Union ad promotes wealthy paying higher state taxes

HARTFORD » While lawmakers continued to grapple Wednesday with reaching a deal on two-year state budget, a union continued to ask wealthier residents to pay higher taxes.

SEIU 1199 debuted an ad Wednesday that features the CEO of CareCentrix, a home health services company that received about $24 million in state assistance for creating 290 jobs over a five-year period. The company, which has offices in Hartford and Stamford, has 400 employees.

In the TV ad, John Driscoll, the millionaire CEO, said “successful people and successful corporations have to pay their fair share.” He said his company isn’t going to leave this state “just because we have to be part of a budget solution.”

The ad concludes with Driscoll telling the governor and lawmakers “we all have to be part of the solution to balance the budget.”

The legislature’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee was expected to meet Wednesday to adopt a revenue package for 2018 and 2019 but the meeting as postponed. After raising taxes in 2011 and 2015 and seeing a number of marquis companies exit the state, however, lawmakers in both parties have steered clear of any increases in income taxes.

Progressives say increasing taxes on the wealthy will help fill the budget hole. They note 17 billionaires along with hundreds of millionaires live in the state. According to CNBC, Connecticut ranks second in the nation in the percentage of millionaires in its population.

The top 100 taxpayers returned $200 million less in revenue to Connecticut last year, according to the Office of Fiscal Analysis. The top 1 percent pay about 30 percent of the income tax revenue in Connecticut.

But is a sharp drop in tax revenue from the rich a consequence of them fleeing the state’s tax burden?

“Yes, some people are retiring and moving out of state,” Department of Revenue Commissioner Kevin Sullivan has said. “Or they are moving to a more tax friendly state — but there is so much more than that involved.”

Sullivan said one reason tax revenue from the state’s wealthiest is down is the rising stock market. “People are parking their money, not cashing it in,” he said.