This week kicked off with the age old debate to toll or not to toll. Whether it is nobler to collect a fee for traversing the interstate roads of Connecticut's border or suffer the slings and arrows of voters who scream about gas taxes?
And yes thats it- that the whole story. I know State Reps from Tolland to Torrington want you to think Bridges are collapsing and roads are buckling from years of neglect, and they are. But a toll tax today will no more fix the roads that are now failing than the Casino's propped up a failing school system in 90's.
Oh sure dollars will come in, and road improvement signs will go up, but Connecticut's roads are falling as are the schools, the Cities, the Environment and a whole bunch more because Connecticut is failing- and no tax, fee or toll will change the fact that we have a failing State and no real plan to come back from the brink.
As long as people think it is nicer to live in North Carolina than they do think it is Connecticut, then our State will fail.
Every single one of my friends who went on to post secondary degrees after high school and undergrad decided not to come back to Connecticut. I had over 400 people in my High School graduating class and a few more thousand at my UCONN graduation. If 10 % of those 2500 people decided to go to post secondary education and not come back to Connecticut- we lost 250 intelligent, well-educated people that the State paid a lot of money to educate in the 80's and 90's in my graduating class alone. Multiply that times the number of schools in Connecticut and the number of graduates who walk down that aisle every Spring. That is a HUGE number of people who decide Connecticut is not a place to live, work or raise a family. They also dont contribute to the economy, pay taxes or share in the collective responsibility in supporting our seniors, paying the pensions or funding the long term financing projects (IE Bridges and Roads).
We are failing because we are shrinking, not because we dont have the funds. And how do we fix that? Make Connecticut a place people want to live. Have good jobs, great schools and a vibrant culture. Have a pro-ball team, an affordable theater district maybe a symphony or opera house. But most of all, make housing and financing affordable.
Businesses need funds to hire people and grow. Young families need funds to get into their first house. And banks, well they need to lend it.
Everyone complains now that banks aren't lending despite record low interest rates and record topping profits. But they are not allowed to lend to people with debt (IE student loans) or businesses that don't have thriving business already or people who actually need the loan. So they want to lend, but there aint no body to lend to right now because we have turned every bank into Mr. Potter.
Remember him? That's the reason for the title. Potter was a cheap but wealthy old man portrayed in "It's A Wonderful Life" (my favorite movie) who was a dynamic business man and always made money because he made smart loans and always took the conservative route. Accordingly he was the richest man in Bedford Falls and managed to buy up most everything in the town during the Great Depression, except for the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan.
The BBB&L was a small struggling private lender that was not properly capitalized, made questionable loans to otherwise unqualified borrowers. But as George Bailey put it, they needed that measly old Building and Loan if for no other reason, than to esnure that people had some place to go for financing other than crawling to Bank of America (oh I mean Potter).
Fast forward to 2008 when the wheels were falling off and BOA was chomping up every small lending institution that was failing. Those that didnt go to BOA melded into the financing behemoth that is the American Financial Lobby and drown out all the rest in effort to keep their seat at the the banquet table of American Capitalism. Mean while, more of our young families and small businesses picked stakes and moved to places that had low taxes, lots of sunshine and a good seafood restaurant.
So you ask what the hell do tolls have to do with a Frank Capra film? Well Tom Hanks has the Godfather trilogy to answer life's little questions and Garrison Keeler has Guy Noir, I have Frank Capra.
George Bailey and the BBB&L are the answer to toll or not to toll. We wont need tolls if we have a growing working class. And we will only have a growing working class in Connecticut if we start enticing young families to come here and set up a home or small business to set up shop. And while I whole-heartedly agree that Tolls are over due and might answer some of those cha-chings we hear when cross into New York and Massachusetts with a few cha-chings from them when they cross into Connecticut, it wont solve the problem of failing roads, failing school or a failing State.
Even if we do get our fiscal house in order, with a host of new taxes, new revenues and new reasons not to do business or own a home in Connecticut, Connecticut will still be a failing State because when its all said and done, it isn't a state that people move to- it is a state where people move from. If your not breeding, stealing or getting ready to leave this planet, you don' t have much reason to be in Connecticut. So we need a few more mechanisms like the BBB&L to entice people to live here because as George put it, is it too much to ask the people who do all the living, paying, working and dieing to do it a couple decent rooms and bath?
