The Malloy-Sharkey-Looney budget was hammered out behind closed doors by the three gentlemen just before Governor Dannel Malloy was to begin a European trip, ostensibly to convince businesses in Europe to transfer some of their operations to tax-plagued Connecticut. Paris and Germany were on the itinerary. Paris is lovely this time of year. Many moons ago, when François Hollande was installed as President, the famous French actor Gérard Depardieu turned in his passport and moved to a small Belgian village about 24 miles from France, leaving behind as he went his malison on M. Hollande, the first socialist President since François Mitterrand left office in 1995. The richest man in the country, Bernard Arnault, the CEO and chief shareholder of the luxury behemoth LVMH, had earlier moved to Belgium to escape the confiscatory tax Mr. Hollande levied on France’s One-Percenters.
go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you;
may your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"
--Samuel Adams