Tom Foley gets back into the public-policy realm

 

This from the former GOP gubernatorial candidate:

“February 7, 2011, Manchester, CT – Tom Foley, former candidate for Governor, today announced the formation of The Connecticut Policy Institute, a privately funded policy think tank dedicated to developing and supporting effective policy in the areas of education reform and Connecticut’s long term economic competitiveness. “The Connecticut Policy Institute will be a non-partisan voice for good long term policy for Connecticut,” said Foley. “The Institute will be an ardent defender of good policy when politics threaten to take us in a different direction.” Don’t Kill the Golden Goose! Raising the Income Tax May Be Good Politics, But It Is Bad Policy“. The paper contends that raising the income tax to reduce the state’s budget deficit would be a costly policy error. The paper claims Connecticut is a special tax case with a disproportionately small and mobile base of high income taxpayers, many of whom live in Connecticut because the state’s income tax is lower than its neighbors. The paper estimates that raising the income tax one percentage point would reduce the size of this tax base by ten percent over ten years, resulting in negative revenue generation of $13 million in year ten, $2 billion less in state GDP, and 15,000 fewer jobs. “Talk of raising the income tax even further is scary when it is clear that doing so would cost the state and its citizens dearly. We hope good policy prevails over politics as the state legislature prepares to approve the 2012 budget.”

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