Connecticut was dead last in economic growth in 2012.

[beerbeer]

Connecticut was dead last in economic growth last year, the only state in the nation where the combined total of goods, services and salaries paid within the state shrank compared to 2011.

The bad news for the Nutmeg State in Thursday’s report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis doesn’t stop there. Not only did the state equivalent of GDP, or gross domestic product, fall by .1 percent in 2012, it fell by the same amount in 2011, a substantial downward revision from the last year’s initial estimate of 2 percent growth. And in 2010, when the initial estimate suggested Connecticut had one of the strongest growth patterns in the country, the state’s GDP only grew by 1.2 percent, half the rate of the nation.

 

http://courantblogs.com/ct-jobs/connecticut-last-in-nation-in-economic-growth-last-year/

 

The state deserves so much better. Then again, you get the government you vote for.  

 

 

[The Voice of Reason]

our government honestly has little to do with it.  it has influence, but this is an issue build over the last 200 years.

 

change just one tiny detail....

State pensions...and the culture surrounding state/city pensions  and we got a change..

problem is that we started diging that hole long long ago.

 

Union pensions are an extension of this.. but I digress.

 

other than this detail our woes are largely the result of location, size and national demographic shifting.

 

CT is small, much like Rhode island and therefore cannot pool enough resources to properly build infrastructure around a single strength.

 

think of Minneapolis as a correlary...  Huge state, huge area, one city to focus infrastructure on.   so, the airport is great, and all sports focus is on Minneapolis, so they invest in it.  all highways lead there and ultimately the state serves the needs of the city so the city can serve the needs of the state.

 

for these reasons, everyone is on the same page.. everyone.

 

because Minneapolis is strong, the state is strong.   rural areas benefit from summer camps, and from winter get aways.  the satate has more money to spend on rural education etc, and there is a transportation network to serve everyone. 

 

 

 

 

here in CT, we are ADD, our roads server everywhere and nowhere at the same time.   we are New York, we are New England, we are tri-state, we are Boston, we are the shore, we are the gateway to new england, we are fairfield county, we are so damn unfocused its staggering.

 

and since we are small we dont have the same federal resources focused in one spot.

 

I ask this too...

 

what would CT be like if we got 100% of our federal taxes back every year in federal funding?  and for the last 100 years?

 

I suspect we would have amazing mass transit and fully funded pensions and less debt and alot of things.

 

 

Let me make this even more black and white ugly!

 

Using 2007 numbers , CT gave the feds 54 Billion and received 32 Billion back.

 

thats a 22 Billion loss!!!

 

the % for 2007 was 59.69% by my math

 

based on the the Heartland institute, the numbers for 1998 were 69%  and for 1988 were 79%   (not sure what that website is but this was an easy data find.)

 

so, if we have been losing out on between 10-22 Billion over the last 25 years, its fairly reasonable to assume that the state is short some 250 Billion to 500 Billion

 

Connecticut has a total state debt of something like 42 Billion....

gee, I wonder why?

 

 

2 years could pay that off.

 

I obviously am aware that this is not a $1 for $1 cash propisition, and that much of that spending might be focused on say the national labs in New Mexico or supporting Naval operations in Virginia.

 

but the lack of parity is egregious.

 

I say, we ask the feds to kindly pay off all our debt, and build us a nice mass transit system based around Hartford, but connected regionally to NYC/Boston... then we will call nit even steven.