Paging Mark Boughton, Tom Foley, John McKinney, Larry Cafero, and all other potential Republican candidates for governor in 2014. Governor Dannel Malloy’s approval rating is warming up, but not exactly global warming like, according to a poll commissioned by the economic think tank Yankee Institute. The poll shows Connecticut voters want to put the brakes on Malloy’s proposal to eliminate taxes on motor vehicles when they learn the governor has no provision for reimbursing municipalities for revenue losses that would shift largely to homeowners. On Friday several Connecticut mayors including Bill Finch are scheduled to huddle at a news conference blistering Malloy’s budget impact on cities. Malloy’s budget, at least in early stages making its way through the state legislature, is no friend to the cities whose votes he’ll need for reelection. Yankee poll:
The good news for Gov. Dannel Malloy is that he enjoys his highest approval ratings ever, at 54 percent, according to a new poll by the Yankee Institute. The bad news is that voters don’t like his new budget proposals and only 42 percent of Connecticut voters say they would vote to re-elect him next year.
The governor’s approval rating sits at 54/45%, for a net positive rating of +9 percent. This is the governor’s highest approval rating yet. A year ago, Malloy’s approval rating was 51/46 (+5), which represented a significant improvement from June, 2011, in the wake of the tax increases of his first budget, when his approval rating was 42/56 or net negative 14 points.
However, just 42 percent of voters say they would re-elect him next year, with 39 percent saying they would probably vote for an unnamed Republican opponent. 19 percent are undecided. The governor’s re-elect rating has dropped 5 points from a year ago (47/47).
Furthermore, voters are deeply skeptical of the governor’s budget proposal. Given basic information about the budget, 54% of voters described it as spending too much. Voters oppose its reliance on borrowing by a 3:1 margin, 68-21 percent. They oppose exempting cars from the property tax, 52-34 percent, when informed about the proposal’s impact on municipalities. A narrow plurality of voters support the budget’s extension of tax increases on power plants, corporations, and insurance premiums, but only by 44-39 percent.
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Can someone explain the logic behind eliminating car tax only to shift it elsewhere? I can only say it’s political. Malloy wants to say he cut taxes? Who are the winners and losers? Renters with cars save but every property owner pays. Every business pays. Cut that tax and cut an equal amount of spending. Now that seems like a winning combination. Reduce the size of government and trim a bloated bureaucracy.
Possibly Malloy wants to shift revenue income to the property owners because so many small businesses do not have vehicles registered to them. There would be no shift in the source of tax revenues in that circumstance; it would be all gain? Maybe?
Foley is already chomping at the bit. He will use all of Malloy’s smoke and mirrors tax shifting to run the man out of office. I say Godspeed Mr. Foley.
Malloy is just an ignorant putz who really should not be in politics. He was merely a figurehead in Stamford. The real municipal leadership in that town are the corporations that have made it abundantly clear since the days of FD Rich, … ‘stay out.’