Another volunteer to pay higher taxes

These times call us each to step up and be counted. I am heartened by the July 24 open letter in the New Haven Register from some of Connecticut’s wealthiest citizens: ‘Make us part of the solution in Connecticut.’

In a state riddled with sideby-side silos of poverty and wealth, the specter of a $2.8 billion budget gap threatens to deepen this divide, harming our most vulnerable citizens with proposed cuts to EITC, health care, child care, education, job training and other services that disproportionately affect low-income families.

Yet, even as Washington fixates on cutting taxes for the wealthiest while crying poor and slashing the social safety net, courageous citizens from all over Connecticut have stepped up in the name of fairness to ask Gov. Malloy and the Connecticut legislature to raise their taxes. This is citizenship at its best. They note that while New York’s top marginal rate is 8.82 percent, Massachusetts’ moving to 9.1 percent, and thriving California’s is 13 percent, Connecticut’s is only 6.99 percent. Saying, “We can afford to pay more” and not just the 0.1 percent the General Assembly proposed in June.

As an anti-poverty advocate, I applaud the courage and stature of the grownups of our state for understanding that we thrive only when the least of us does. I applaud their invitation to say yes, I, too, could contribute more to live in this wonderful state. And we each need to call our state representatives, senators and governor supporting this generative solution, insisting that we flourish when we stand together.