neither did we? So now the complaint is that their parents are wasting these little pansies inheritance?! Good, they don’t deserve it and would have a lot of nerve expecting anything.
Check my signature line. I’m glad that my son doesn’t need and doesn’t expect anything from me when I die!
The ‘inheritance’ I was referring to is a ‘societal inheritance’ in the form of a stable Social Security system, the opportunity to do better than one’s parents did, a non-crushing national debt load and so forth. All the things that were passed from generation to generation right up to the Baby (“Me Generation”) Boomers (disclosure, I’m a late-generation Boomer), who all apparently seem fixated on acting as young as possible and on not doing much to pass along something of worth, societally speaking, to later generations.
The main cause is the governor is incompetent and has created a huge mess for the next one.
He’s consistently been driving businesses out (G.E. and the gun manufacturers as examples), over regulating (his gun laws), and he loves to spend as noted in your post.
The day I retire - I’m out of here.
Speaking of one of your senators…
Chris Murphy on Twitter: “Last night proved, once again, that there is no anxiety or sadness or fear you feel right now that cannot be cured by political action.”
What is wrong with CA? We have been doing very nicely lately, and the future looks pretty good. We are slowly dealing with the pension problem, getting better, not worse. We are living within budgets and even banking surpluses. Worst thing I can say is that this bullet train thing has been an albatross around our necks. And the water thing has to be addressed, but thanks to the last drought we have put a lot of positive measures in place. We probably need a few more back up against the wall emergencies to make us act, but each time we seem to go the right direction. Republicans are even working with the Dems now, CA is like it own little world nation, like 5th in the world now?
The voters like announcements re. the goodies the politicians will buy for them. If voters reliably rewarded austerity measures, every politician in the nation would be trampling their peers to prove themselves the most dedicated spendthrift. So we get big spenders and crisis. The feds will bail out the states in crisis just like they’ve done for a city or two. Of course, that not only teaches cities and states that they can keep spending w/o consequence, but also worsens the ultimate reckoning. All bad.
Was there ever a time when these pension plans were economically viable? Everytime I hear a city, county, state, govt entity going broke, you need to look no further than pension plans. What was the reasoning behind these plans?
Was there ever a time when these pension plans were economically viable? Everytime I hear a city, county, state, govt entity going broke, you need to look no further than pension plans. What was the reasoning behind these plans?
Giving the voters goodies helps you keep your job. The claims that the pension plans will explode in 20yrs don’t bother you much because you’re only planning on being a politician for 19yrs. Besides, no one really looks back at voting records to determine who it was that voted for the expensive programs that the voters can’t now afford.
Lets look back at who voted for the inefficient programs that cost the tax payer big dollars. I’ll be in charge of defining “inefficient” and “big”. Then we raid the bank accounts of those that voted for the program. That would create personal consequences for putting the taxpayer in debt. Problem fixed.