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| Check out the BBB&L on Facebook- They are one of my favorite |
And yes thats it- that the whole story. I know State Reps from Tolland to Torrington want you to think Bridges are collapsing and roads are buckling from years of neglect, and they are. But a toll tax today will no more fix the roads that are now failing than the Casino's propped up a failing school system in 90's.
Oh sure dollars will come in, and road improvement signs will go up, but Connecticut's roads are falling as are the schools, the Cities, the Environment and a whole bunch more because Connecticut is failing- and no tax, fee or toll will change the fact that we have a failing State and no real plan to come back from the brink.
As long as people think it is nicer to live in North Carolina than they do think it is Connecticut, then our State will fail.
Every single one of my friends who went on to post secondary degrees after high school and undergrad decided not to come back to Connecticut. I had over 400 people in my High School graduating class and a few more thousand at my UCONN graduation. If 10 % of those 2500 people decided to go to post secondary education and not come back to Connecticut- we lost 250 intelligent, well-educated people that the State paid a lot of money to educate in the 80's and 90's in my graduating class alone. Multiply that times the number of schools in Connecticut and the number of graduates who walk down that aisle every Spring. That is a HUGE number of people who decide Connecticut is not a place to live, work or raise a family. They also dont contribute to the economy, pay taxes or share in the collective responsibility in supporting our seniors, paying the pensions or funding the long term financing projects (IE Bridges and Roads).
We are failing because we are shrinking, not because we dont have the funds. And how do we fix that? Make Connecticut a place people want to live. Have good jobs, great schools and a vibrant culture. Have a pro-ball team, an affordable theater district maybe a symphony or opera house. But most of all, make housing and financing affordable.
Businesses need funds to hire people and grow. Young families need funds to get into their first house. And banks, well they need to lend it.
Everyone complains now that banks aren't lending despite record low interest rates and record topping profits. But they are not allowed to lend to people with debt (IE student loans) or businesses that don't have thriving business already or people who actually need the loan. So they want to lend, but there aint no body to lend to right now because we have turned every bank into Mr. Potter.
Remember him? That's the reason for the title. Potter was a cheap but wealthy old man portrayed in "It's A Wonderful Life" (my favorite movie) who was a dynamic business man and always made money because he made smart loans and always took the conservative route. Accordingly he was the richest man in Bedford Falls and managed to buy up most everything in the town during the Great Depression, except for the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan.
Fast forward to 2008 when the wheels were falling off and BOA was chomping up every small lending institution that was failing. Those that didnt go to BOA melded into the financing behemoth that is the American Financial Lobby and drown out all the rest in effort to keep their seat at the the banquet table of American Capitalism. Mean while, more of our young families and small businesses picked stakes and moved to places that had low taxes, lots of sunshine and a good seafood restaurant.
So you ask what the hell do tolls have to do with a Frank Capra film? Well Tom Hanks has the Godfather trilogy to answer life's little questions and Garrison Keeler has Guy Noir, I have Frank Capra.
George Bailey and the BBB&L are the answer to toll or not to toll. We wont need tolls if we have a growing working class. And we will only have a growing working class in Connecticut if we start enticing young families to come here and set up a home or small business to set up shop. And while I whole-heartedly agree that Tolls are over due and might answer some of those cha-chings we hear when cross into New York and Massachusetts with a few cha-chings from them when they cross into Connecticut, it wont solve the problem of failing roads, failing school or a failing State.
Even if we do get our fiscal house in order, with a host of new taxes, new revenues and new reasons not to do business or own a home in Connecticut, Connecticut will still be a failing State because when its all said and done, it isn't a state that people move to- it is a state where people move from. If your not breeding, stealing or getting ready to leave this planet, you don' t have much reason to be in Connecticut. So we need a few more mechanisms like the BBB&L to entice people to live here because as George put it, is it too much to ask the people who do all the living, paying, working and dieing to do it a couple decent rooms and bath?
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