Wow!
Is this guy for real?
I Hope So!
Rod
Hanscomb
Running
for Governor of
Connecticut
“Our vision and our goal is to remake the state government of Connecticut into the smallest, most efficient entity possible while fostering an entrepreneurial business climate that can be a model for the rest of the nation. With these two guiding principles, Connecticut’s possibilities become endless!”
In Connecticut, we MUST:
- Invigorate, Innovate, and De-regulate
- Become a high-growth state by eliminating the state income tax
- Drastically slash spending and regulations
- Demand that our once great cities restructure and renew
- Fully dismantle welfare in all of its varied forms
- Fix the disaster that is our pension system and fully transition to 401(k) style retirement plans
- Drive health care costs to become the lowest in the nation
- Create the #1 business climate in the nation
- Make Connecticut truly revolutionary – again!
Taxation
The number one fastest growing economy in the country right now is Washington State. I know it well, as I lived in Seattle for 20 years before coming back to Connecticut four years ago. How are the two states different? Washington has no income tax, no car tax, and property taxes are one-half to one-third of what they are here in Connecticut. It’s plain and simple: They’re booming! We’re dying!
The goal of our Connecticut State Government will be to make the tax burden as low as possible.
Then, once we get the tax burden down as low as we possibly can, the next goal will be to lower it even further.
Though the cost of living in Washington, especially in Seattle, has risen significantly and the traffic is worse than ever, it continues to boom. Why? The competition for companies to attract the best and most valuable talent in the High Tech, Finance, Aerospace, Health Care, and Pharmaceutical industries is intense. Salaries and incomes of $200k to $500k annually for managers and directors are becoming commonplace. In California, a manager earning $200k per year at one of these firms pays the State of California 9% income tax, or $18,000 per year. If he relocates to Washington he pays $0. A director at one of these firms making $500k per year hits California’s 13% state income tax, paying $65,000. In Washington she pays $0. The tax savings for senior executives can skyrocket from there.
Spending
Connecticut has the second highest tax burden per resident in the United States, only slightly behind that of New York. If the current proposal for tolls, an increased gas tax, and a tire tax is passed, we’ll be the #1 most taxed state. Though our government brings in more money per resident than any other state in the country, we still have constant budget crises, and this past year we were the last state in the nation to pass a budget. Our state has been run by fiscal fools for long enough!
Our plan is very clear and simple. We are going to drastically cut spending and will quickly start working our way to being one of the least tax burdened states in the nation!
State Pensions
When people talk about a pension system, it sounds like something from the 1950s. The private sector and smart state governments, have for decades now moved away from pensions and into 401k style retirement plans with defined matching contributions. Did they do this out of greed or meanness? No. They did it because it is an exponentially better system for all involved.
DYI
Quick Comment: All of the fifty States
need to get the old style pension monster off their back it is one of the
single biggest spending issues they have. They all need to shift to 401k style plans as fast as possible.
If the State had a 401 (k) style plan in place years ago, as it should have, there would be zero pension liabilities, compared to the roughly $70 billion necessary to catch up to past promises. With a 401 (k) style plan the State pays as it goes and it can’t carry forward future liabilities. All this gets done while providing it’s teachers and employees with by far superior retirement benefits. This is what the #1 fastest growing state has been doing for decades now, without an income tax, no car tax, and much lower property taxes.
Healthcare
The average amount of money spent on every American for health care, from the youngest of us to the oldest, is now $10,000 per year. This number is 30% higher than the next closest industrialized nation, for the same amount of coverage.
What happens when government starts handing out “free” money like we do with higher education and health care?
Answer:
The costs of these services uncontrollably skyrocket!
How much less expensive and more efficient would the health care system be if we were the most entrepreneurial government in the country, free from federal influence? Often we forget that every state is an independent Republic (or Commonwealth) with its own constitution. We have enormous legislative powers that we often overlook, and are not bound to Federal programs such as Medicaid (it is voluntary).
The Federal Government has clearly been unwillingly to reign in this completely financially broken and amazingly inefficient system, and we must ask ourselves “Why”? When things are a complete mess and make no sense, we look for answers. The answer is actually quite simple: just follow the money trail. Industries that benefit from the high costs generated by inefficiency and waste, such as insurance and pharmaceuticals, like the system just the way it is. Though they all seem to claim poverty or hardship, these enormous sums of money are of course benefiting certain groups, and clearly do not go to providing affordable and efficient services.
