Connecticut Is Leaving the Welcome Mat Out - Lamont WSJ letter

[question everything]

Your editorial “The Great U.S. Migration Continues” (Dec. 23) is more wrong than right as it applies to Connecticut. It posits that blue states are hemorrhaging population due to higher taxes, more regulation and expensive housing. That’s not true in Connecticut. In fact, our state is gaining population, with tens of thousands of young families having moved here over the past few years.

Republican orthodoxy says our migration is all about taxes. We recently enacted the largest tax cut in state history, eliminating the income tax for most working families and taxes on pensions for most seniors. Democratic orthodoxy argues that families are moving to Connecticut because we are a family friendly state, with paid-family leave, expanded daycare and one of the country's best education systems.

For most of our citizens, our income tax is lower than the Sunbelt states. In Connecticut, we have reversed the budget deficits and trends of the past, in part due to the new families and higher-income taxpayers who now call Connecticut home. We have more new startups and a lower unemployment rate than the national average, and we’re just getting started.

On the regulatory front, I won’t apologize for Connecticut enforcing environmental standards to better protect our air and water, but we’re also making the regulatory review and approval processes more efficient. More transactions are now done online, not in line.

As for housing costs, our state gets an incomplete. We have a shortage of housing supply and more people are trying to move into our state, driving up prices. We are working aggressively to speed up the zoning process and double the state’s investment in housing. We are building multifamily homes in our cities. Parking lots and old commercial buildings will be transformed into livable communities that are a short walk to a train station, park or great restaurant.

Connecticut will keep the welcome mat out and I hope more families keep coming.

Ned Lamont

Hartford, Conn.

Mr. Lamont is governor of Connecticut.

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Replying to this editorial (which I did not read)

The Great Blue to Red State Migration Continues

https://www.wsj.com/articles/census-states-migration-population-california-new-york-c6553426?st=b5lplgv14brnb79&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink