Shared Sacrifice (cont.)

We have heard repeatedly from Washington and Hartford that it will take shared sacrifice to solve the fiscal problems facing our states and the nation. But somehow when it comes to the public sector shared sacrifice means taxing the private sector and at most “freezing” spending and reducing already generous benefits in the public sector. Well let’s take a look at some of the sacrifices already made in the private sector.

As I drove though Avon today, I noticed this sign on the local Borders store. The store will be closing and no doubt costing some their jobs, Overall almost 200 stores could be closed in what is being called the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy for a book retailer. Borders is pretty frank about why this happened. They had become a dinosaur. Relying on bricks and mortar when the world was moving books faster and more efficiently on line. From the Washington Post:

The iconic bookstore chain, founded in 1971 by brothers Tom and Louis Borders, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization this morning, weighed down under crushing debt and unable to successfully navigate rapid changes in consumer behavior.

In: e-books, downloaded whenever, wherever.

Out: People buying books in Borders stores.

It is just one example of how this recession weans out the weak and slow and inefficient. It is the price companies have paid throughout the private sector as available revenue decreased forcing companies to downsize to survive.

When it comes to shared sacrifice, the private sector has assumed  the sacrifice for the last two years, by cutting staff (CT and US unemployment 9%), reducing benefits, and demanding more from fewer employees, while the private sector has shared the private sectors income. The result has been either a strengthening of the balance sheet, or, as in Border’s case, a Chapter 11 filing, Meanwhile government budgets ballooned at worst … status quo at best.

At the Federal and Connecticut government level the response has been to tax more in hopes of maintaining current public sector job levels, pay levels and benefit levels, even as the private sector, which can’t confiscate money, continued to cut. And there is a good chance that if  either Obama’s or Malloy’s budgets go through, businesses will either be forced to cut further, or possibly move more jobs out of Connecticut. Companies like UTC, Aetna, and UI have warned the Democrat controlled government that the cost of doing business in Connecticut is prohibitive and unless it changes it’s overtaxing ways, the state will lose more businesses. Pfizer has already chosen to move. Who will be next?

Governor Malloy says his new tax structure, more than $2 billion in tax increases over two years, is still competitive with surrounding states. That is 1980’s economics. Today Connecticut competes, not with Massachusetts and New York, but no income tax states like Florida, Tennessee, and Texas.

The taxes are set, but union concessions are not and it’s not likely state union employees will concede $2 billion without a big fight. The Democrat Governor is playing a dangerous game in the name of shared sacrifice. The private sector has already paid. It’s time for government to shrink to an affordable size before private “working people” pay one more cent.

The next time a government worker calls for shared sacrifice … show them that picture above.

Posted in ,

Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

11 Comments

  1. RoBrDona on February 21, 2011 at 11:35 am

    The engine of job growth in the state is the smaller to mid-size private company. So Danny Boy will tax them and their employees further?at the highest rate in the country??This will only exacerbate the trend of the best and brightest leaving to create jobs in better fiscal climates.?What baffles me is how our Democrat-controlled state cannot understand that business will soon?be predominantly done in CT by companies NOT DOMICILED HERE.????



  2. winnie888 on February 21, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    I’ve been a good little doo-bee and have looked at what other (liberal) sites are saying about what’s going on in WI knowing that it will soon happen here in CT with our public sector unions/jobs.
    The union mindset is downright scary.? What I see is an entitlement mentality:? public sector employees feel that they are entitled to bloated salaries and benefits funded by taxpayers.? The lefties talk about corporate welfare….what we are seeing in WI and every other state crushed under these state employees’ benefits packages is public sector union jobs welfare.? Screw the taxpayers who are not just funding the public sector pensions, but their own as well.
    Wisconsin has a chance.? CT doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of changing its policies/spending with a democrat governor and legislature.? We are doomed.? All they know is tax and spend.? There will be no sacrifice at the state level.



