Gutless state lawmakers ignored taxing advice

In response to the editorial, “State needs a fiscal reform commission,” (Aug. 27). In 2015 the Finance Committee commissioned a State Tax Panel of non-partisan civic leaders to evaluate Connecticut’s taxation laws.

The results were reported on December 31, 2015 and can be found at: http://bit. ly/ 2cal3gd.

I suggest this 2015 Tax Panel Report be reconsidered before another expensive study goes over the same ground. A new study will likely fall on the same legislative ears deaf to certain 2015 Tax Panel recommendations which negatively impacted politically important constituents.

One of the Income Tax recommendations of the 2015 Tax Panel was: “...tax all retirement income including military and teacher retirement income similar to the state’s treatment of social security income.”

This recommendation would not only equalize the income tax burden across all retirees, but also capture more tax revenue through an expanding base of the state’s aging population.

Instead legislators granted income tax exemptions to teacher (50 percent Unlimited Pension) and military (100 percent Unlimited Pension) interest groups leaving other retirees to shoulder their full share of the state income tax.

I wonder what tax revenue could have resulted if the 2015 State Tax Panel Report was adopted. Some state aid to education and social programs impacting less fortunate retirees might have been saved from Gov. Malloy’s budget axe.

No more studies. Only gutsy legislators. Mike Gouzie Ledyard