Tag: Connecticut

Opinion: The Democrats are still taxing their way out of Connecticut’s budget problems

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-dem-budget-more-taxes-20210221-sjv6nz4kqffu3hrdrukk7lwcce-story.html

Excerpt:

Lamont’s budget does nothing to address the fact that Connecticut has some of the highest property taxes in the country. This massive tax burden hurts young families looking to settle down and grow; it hurts small businesses that have already been crushed by the pandemic; and it pushes seniors to find greener and cheaper pastures for retirement. The average Connecticut homeowner pays an astounding $5,327 per year — the highest property tax rate in New England. This puts us at a competitive disadvantage when our neighbors in New York and Massachusetts have more affordable property tax rates.

Nor does the governor do anything to address the structural budget deficits looming just over the hill. Instead, he reminds us we have a well-funded rainy-day fund and friends in Washington to bail us out. When your strategy is to drain your reserves and count on a global pandemic, you, in fact, have no strategy.

Author(s): Themis Klarides

Publication Date: 21 February 2021

Publication Site: Hartford Courant

Fatal drug overdoses increased by 13% in 2020, with biggest increase during height of pandemic

Mary Pat Campbell
Fatal drug overdoses increased by 13% in 2020, with biggest increase during height of pandemic

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Excerpt:

The state saw a 13% increase in fatal drug overdoses in 2020, with most deaths occurring from April to July, when the state was going through the first round of the pandemic.

There were 1,359 fatal overdoses in 2020, with 78 cases still under investigation, according to state Department of Public Health data. In 2019, there were 1,200 deaths.

Author(s): DAVE ALTIMARI

Publication Date: 18 February 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror

Day-by-day ridership numbers

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://new.mta.info/coronavirus/ridership

Excerpt:

Updated February 18, 2021

We’re keeping this page up to date with systemwide ridership and traffic estimates for subways, buses, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, Access-A-Ride, and Bridges and Tunnels. You can see changes over the past seven days, as well as get a sense of how ridership and traffic differs this year versus last year. We will generally update the page on weekdays, excluding holidays, with the prior day’s figures. At times, data issues may delay the updates.

Download all the data we have published on this page.

Date Accessed: 18 February 2021

Publication Site: MTA

The states’ 2020 financials are in: Biden’s billions in new federal aid aren’t needed – Wirepoints Special Report

Mary Pat Campbell
The states’ 2020 financials are in: Biden’s billions in new federal aid aren’t needed – Wirepoints Special Report

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Excerpt:

States like Illinois, New York and California have long histories of financial negligence. California ran a budget deficit during seven of the last 16 years, according to a Wirepoints analysis of Pew Charitable Trust data. Connecticut has 10 years of deficits to its name. New York has 11. And Illinois and New Jersey have run budget deficits every year since at least 2004.

And then there’s the problem of pensions. States like Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey all have amassed hundreds of billions in pension debt – all self-inflicted by state lawmakers.

The pandemic had nothing to do with those past deficits and debts, but that’s exactly what more federal aid would end up paying for.

Author(s): Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner

Publication Date: 16 February 2021

Publication Site: Wirepoints

State goes over 100,000 dose mark in vaccinations of long-term care residents and staff

Mary Pat Campbell
State goes over 100,000 dose mark in vaccinations of long-term care residents and staff

Excerpt:

More than 110,000 doses of COVID vaccine have been administered in the state’s long-term care facilities since late December, and state official estimate they are about two-thirds of the way to completing vaccinations of those residents.

Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week show that 110,016 vaccines have been administered through the long-term care facility partnership through which CVS and Walgreens pharmacists have vaccinated residents staff at nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Connecticut.

Author(s): DAVE ALTIMARI

Publication Date: 12 February 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror

CT budget debate heats up quickly over equity

Mary Pat Campbell
CT budget debate heats up quickly over equity

Excerpt:

Urban Democratic lawmakers attacked Gov. Ned Lamont’s new budget proposal Thursday, charging the two-year package does little to nothing to reverse long-standing gaps in education, health care and economic opportunity.

During a two-hour hearing with Lamont’s budget director, the governor’s fellow Democrats on the Appropriations Committee also questioned whether the $46 billion biennial package sets Connecticut up for another budget crisis after the next state election.

