![]() ![]() … That money actually goes to your day-to-day expenses.”īut many fiscal moderates and progressives echo Liebau’s concerns, starting with Connecticut’s top official. “If you are in the middle class, you are paying 3 to 5 times more an effective rate than people that are wealthy. “Do you not see how that contradicts with this?” asked Elliott, founder of the progressive House Tax Equity Caucus and a co-sponsor of the measure. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, replied that many low- and middle-income households are struggling because the tax system drains them of essential resources. Liebau noted that Connecticut, one of only 16 states with an estate tax, already has an income tax system that gets 13% of its revenue from just 478 individuals.Ī scathing report released this week found “an alarming lack of oversight” of CT’s _.ĭo you know the answer? Play this week's news quiz to find out.īut when Liebau said, “I am not worried about income inequality as much as I am worried about those among us who are struggling,” Rep. (One mill generates $1 in revenue for every $1,000 in assessed property value.)īut Carol Platt Liebau, president of the conservative Yankee Institute for Public Policy, warned the finance committee: “In plucking Connecticut’s golden geese, let’s not make them fly the coop.” Revenues not only would finance a new child tax credit but also would be used to bolster higher education and to expand town aid while capping municipal tax rates at 35 mills. It also would add 4 percentage points on existing income tax rates for capital gains. One bill already sponsored by 17 House Democrats would boost the state’s top marginal income tax rate, 6.99%, to 7.99% for households earning more than $1 million per year, and to 8.99% for those topping $2 million. Some legislators say the state should increase some taxes now to match or even exceed the cost of the child tax credit. “We have to do something to fix the upside-down tax code.” For some, raising taxes on the rich is a non-starterīut if the concern is that three years in a row of big tax state cuts could be financially risky - Connecticut Voices estimates a child tax credit could cost $300 million annually - there is another option besides waiting. Kate Farrar, D-West Hartford, a member of the finance panel and one of the legislators leading the charge for a state child tax credit. ![]() “Every day we hear from families in our districts that are struggling to make ends meet,” said Rep. “We see families every day who are having to make hard choices about buying food, paying the rent and providing opportunities for their children to grow and learn.” “Hardship is real,” Jennifer Health, president of the United Way of Greater New Haven, testified to the finance committee. And after a 40-year high in inflation in 2022, the estimate by 2023 had risen to $126,018. The United Way says once expenses are considered that many working families can’t ignore - child care, transportation, housing and utilities - that family of four needed $106,632 in 2021 in Connecticut to survive. ![]() The United Way has developed an alternative methodology to track poverty, arguing that the Federal Poverty Level is radically out of touch.Īccording to that system - which was developed in the mid-1960s by Social Security Administration economists and focused largely on the cost of a minimum food diet - a family of four earning more than $31,200 per year in 2024 is above the poverty line. ![]() It also found that while about 5.1% of white children lived in poverty in 2022, the ratio climbs to 20% for Black and 23.1% for Hispanic children.Ĭonnecticut is one of just three states nationally with a broad-based personal income tax that does not adjust for children - and it is the only high-cost state in this category, according to Connecticut Voices.Īnd that cost of living is rising quickly, says the United Way of Connecticut, another progressive group backing a state credit. ![]()
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