State Senator Eric Lesser, the State Senator from Longmeadow is out with what some have called an out of the box solution to an age old problem:
How do you draw and keep people in Western Massachusetts?
The Senator’s solution -- in its most basic approach has a ten thousand dollar enticement to have people buy and live in homes and them work remotely in the area as opposed to heading to Boston or where ever.
Although the Senator gets high marks for making the proposal, it suggests that a simple financial push is the difference between people coming and going from the area.
What the Senator’s proposal doesn’t even hint at considering is why people live in the area and why people leave.
It’s pretty simple.
People leave the area and the state because the taxes are too high. The cost of living is too high. The cost to do business is too high.
You can have what you think are the best schools in the universe...you can have the best of everything but if you have to payout massive amounts of money to make ends meet then its all for nothing.
There is only one way to draw people into the state.
It is something that if Connecticut understood then they too would reap the rewards of increased population.
Slash Taxes across the board. No matter who they are -- no matter how much they make.
Work with the electric companies and all utilities to allow for a reasonable return on investment while not making homeowners see red every month.
Remove the red tape from business. The most basic of information for businesses while ensuring that the moral and legal responsibilities of both parties are met.
If you do only that and nothing else in a legislative session you will be doing far more than you do now.
However to do that you need leadership from the top to propose and the guts of lawmakers down below to follow through in a quick and orderly way.
It is the reason why you will never ever see it done in either Connecticut or Massachusetts.
And since they don’t-- it is the reason why people move to places like South Carolina and never look back except to say “Remember back when?”