“I am so disappointed in this budget when it comes to human services,” said Rep. Cathy Abercrombie, D-Meriden. “Again, here we are, balancing a budget on the backs of our most vulnerable.”

Author(s): Keith Phaneuf

Publication Date: 11 February 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror

Lamont leans heavily on federal aid to keep taxes flat in CT

Mary Pat Campbell
Lamont leans heavily on federal aid to keep taxes flat in CT

Excerpt:

Gov. Ned Lamont proposed a two-year, $46 billion budget Wednesday that relies on federal funding and state reserves to close a major deficit without significant tax hikes while bolstering aid for municipalities and school districts.

But the package also leaves Connecticut with several budget challenges to be resolved in the not-so-distant future.

The package would channel more than $400 million in emergency federal relief  to low-performing school districts. But it also would suspend plans to bolster regular state-funded aid for municipal schools by $90 million in the next two-year budget cycle.

Author(s): Keith Phaneuf

Publication Date: 10 February 2021

Publication Site: CT Mirror

Connecticut Democrats Push Governor to Raise Taxes

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/connecticut-democrats-push-governor-to-raise-taxes-11612717200

Excerpt:

A group of progressive Democratic lawmakers last week called on the governor, also a Democrat, to declare a fiscal emergency, and proposed a $3 billion legislative package of new spending on education, property-tax relief, a one-time stimulus payment of $500 for people who lost their jobs during the pandemic, and other measures.

Lawmakers proposed paying for these new spending items by raising taxes on the wealthy and on corporations to produce more than $4 billion in new revenue annually. The proposal includes establishing a 5% surtax on capital gains for individuals making more than $500,000 annually and raising the state’s top income-tax bracket to 12.696%, the second highest in the nation after California.

Author(s): Joseph De Avila

Publication Date: 7 February 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Governor Lamont Agrees to New, Regressive Tax

Mary Pat Campbell
Governor Lamont Agrees to New, Regressive Tax

Excerpt:

Today, Governor Lamont joined governors in the Northeast region in signing onto the newly-released Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) Memorandum of Understanding. The initiative would result in $388.6 million per year in increased gasoline costs across the state. 

Connecticut is already struggling amid an economic downturn. Imposing a significant tax increase simply chops any chance of recovery off at the knees and harms working families with a regressive tax at a time when few can afford it. 

Author(s): Isabel Blank

Publication Date: 21 December 2020

Publication Site: Yankee Institute

States Are Finally Going Bold with Progressive Tax Efforts

Mary Pat Campbell
States Are Finally Going Bold with Progressive Tax Efforts

Excerpt:

As the COVID-19 pandemic began, and again as 2020 drew to a close, we repeated our hope that these trying times would awaken and embolden state leaders to enact lasting solutions to emergent and long-standing needs in their states. Lawmakers in New Jersey and voters in Arizona helped set an example by taking progressive action in 2020.

…..

Thought leaders in Connecticut are making waves with progressive revenue solutions of their own. Connecticut Voices for Children released a major report in December, highlighting several tax policy options with the potential to “ensure that Connecticut’s tax system works to advance economic justice rather than continue to contribute to economic injustice.” Those options include: income tax increases on households with incomes over $500,000 ($1 million for couples) that could raise $504 million to $1.72 billion per year; estate tax improvements to reverse cuts and raise $108-162 million per year; a surcharge on capital gains and other similar income to raise $167-334 million per year; and a mansion tax on homes valued over $1.5 million that could raise $331-663 million. These ideas are already being reflected in bills to be considered by lawmakers this year.

Author(s): Dylan Grundman O’Neill

Publication Date: 4 February 2021

Publication Site: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Homeowners in these 10 towns would pay the most under a proposed Connecticut ‘mansion tax’

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-mansion-tax-towns-20210127-vn3vkw7hfrg6lngynndiwe5kzi-story.html

Excerpt:

A proposed statewide property tax on homes valued at $430,000 or higher would be largely paid by homeowners along Connecticut’s Gold Coast, with Greenwich accounting for more than 25% of all the new revenue, according to legislative estimates.

But the analysis prepared by legislative staff shows that some homeowners in smaller or less well-heeled towns like Manchester or Putnam, would also be on the hook for the new fee, though contributing far less to the estimated $75 million that would be raised annually than their Fairfield County counterparts.

Author: Russell Blair

Publication Date:

Publication Site: Hartford Courant