The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Coalition wants higher taxes for state’s wealthy
HARTFORD — On the day before the budget-adjustment session of the General Assembly gaveled in, a statewide coalition of labor, nonprofit social service providers and progressive Democrats on Tuesday vowed again to push for higher taxes on the state’s wealthiest, stressing that for millionaires, it would be a small price to pay.
About 120 people gathered in a meeting room in the Legislative Office Building as an “equity agenda” was announced by the 60member-group Connecticut For All coalition. State Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, warned that the best way to judge results won’t occur until the end of the short, 13-week legislative session, which kicks off on Wednesday with the announcement of Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposals to tweak the two-year, $51 billion state budget approved last year.
The coalition called for new income tax brackets for people who earn more than $1 million, $10 million and $25 million. They also want a new 5 percent surcharge on capital gains, dividends and taxable interest for those who make more than $500,000 annually, which would raise as much as $850 million at a cost of $160 million.
Winfield warned that while many lawmakers might announce in public that they support increased equity at a time of reduced support for higher education and a need for more social services, low-income residents remain at-risk of continued economic disparity in one of the richest states in the nation.
“There’s a problem in this building,” Winfield told the group, criticizing the tight reins on spending the General Assembly adopted in 2017. “We often talk about bipartisanship. And when we jumped off that cliff together, we could look at you when you came here later and said ‘there was no way we could have known’ ” that additional, needed spending would be curtailed. … “What we’re saying is, if you’re going to stuff something down our throats, stuff a little equity down our throats. Stuff a little fairness down our throats. This is a building about possibilities.”
But Lamont, a multi-millionaire from Greenwich who does not take a salary, is opposed to raising taxes. And in a legislative election year, Democrats who have 24-12 and 97-54 majorities in the state Senate and House of Representatives are likely to balk at new taxes. Nationally, progressive lawmakers are trying to pursue higher tax rates this year for wealthy residents in a number of states.
Winfield chided the state’s new slogan “Make it Here” as illusory to people struggling to make ends meet at a time of soaring costs. “Can you make it if you go to work and you don’t make enough money?” Winfield asked. “You can’t make it in this state, so that slogan means nothing. I’m frustrated because