Malloy Taketh, and Giveth Away

According to the CT Mirror, http://ctmirror.org/story/13670/malloy-ubs-announcement, Governor Malloy is giving $20 million to UBS in exchange for keeping 2,000 positions in Stamford. How this makes any sense is beyond us.

Malloy's first priority in office was raising taxes (while New Jersey and New York were lowering or keeping their's flat) and now he's on a job tour to sprinkle tax breaks on a select group of companies that just had their taxes raised, so they will keep jobs in Connecticut.

The sequence has been raise taxes, drive employment lower, drive around the state and selectively lower taxes to keep employment steady. Where is the sense in this?

What measures are used to determine if someone gets a break? Who is making the decision? How big is the pot of tax breaks being doled out? What else can be done with that money? If taxes are too high to begin with, why were taxes raised?

At it's root, it's simply unfair. Let's look at it this way. We have five major grocery stores here in Darien: Stop and Shop at Heights, Stop and Shop at Goodwives, Palmer's, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Let's say Trader Joe's threatened to leave Darien unless it got a tax break. Here comes Governor Malloy and says, I'll give you $10,000 per worker you keep in Darien, which is the amount he gave UBS. Now Trader Joe's has a $10,000 per worker advantage over the other stores in town. How is this fair to Stop and Shop, Palmer's and Whole Foods? Why would Trader Joe's deserve such special treatment?

Why are we giving UBS $10,000 per worker? It makes no sense.

The Federal Budget-Part 4. A Couple of Summary Charts

Just a couple of more charts on the spending side. The first chart shows the total 12-month outlays, by month, for the US Treasury since 1980. The spike in spending since 2008 is apparent.

Source: Monthly Treasury Statement

This next chart shows the year-over-year change in spending over the same time period.

Source: Monthly Treasury Statement