A new poll by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and Zogby could be considered a Christmas wish list, with the business community and residents all wanting the same things.
We hate to say it”™s no surprise, but, it”™s no surprise that jobs, economic growth, taxes, spending and health care are the top issues facing everyone in the state.
“It”™s clear that these issues are of great importance to everyone in Connecticut ”” its residents as well as the business community,” said John R. Rathgeber, president and CEO of CBIA. “Our elected leaders must listen to what the people of Connecticut are saying and act in a fiscally responsible way that encourages economic growth and job creation, and improves education opportunities for our students.”
It makes sense to us, let”™s hope it makes sense to the lawmakers in Hartford.
Two-thirds of the poll respondents said the tax and spending levels of the state budget are too high. As we have pointed out on these pages too many times, high taxes and housing costs spell a bad business environment as young workers head to southern climes for better jobs and a better cost of living. As the baby boomers start retiring, manufacturers and other industries are in need of skilled workers to replenish their diminishing ranks. How do they make themselves attractive if living in the state is not especially affordable?
The stinging developments in the economy from a sputtering dollar to the subprime debacle to rising gas and home heating oil prices and to the near-acquiescence now by economists that we are in a recession ”“ something we have stated on this very page and has been even more justified by the latest consumer prices rising another 0.8 percent ”“ all point to the fact that something needs to be done at all levels of government.
We all are spending more on energy and food. The recent cuts by the Federal Reserve do little for small businesses and homeowners. What needs to be done as a start is a tax cut ”“ federal and state.
Christmas spending is masking the ugliness of the economy. But wait until January and the hangover sets in, especially among those spending beyond their means just as their cousins did in the subprime mortgage morass. Maybe the White House will be ready to supply another bailout.
Another aspect of the CBIA/Zogby poll is health care. Some 83 percent of the respondents said they are satisfied with their health insurance and 65 percent said they oppose raising taxes to pay for a state government-run health care system.
Seventy-four percent said health care costs need to be controlled, but not by government. The same respondents also said that private insurance should be made more affordable.
Â
“The rising cost of health care is making it difficult for companies to remain competitive in Connecticut,” Rathgeber said. Lawmakers should focus on “the strength of the current employer-based system and ways to improve it,” he said. “They can do that by concentrating on three key areas: reducing the cost drivers in the system, improving the quality of health care and making certain that the uninsured have access to health care. But a state takeover isn”™t the answer.”
Pollster John Zogby agrees.
“This fits with other Zogby polling nationwide that shows people sense changes need to be made to the health care industry, but that they do not trust government to take it over.”
Can we get an Amen?
Maybe the lawmakers in Hartford can pay a little more attention to the important issues rather than what some lobbyists or heaven-knows-who have foisted upon them such as these gems that were passed this year: PA 07-98, which makes it a misdemeanor to disrupt funerals; PA 07-180, which requires that cigarettes sold in the state be fire-safe; and PA 07-66, which requires that student suspensions be in-school, in other words, “You”™re suspended from school, but you have to remain in school.”
Maybe legislators should be suspended and forced to stay in the capitol building until they pass something that will affect all residents and business owners in a positive way.
And the one bright spot in the poll was education; 90 percent were satisfied, but another 85 percent support raising standards.
“By better educating Connecticut”™s schoolchildren, more opportunities will be open to them for postsecondary education and high-wage employment,” said Lauren Weisberg Kaufman, CBIA vice president for education and job training and executive director of the association”™s Education Foundation. “Connecticut will be able to retain its world-class work force, businesses will remain competitive and our economy will be able to compete globally.”
Maybe the lawmakers should go back to school and pay attention in classes on economics and history.
Â