Are these some of the questions we need to be asking?
- With a large and ever growing shortage of doctors, why are less than 1% of applicants accepted into medical schools?
- Why are there not more medical schools and why has not even one state figured out a way to found an enormous one?
- Is the American Medical Association (AMA) just another labor union, limiting competition in order to drive up costs? [DYI: BINGO, DIRECT HIT, SPOT ON, ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!]
- With our Independence as a Constitutional Republic, why do we feel the need to blindly follow established guidelines from the AMA, Insurance Companies, and the legal world?
- When accepting money from the Federal Government for poorly run programs, are we essentially dancing with the devil and thus being controlled by their ways, however inefficient they may be?
- Why is the medical industry the only one that gives services without having to quote prices first? Why is this even allowed?
- What would costs for services be if Insurance companies reimbursed directly to the policy holder or individual, allowing them to shop for services first?
- With malpractice settlements, why are maximum dollar amounts not set? Why are frivolous law suits of all types not fined for court fees and attorney costs when the plaintiff loses and the Judge deems fit? Is it perhaps because an overwhelming percentage of politicians are attorneys themselves and don’t want to change anything?
- What would happen if 1 out of the 50 states had healthcare costs 30% lower than the others? What could that mean for jobs and economic opportunities?
- What would it take to build the newest and largest independent medical school in the country?
- Could that facility, and something like it, begin to handle a lot or most of the medical needs of the truly needy? Could it offer up efficient and affordable cash pay-as-you-go services to the general public, regardless of income levels? [DYI: Yes it would if you do what I state below!]
Education
The most common thing we hear regarding education all the time is: “We need to put more money into our schools. We don’t spend enough money on education.” Though our initial reaction to that is usually in agreement, we should step back from our emotional reaction and study to see if that is actually true.
The average amount spent on public primary school education in Connecticut is over $18k per student per year. Of course, this is one of the highest. The US average is $10k per year. Utah comes in the lowest (or is it the most efficient?) at $6k per year. Utah also has the 3rd fastest growing economy in the United States, so their low (or highly efficient) spending on education is clearly not holding them back. A good friend of mine here in high cost Stamford sends his 2 kids to an excellent Catholic parochial school. Cost? $6k per child per year, the same as Utah. Of the $18k per year spent on public school students in Connecticut, over $5k per year is going to teacher’s retirement and benefits.
What happens when you look at every issue through the lens of how the Most Entrepreneurial Government in the country would go about things? Do we start to ask the following questions:
- For home schooled kids and kids going to private schools, shouldn’t the parents be getting $3 to $4k per student per year? Most pay enormously into taxes for education, yet now receive nothing. If the State and local towns and cities saved $14k per student per year, giving $3 to $4k per student should be looked at as a great deal for all involved. How many more parents would home school or send their kids to private schools if this incentive was applied?
- If a mother or father decides to stay home and home school, is there any reason why they shouldn’t be able to home school a few of their nieces or nephews, or children of their close friends? In this scenario, a parent homeschooling 4 kids saves the State and towns $56k Per year. Did you know that homeschooled kids consistently outperform students enrolled in traditional public schools?
- Should there be year long schooling and Saturdays? Should we make the school days shorter and spread out the work load, taking a lot of pressure off of the kids and perhaps improving performance and knowledge retention?
- I’ve had the good fortune of being able to travel extensively throughout the US (49 States (sorry Iowa)) and to over 40 foreign countries. In several instances I’ve learned of parents sending their kids to private schools where they go 6 shorter days per week, and year round. In some schools they have 2 sessions per day. This greatly maximizes facility and administrative and overhead costs. We have $60 billion in State debt now. A lot of this is accounted for by spending on new school facilities, yet if you consider waking hours, holidays, vacation breaks and summers, these expensive facilities sit empty 50-60% of the time. Is this most efficient?
- Only roughly 30% of us are on the path to finishing a 4 year university degree. This is probably much more than we even need. Even so, 70% of us are going on to the work force sooner, ideally getting as valuable and as needed technical training beforehand. Once a student is 16 years of age and not going to a 4 year university, what are they getting out of a junior and senior year in high school? Are they gaining much of anything at that point that will better prepare them for the workforce? Should they receive a small incentive to graduate early or start their technical training earlier, saving the state again enormous sums of money? Also, in Washington State where I lived for many years most of the high schools now offer junior and senior year community college classes for university bound students. Students are now leaving high school with the first 2 years of university completed, with $0 in college costs or debt incurred.
