While the US job market continues to grow robustly this year, adding 1.3 million jobs through August, Connecticut’s has stalled. The state has added only 400 jobs in a state of 3.6 million people, translating to 1/36th the rate of job growth as seen in the rest of the country.

It remains the only state other than Wyoming that has yet to recover all the jobs it lost since the Great Recession began in December 2007.

Nevertheless, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont marked the end of his first legislative session this summer with a peculiar victory lap around New York City. Lamont appeared on CNBC and MSNBC and visited the Wall Street Journal editorial board to promote the effectiveness of his agenda.

Because of his party’s reforms, “Connecticut is in a turnaround,” Lamont told Joe Scarborough, whose band performed at the governor’s inaugural ball. His rosy report is the fulfillment of the Democrat governor’s campaign promise to deliver “change” to Connecticut from eight preceding years of unitary Democrat government.

The reality in Connecticut is entirely different. Lamont and the Democrats, with large majorities in the legislature, have delivered more of the same this year, but in higher doses. They’ve raised taxes to fund an increasingly bloated government and given more power and privilege to the politicians and special interests. It is little wonder job creation virtually stopped during Lamont’s liberal legislative binge.

If Connecticut is in a turnaround, it’s a full 360 degrees. All the mistakes this year are the same type made by liberal politicians over the last 30, leading to stagnant wages and a flatlining population in a state otherwise known as a highly desirable destination.

It’s worth naming the recent mistakes so future officials can truly change course.

First, the budget touted by the governor raised taxes on Connecticut residents by about $1.7 billion over two years, mostly in the form of various new sales taxes. It was the fourth biennial budget of the last six with significant tax increases — themselves on the heels of enormous income tax increases in the 1990s and 2000s.

on Connecticut residents by about $1.7 billion over two years, mostly in the form of various new sales taxes. It was the of the last six with significant tax increases — themselves on the heels of enormous income tax increases in the 1990s and 2000s. Second, in order to alleviate the budget deficit in the near term, Lamont “refinanced” pension payments to state employees. The agreement with the unions doesn’t reform the system but shorts contributions by $2 billion through 2032, only to increase the taxpayer’s obligation by $5 billion from then until 2047.

That’s an enormous new burden on the next generation here, no matter the discount rate. If there is anything less novel in Connecticut government than liberal politicians raising taxes, it is promising lavish public employee benefits and not paying for them. Lamont and others may argue that they are only dealing with legacy costs as best they can — albeit inherited mostly from Democrats who controlled the state House for 32 straight years and the Senate for 30 of those.

Connecticut’s foremost public-policy crisis is its unfunded pension liability, which totals over $100 billion by one estimate, the second-highest in the nation per-capita. Much of the reason for it is that state employees receive a 42 percent pay premium over similar private-sector workers, according to an American Enterprise Institute study, larger than in any other state. A state government study from 2008 said the average state employee was compensated over $105,000 annually, while the average private-sector employee in the state made just over $74,000.

But rather than address this inequity going forward, Lamont and Democrats inked 12 new collective bargaining agreements for unionized government employees that all raised pay above current elevated levels.

It is often said that the definition of insanity is trying something over and over again and expecting different results. In politics, that takes not insanity but ideology. Only devotion to a radical worldview could compel politicians to force upon their constituents the same failed policies that make no sense in reality. Until state officials change course, Connecticut stands no chance of a true turnaround.

Ryan Fazio is a Connecticut native. He writes about politics and economics and tweets @ryanfazio.