CT gov Malloy at convention

[zimmy]

First, why don't you look at state and local debt as a percent of gdp. It is much more telling than per person. Comparing debt per person ignores way too many factors and makes comparisons between states pretty much pointless.
Compare Revenue By State for 2012 - Charts

Also, CT's decades of Republican governors and democratic congress have more to do with CT's debt than a governor who was inaugurated in 2011. And I don't even like the guy, but come on.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by zimmy

First, why don't you look at state and local debt as a percent of gdp. It is much more telling than per person. Comparing debt per person ignores way too many factors and makes comparisons between states pretty much pointless.
Compare Revenue By State for 2012 - Charts

Also, CT's decades of Republican governors and democratic congress have more to do with CT's debt than a governor who was inaugurated in 2011. And I don't even like the guy, but come on.

"It is much more telling than per person"

Debt per person tells me how much more I owe. I can't control any of the state GDP other than myself.

"makes comparisons between states pretty much pointless"

I'm a statistician. I don't believe looking at it per person is pointless. I'm not saying it's the only way of looking at it, but it's certainly not pointless.

"Also, CT's decades of Republican governors"

Ah, yes, the song of the truly desperate...

Yes, CT has had governors from the Republican party. But none were conservatives. There is exactly zero evidence of any conservative idealism that exists in the CT political landscape.

Zimmy, what is truly "pointless" is saying that the existence of a Republican governor means that CT is not a perfectly liberal state. A liberal can be a Republican.

CT is a petri dish through which we can view the results of a generation of pure, unchecked, liberalism. The conservatives in CT have not enacted a single conservative ideal, particularly in the area of economics.

Zimmy, enlighten me...if CT had never had a republican governor, exactly what would be different in this state?

"a governor who was inaugurated in 2011..."

And what did he do? He implemented the single largest tax increase in the history of our state, and worse, he made it retroactive to 6 months earlier than implemented (meaning, we had to pay double the increase for the second half of 2011). Malloy also personally approved of the idiotic, unexcusable, $550 million busway.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by zimmy

First, why don't you look at state and local debt as a percent of gdp. It is much more telling than per person. Comparing debt per person ignores way too many factors and makes comparisons between states pretty much pointless.
Compare Revenue By State for 2012 - Charts

Also, CT's decades of Republican governors and democratic congress have more to do with CT's debt than a governor who was inaugurated in 2011. And I don't even like the guy, but come on.

Zimmy, of course $1 million in debt means different things to a lemonade stand than it means to Microsoft...

Barron's recently ranked all states on their likelihood of defaulting on bonds. The state of CT had the highest likelihod of default. That tells me that Barron's isn't impressed by the ratio of debt to GDP.

State of the States - Barrons.com

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by zimmy

First, why don't you look at state and local debt as a percent of gdp. It is much more telling than per person. Comparing debt per person ignores way too many factors and makes comparisons between states pretty much pointless.
Compare Revenue By State for 2012 - Charts

Also, CT's decades of Republican governors and democratic congress have more to do with CT's debt than a governor who was inaugurated in 2011. And I don't even like the guy, but come on.

Zimmy, I could not connect to your link. So here is one of my own that looks at debt to GDP by state.

State of the States - Barrons.com

CT has a debt-to-GDP ratio of 7.9%, which looks like it's 3rd highest in the nation. So even in this measure, CT has a terrible ranking, like it does for every conceivable financial metric.

You are correct that Gov Maloy didn't create the debt. But are you going to tell me the debt would be a lot lower if he had been governor for the last 20 years? The man is a textbook tax-and-spend democrat. As soon as he got in office, he enacted the largest tax hike in state history.

So while he wasn't in office when this mess was created, he is clearly doubling down on the exact policies that created the mess.