It is hoped that you and your family have been safe during the lengthy quarantine this past year. For those of you who have lost a loved one, suffered a business shutdown, lost a job, faced fiscal hardship, endured the challenges of your children’s educational isolation and generally experienced a subsequent state of depression— the overall result is the loss of a quality of life we all desire.
Today’s issues are not consigned to people of any given political party but they have severely impacted the middle, lower income and poor segments of Connecticut’s population. What makes it worse is that, concurrently, our administrative leadership expanded the tax base, curtailed our freedom to worship, meet the needs of our extended family or even say “goodbye” in a meaningful manner to our elders.
The first leg of the stool is that the people’s constitutional freedoms are being traded for the Connecticut Governor’s freedom to declare Executive Orders by virtue of a Democratic majority. In addition, that same majority can freely propose taxes that will further constrain the ability of families to manage their personal finances. The second leg of the stool is the ability of the State to freely close the State buildings to the public and impose mandates on commercial enterprise to conduct business. The third leg of the stool is the peoples’ loss of freedom to speak “freely” while the media has the freedom to report subjective commentary rather than factual news.
Not to put too fine a point on it, it is the responsibility of elected officials to not only worry about the State of the State but the state of our Connecticut residents. It is these delegates upon whom the voters rely. The State of the State address by the Governor in February of any year should not only be about the budget and their anticipated objectives, but the condition of their constituents’ pocketbooks and lifestyle. The State will only do well if its inhabitants are sufficiently nourished with common sense economics, fiscal ingenuity and integrity, moral motivation and solutions based on expedient compromise.
If you are a taxpayer, registered voter and resident of Connecticut, it is your opportunity, right and accountability to make a change in the captain of our State’s ship and its crew.