Thursday, March 10, 2011

editorial in the nytimes

so of course i thought i MUST link to it

Connecticut’s Better Budget

In comparison to New York’s $88 billion budget or New Jersey’s of $29 billion, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget in Connecticut is a mere $19.7 billion. Yet Governor Malloy has managed to create a better, fairer budget than both of his colleagues. And he is doing it without bombast, without YouTube, without making hard enemies or playing favorites.  All three governors face big deficits — Connecticut’s is $3.2 billion in the next fiscal year and $3 billion the year after. Governor Malloy’s budget proposal spreads the pain more evenly. Like Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Mr. Malloy wants to cut government spending: $1 billion from state employees and $758 million in state services. Unlike his neighbors, he recognizes that budgets cannot be balanced fairly in the short term, or at all in the long term, without having new money coming in. Instead of taking $800 million out of the education budget, Mr. Malloy proposes an array of tax increases, including some on those making more than $50,000 a year...................

and this of course from the courant
Poll Shows voters Oppose Malloy's Tax Increases; Approval Rating Only 35%

Many voters seem to believe that some tax increases are fine — as long as someone else is paying.
That's one finding from the latest Quinnipiac University Poll, released as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is asking Connecticut residents to pay $1.5 billion in tax increases in the coming fiscal year.
In the university's first Connecticut poll since the gubernatorial election, 66 percent said that Malloy's budget-balancing plan relies on too many tax increases, and 56 percent say the plan is unfair. In addition, 40 percent of those surveyed disapprove of Malloy's job performance in his first two months in office, and 51 percent disapprove of the way he is handling the state's budget crisis.................

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee"): Old Leatherman

TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee"): Old Leatherman: "BoingBoing this week linked to a story in the New York Times about 'Leather Man' - a vagabond who walked the roads of western Connecticut in..."