  3. Brian on February 21, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    Malloy’s budget is a colossal Disgrace !
    Chris Christie, balanced New Jersey’s budget, by CUTTING SPENDING 9% ACROSS THE BOARD.
    Christie also, did NOT RAISE TAXES!!
    This is what we get for electing Democrats.
    The Only things that Democrats know how to do: TAX & SPEND.
    Dan Malloy is Barack Obama Jr !



  4. Gary J on February 21, 2011 at 7:49 pm

    The answer is a very simple one……………..New Hampshire.All aboard !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



  5. steve418r on February 21, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    We will find it very hard to relieve ourselves of the Democratic control. There are too many Tax takers and and organized labor unions to make it viable to elect responsible leadership.
    Remember, vote Democratic, get free stuff! Also, the deceased, who managed to take some absentee ballots with them, are coming back to make their votes count.
    Malloy is agreeing with the union leadership when they said Connecticut doesn’t have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem. Hence tax increases without meaningful spending cuts.
    ?



  6. Shared Sacrifice on February 21, 2011 at 11:53 pm

    Some of us share while others (you) must sacrifice.
    But let me be clear, we’re all in this together!



  7. Murphy on February 22, 2011 at 8:53 am

    Please anyone with a special election today “SAVE US FROM THE TAX MAN”. With a Republican landslide today perhaps we can stop the tax increase. Let’s make Malloy defeat himself today!



  8. Cliff G on February 22, 2011 at 9:45 am

    This is exactly what I was referring to when I commented about state competition for business being?a?shell game run by big business.? This is not a question of public vs. private, but rather the top 2 % in this country against the rest of us.? All middle class workers, public and private, are in the same boat.? Income distribution is the most imbalanced in decades, rate of taxation the lowest.? And the increases in the cost of pensions, health care, and education is shared by all workers.

    Fix the education. health care,? pension, and income disparity?problems on a national level and all middle class families will get relief, as the wealthy pay their fair share of the public interest.? That’s shared sacrifice.



  9. Anne-EH on February 22, 2011 at 11:33 am

    Jim, HEAR that SUCKING SOUND? That is more businesses, jobs, and people leaving this state. If Governor Malloy sticks to his taxing plan, it will only get LOUDER.



  10. PatRiot on February 22, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    8.25% of my gross pay is for my companies medical plan.? Add to that copays and deductibles.? I think know the state workers can do that (and without a pay raise).
    And when the state workers boo-hoo? I say “Too bad.? I am not getting what I pay for as it is:? 1.??Education?Dept. Why isn’t EVERY high school graduate?reading at a 12th grade level?? 2. Labor Dept. – 20 years with no real growth in business – and I am paying you WHY?? 3.? Welfare Dept. – If my dollars are helping out more than just the desperate souls – shame on you.”



  11. Law-AbidingCitizen on February 22, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    A simple question: Gov. Malloy, what will you do when there is no more private sector to suckle off of? There will come a time when the “golden goose” will be bled dry; what will the public sector do then?
    How will the overpaid stuffed-suits in Hartford, in the Capitol and the LOB bluster to pay the exorbitant salaries or the Commissioners, Directors, Assistant Directors, Assistant to the assistant whatever . . . it’s just so unfair for the fatted, chosen ones to drive to their fancy offices with assistants galore while REGULAR working people are having to live with less and less! (Yes, if I am taxed more, I have less.)
    ?
    Again, start by getting rid of the Education Department — it educates no one but is a huge money pit.
    ?
    Mobsters! Write in with any examples that you know of waste: Example, Free lunches for teacher workshops.



IMG_0208

The website's content and articles were migrated to a new framework in October 2023. You may see [shortcodes in brackets] that do not make any sense. Please ignore that stuff. We may fix it at some point, but we do not have the time now.

You'll also note comments migrated over may have misplaced question marks and missing spaces. All comments were migrated, but trackbacks may not show.

The site is not broken.