We have a state budget.
Please hold the cheers.
Over Labor Day weekend, a two-year $37.6 billion budget became law after Gov. Jodi Rell decided against signing it. She didn”™t like what it contained; neither do we.
However, before we get into what we don”™t like in the budget, we would just like to say the governor should not have backed down. Yes, she was outnumbered by the Democrats in the General Assembly. (To be fair, nine House Democrats and one in the Senate voted against the budget.)
But by not signing it, she acquiesced to their political whims. She did give them a few whacks through line-item vetoes of anything she deemed pork barrel. But, she still should have held her ground.
However, that said, she did win some concessions.
“By digging in my heels, I have forced the Democrats to sharply lower their demand for new taxes. They went from $3.3 billion in new taxes in their April budget to $2.5 billion in the June budget, dropping to $1.8 billion in their July budget ”“ and $900 million in the current proposal,” Rell said in offering her reasons for not signing.
“Let me repeat: This budget is not the compromise I sought ”“ but it is a fight that has saved our taxpayers billions of dollars.”
She went on to say: “This budget reduces the corporate surcharge that the Democrats first proposed at 30 percent to 10 percent over the next three years, and excludes nearly all small- and medium-sized businesses in the state. This budget makes significant changes and reductions in the inheritance tax and requires the state sales tax to drop. And it does cut some state spending. Most importantly: This budget crisis must be resolved. For the good of our state, this crisis is now resolved.”
Well, sort of resolved.
Â
Prior to the non-signing of the budget, Rell”™s office released figures that showed state spending is outpacing personal income growth 283.7 percent to 172.7 percent. The numbers crunched ran from 1987 to this year”™s estimated figures. The annual percentage change in state spending was 6.37 percent. Income only rose 4.71 percent per year.
Â
Continuing at this spending rate is unconscionable.
Couple these numbers with the means by which the state budget was based ”“ rainy day fund and federal stimulus money ”“ and you have the ingredients for economic peril because taxes will ultimately have to rise to cover for the use of these one-time revenues.
Businesses and other taxpayers will have to pay the piper.
Some sooner than others.
A cursory look at the increase in fees, which take effect on Oct. 1, shows no one goes unscathed, from small-business owner to farmer.
The annual fee for a package store permit rises from $400 to $500.
The annual fee for a grocery store beer permit doubles from $80 to $160.
The folks who makes the beer will soon have to pay $1,000 ”“ up $200 ”“ for a manufacturer permit.
A pharmacist license doubles to $200 and the fee for a pharmacy license is up $150 to $750.
Â
Are you a hypnotist, or plan to be? Then it”™s going to cost $100 for a permit.
Â
Getting a bakery license is also doubling and varies on the number of workers.
The registration fee for a homemaker-companion agency rises $75 to $375.
The annual license fee for milk dealers and yogurt manufacturers doubles to $100.
And for retailers of pistols and revolvers, seller permits double to $200.
Want to forget your troubles and go hunting and fishing? Well, those fees, too, are doubling. Wait a minute, I can go salt-water fishing for free. No more. You”™ll now need a license and it will cost $30.
These fees may seem like a drop in the bucket when we”™re talking billion-dollar budgets. But, a hundred here and a thousand there and pretty soon we”™re getting taxed out.
Besides, nickel and diming is no way to tend to the state budget.
In considering the future of the state, forethought, focus and forward thinking are much better than the other “f” word ”“ failure.