DYI: It’s about time to bring back trade schools
beginning in that 11th and 12th grades who not college
bound. Wouldn’t it be great if you call
up a plumber or carpenter to have something fixed at your home and you have a competent
individual who repairs, or upgrades correctly and in a timely manner [And he
speaks English!]. Today trying to find
truly qualified repairmen is like finding a needle in a haystack!
Welfare and Social Services
Plain and simple. The vast majority of people despise welfare programs in all of their varied forms. Though admittedly these programs were formed with good intentions, we have reached a point where we need to be fully honest about the results and ask ourselves some basic questions:
- Do these programs bring people out of poverty or just keep them there, often for multiple generations with no end in sight?
- Do these programs help support family structures, or are they an incentive for poor habits and poor choices?
- Do these programs help people raise their standard of living, or do they incentivize people to “lower the bar”, making sure they never lose their “benefits”?
- Is anyone you know who is accomplishing great things in life a recipient of any social welfare program?
- For people with excellent attitudes and work ethics, who truly want to succeed, are there many who are incapable of surviving on their own in this country?
- For people who fall on hard times, as we all do, why are families not looked to first and almost exclusively as the support system needed, as was the case just a few generations ago?
- If dismantling these programs, would we as Connecticut residents allow people to starve to death or allow good people, especially with children, to go fully homeless? Where are their extended families and why are they not there to help to begin with?
- What percentage of people receiving Social Welfare are extreme hardship cases, truly in need?
- How many recipients are outright abusing and cheating the system, defrauding the government and hard working tax payers?
Our unapologetic goal and plan is very clear. We plan to dismantle the welfare system and be the State that provides real opportunities.
DYI: I personally know of one person in my wife’s
family who is outright abusing Social Security Disability [ and food stamps EBT
card]. She is very capable of working
but has absolutely zero intention of seeking employment. She would rather live in poverty than
work. Plus just from conversations with
others I find these and other abuses of the welfare state to be rampant.
Entrepreneurial Government
What would the most entrepreneurial and most business friendly government in the country be like? Ever evolving? Ever questioning? Ever looking for efficiency improvements? Ever engaging?
With insurance company requirements and on line review platforms for virtually every business out there, how much “protection” is really needed from the state government? When was the last time we heard of someone calling the attorney general’s office to check on a company’s reputation? Even great grandmothers now commonly have smart phones as their go to to find information and reviews about businesses.
How many regulations are for the consumer, and how many are in place to protect entrenched interests and to lock out competition?
If Connecticut were the most entrepreneurial and most efficient government in the country:
- Would we bar a licensed dental hygienist from starting their own cleaning practice?
- Would residential heating and plumbing contractors be the only ones in the Nation having to follow labor union licensing programs that bar them from hiring out-of-state employees, thus greatly hampering growth and profitability?
- Would a stay at home parent or individual be bared from starting a food preparation business from their home in order to make meals for others?
- Would parents have to sit through a state-mandated safety class when their child is getting a driver’s license?
- Would motorcycle riders be forced to pay the state hundreds of dollars to sit through a 3-day state run mandatory class, when a simple skills test would suffice?
- Would we still pretend that a bottle deposit is intended for recycling purposes, and is not just another hidden tax on our residents?
- Would we sit by and blindly accept having the highest utility rates in the country, or would we aggressively look for alternatives?
- Would the state government tell us when we can and cannot purchase alcohol?
- Would we encourage public-private partnerships to develop a pier and entertainment area somewhere along our beautiful coastline, in an effort to spur tourism?
- How much more efficient could we make the Department of Transportation in repaving our highways?
- Would we better develop and commercialize our regional airports in Stratford and New Haven, to include services to Long Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Block Island?
- Perhaps most importantly, how would we specifically re-develop our once great cities to make them desirable destinations again?
Our goal is to rebuild our great state into the most efficient and most entrepreneurial state in the nation!
DYI: Wow! If
this guy is for real he is in the real direction of free enterprise – free from
the constraints of government – if only half is implemented the State of Connecticut
will be a hot growth State. If all of
his proposals were placed into law and enforced vigorously The Constitution
State would be the next Singapore!
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