Census: Fairfield County hits $200K milestone
For the first time last year, two of every five households in Fairfield County had earnings of $200,000, according to new estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, a nearly onethird increase from 2006 at the height of the previous economic peak.
Fairfield County had triple the number of earners in the top echelon in the Census Bureau study compared to the United States as a whole, despite the county’s largest city, Bridgeport having just 3.3 percent of its households making $200,000 or more, versus 20.4 percent in Fairfield County as a whole.
The county lost ground to its economic rival, Westchester County, N.Y., which saw its own share of the wealthiest households rise to 21.6 percent, after trailing Fairfield County between 2012 and 2014, and pulling even in 2015. Last year, New Haven County had 8 percent of its households making $200,000 or more, with Hartford County at 9 percent.
Stamford led southwestern Connecticut cities with 18.6 percent of households making at least $200,000 annually, with Norwalk at 12.8 percent and Danbury at slightly below half that rate. Affluent towns along Connecticut’s “Gold Coast” were not listed individually
in the Thursday data set, but collectively lifted Fairfield County’s overall figure.
The median household in Fairfield County had an extra $1,000 in income last year compared to the equivalent family in 2016, according to U.S. Census Bureau
estimates, for a 1.2 percent differential. The median local household had combined earnings of about $91,200, with average income rising 3.7 percent to $149,000 due to bigger gains among the region’s wealthier professionals and investors.
With sequential years of income tax collection shortfalls compared to amounts forecast, Connecticut policymakers have
examined whether the state has experienced a defection among its top earners to other states, such as Florida, that do not have an income tax. But Connecticut’s top marginal income tax rate of just under 7 percent remains below that of New York and New Jersey, at about 8.8 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
Bob Stefanowski, the Republican nominee for governor, has
made the elimination of Connecticut’s income tax a central plank of his campaign, arguing it would spur moves into the state by wealthy executives and businesses. Pressed by his Democratic opponent, Ned Lamont, in a Wednesday debate in New London, on how the state would balance the budget without those income taxes, Stefanowski provided no details beyond broad promises to cut costs. Lamont derided the idea as creating “fiscal mayhem.”
“We will get the tax rates down, we will eliminate the state income tax over eight years, and we will get this economy moving again,” Stefanowski said.