Author Archives: cxpowell

By Chris Powell Connecticut constantly hears clamor for more “fairness” in its various forms of taxation, but exactly what does this mean? Of course the ultimate in fair taxation is when someone else pays, which usually means “the rich,” and this is most convenient politically when “the rich” are a minority small enough to beContinue reading “What does ‘fair’ taxation really mean in Connecticut?”

By Chris Powell Apparently it’s not enough for the political left in Connecticut that nearly all state and municipal government employees are officially organized by law against government’s very few actual managers assigned to implement the public interest. Last week four state employee unions brought a federal lawsuit claiming that members of the Connecticut NationalContinue reading “Don’t unionize the Guard; and bust the racism racket”

By Chris Powell Vernon School Superintendent Joseph Macary may mean well, but then so did the guy who closed the barn door after the horses got out. The other day Macary urged Vernon’s Planning and Zoning Commission to reject a zoning regulation that would allow marijuana retailing as close as 500 feet to school property.Continue reading “State won’t protect children from marijuana and gambling”

By Chris Powell Energy prices are exploding and it seems that the Biden administration wants them to as the administration impairs U.S. energy production and transmission even as it urges other countries to increase their production to rescue the United States from its own lunacy. This policy of driving up energy prices and increasing theContinue reading “Killingly generator is needed, Ganim’s self-importance isn’t”

By Chris Powell Governor Lamont remarked last week that he is thinking about property tax relief, apparently in the context of his campaign for re-election next year. Of course for decades the whole state has been thinking about property tax relief and many politicians have been prattling about it, so where is it? For theContinue reading “What property tax relief? And gasoline prices overtake TCI”

By Chris Powell West Haven may be providing the perfect metaphor for government and politics in Connecticut. The small city has been suffering from financial excess so long that since 2017 it has been operating under the supervision of the state’s Municipal Accountability Review Board. Because of a federal criminal indictment announced a few weeksContinue reading “Out-of-state marching band plays a dirge for Connecticut”

By Chris Powell Construing the results of the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections as rebukes for his party that justify his politically moderate stance, Governor Lamont remarked last week that he is Connecticut’s “first governor in 30 years who didn’t raise taxes.” Lamont, a Democrat, is far better on taxes than his predecessor andContinue reading “Governor is better on taxes but not as good as he claims”

By Chris Powell What do you do when state government policy doesn’t work? In Connecticut the answer is simple: You do more of it. So disaster may be the most likely outcome of a new state program that aims to reserve $175 million per year in bonding for improvement projects in 34 of Connecticut’s poorContinue reading “Tell the cities to ‘think big’? They did and only got poorer”

By Chris Powell Republicans did fairly well in Connecticut’s municipal elections this week, picking up many suburbs and smaller towns, holding the mayoralties in some smaller cities — New Britain, Danbury, and Norwich — gaining the mayoralty in Bristol, and nearly gaining the mayoralty in heavily Democratic and poorly managed West Haven, which was beingContinue reading “Connecticut Republicans cheer results but wait til Trump returns”

By Chris Powell Even as his party’s leaders in the state Senate kept insisting that Connecticut has no serious crime problem and that the crime clamor is a Republican contrivance, last week Governor Lamont called a press conference at the state Capitol to acknowledge the issue and pledge to act on it. The governor, aContinue reading “Juvenile crime wave compels Governor Lamont to strike a pose”