1. Your argument about pitbulls is ridiculous because the problem is not the dog, it's the owner, as proven by the 99.99995% of pitbulls that attack zero people ever. 2 your gun comment was pro gun. If you don't understand that, learn grammar. And 3, if you think someone on the internet, who you will never know the real name of, could threaten you, you need to go outside.

? Are you broken?

I'm prior military and have my concealed carry permit...

You're right, 23 deaths from pit bulls a year and 4.5 million pits in the US. The data is there.

You're talking about a maximum of 23 deaths a year versus 4.5 million pitbulls in the US. That's the biggest waste of concern I have ever heard of.

It is the effect of socialism as it plays out. This state is not operating on capitalist principles right now. The state government is compelling societal transition to things like solar and EV's. A capitalist strategy would be to make the transition more profitable so it is naturally appealing. When you can't do that, and instead use taxes and regulation to make the cheaper option more expensive, that is socialist.

The state budget surplus was exclusively from COVID stimulus funding. That ended and this year we will operate at a deficit again. They can't afford the budget and the population to tax is declining.

I won't hold my breath, the only reason the state had a budget surplus was because of COVID relief money. That's over so the state will go back to losing money this year. The word is out, CT is dying. We have 26% more people leaving than coming and no company is trying to build here given the overhead costs of development, operation and energy. The only chance would be to cut spending but that would be political suicide for our elected officials so they are just going to ride the wave.

So the state just increased the cost of me making 3d printer filament?

The problem with a ton of these colleges is that administration has become a large portion of the yearly cost. I have a friend on the board at Uhart, and despite charging close to $70,000 a year, they are losing money because 35% of the budget is just administrators who get paid more than teachers for very niche positions that require less than 20 hours a week of real work. I know this is a problem most universities are facing right now, even state schools.

 We already began production on a new natural gas plant, plans were approved in September 2021.  We have extended the life of millstone for now, and eversource is raking in money it could use to upgrade the power lines and such, so we have the short term covered. Long term we are doing nothing but the same.
   In addition, everyone talking about renewables in government is talking about wind and solar.  Neither of those is practical on a large scale.  I understand the concerns with nuclear, though I worked in nuclear and there at least 15 nuclear reactors in the Thames river at any one time, but beyond that, there are other large scale options that would drastically reduce our energy cost.  The only down side is it would hurt the fossil fuel companies.

 So I understand this video and why you like it. Here is my point, she could propose a bill tomorrow that allows the US to buy generic equivalents of the drugs these companies make, from Canada, Europe or elsewhere where they are significantly cheaper than the ones produced in the US.  She has tunnel vision for the US pharmaceutical companies simply deciding to do the right thing.  
 This is similar to the problem with CT energy prices.  We have tunnel vision for keeping all power plants natural gas power plants.  So we are beholden to the price of natural gas.  All we would need to do to break this, is switch to an efficient renewable or a power source that doesn't require a constant supply of fossil fuels, thereby creating a competing source that would force the gas power plants to drop prices to compete. That conversation isn't even happening.

Edit: basically most politicians are playing these companies games instead of writing their own rules.

Economists because they will determine what resources are about to become available and provide cheap alternatives to natural gas, coal and oil. They can determine under represented markets that CT could tap into, kinda the same as supply chains but more prospecting and looking to the future.

Has she gotten results, or just talked? I work in energy. I understand why our power generation and distribution is so messed up. I even worked at millstone for a while. It will take a decade of new production that involves large steam plants. Instead of discussing what we should use to boil the water, besides oil and natural gas, I see politicians waste time misrepresenting inflation and supply crunches. We could look into geothermal, tidal turbines or nuclear and we are busy debating how to keep aging natural gas plants alive while trying to get every household to buy crappy solar panels to make up for the ignorance. Eventually those plants are going to need to be retired, and it will take 10 years to replace them with something better.

Edit: we have a 2 billion dollar surplus in CT for the first time in a long time, we should invest in new sources of energy and not waste it on solar, and more natural gas plants because that surplus came from Covid policy and will not last.

Yes let's pick someone from the state that charges the highest cost for electricity, to explain to the state with the second highest cost how to do better.

How about we get some electrical engineers, economists and supply chain specialists, hired by the state, to discuss this instead?

Edit: I'm not counting Hawaii since it is an island and the cost makes sense there

I wonder if all those rate hikes were their lobby money.

That being said, the people who have moved down south don't have the same costs on the basics so it does have an effect. Eating well in this state for a family of 4 is about $1000 a month, gas is expensive here, when I first moved back to CT my car tax quadrupled even though my car was a year older. Insurance is higher and even health care costs more.

They absolutely do. I try to provide budget advice to people I work with. I was enlisted navy and learned to mostly stay within an E-5 salary so I save allot. They really just don't have the financial responsibility they need and don't want to change their life styles or don't want to fight with their spouses about cutting back.

So yes and no. The september budget report has a ton of context to it, for example, the surplus is predicted based on the first three months of the fiscal year so far. Beyond that, these two paragraphs sorta suggest we got saved by the pandemic and that we are living on borrowed time.

A surging stock market between 2018 and early 2022 drove much of the budget surpluses. But even as the market has cooled, other factors have helped the state.

According to Beckham’s report, rising interest rates have improved the state’s cash position by $95 million over the past month, while the federal government’s extended public health emergency has bumped Medicaid payments to Connecticut up by $30 million.

The source is this https://ctmirror.org/2022/09/20/ct-budget-surplus-ned-lamont/

I edited for a typo.

 This was a good response. Thank you. Like I said, I actually am not upset with Lamont and I know Dan Malloy personally.  My parents actually introduced him to his wife.  I vote as an independent, but I voted for Lamont in this last election. I see Hartford's history and it's value. I do think that we are spiralling again though. We never really recovered from 2008, had a quick adrenaline shot during Covid from everyone leaving New York and Massachusetts, but we need to get cost of living under control in this state.  My fiancé and I make about $130,000 a year combine and would prefer to live here for the school system and general quality of life but many people I work with don't have a second income and things like electric bills, cost of gas and diesel, the cost of food and high property tax\car tax are making them all apply down south to get away.

That's actually good to hear. In the past I believe it was after 2 years of service and the budget has slightly improved thanks to Lamont. I know it is also public sector union pension credits and such that are hurting us as well. Not necessarily just state employees. I am an E-2 electrician for the state and we get a ridiculous payout. While I would hate to see it go, I recognize a lot of our benefits are related to the high cost of energy here. The sad part is, the average E-2 makes $85k+ per year and most of my coworkers live pay check to pay check because they see no consequence to doing so.

Don't really know how these types of comments get down voted when they are the actual situation we are in. People just don't want to face the fact that we don't have the population in the greater Hartford area to support the budget and small tax increases on gas, food and even tolls are not going to change that. If you have an alternative suggestion, challenge what I am saying. Malloy invested in huge social expansion and a lot of it was good. We have the best public transit system in the country, our cops are not hated like in most states, our teachers are actually taken care of. Things could be pretty good here, but we need to be rational and address the issue that has been building since 2008.

Did not know that, like I said, we will have to wait for the report. I at least hope it wasn't negligence or something worse.

I was impressed with Ned Lamont during the pandemic, he didn't give into a lot of the crazier Covid policy that our NY RI and MA neighbors invoked. That being said, any discussion that doesn't involve why our budget is so out of whack is a waste of time. Around 30% of the CT budget is pensions and paying for past work. It would be political suicide to cut spending and fix these problems so I expect any solution to be temporary.

In the article it says people in the area lost power. We will have to wait for the report but I don't think it was anyone's fault.