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Connecticut Plan Would Add 1 Percent To Top Income Tax
What a tough sell: Asking the fat cats who spend a whole lot of time and money looking for loopholes to cough up 1%.
State Democrats outlined a plan Tuesday to provide more money for public schools and ease local property taxes by imposing an education surtax on the state's wealthiest citizens.
A plan for a millionaires' tax failed to make it through the legislature a year ago, but Democratic lawmakers said they will make it a top priority again in 2004, linking it to financial relief for public schools.
Months before the legislative session begins, lawmakers from both parties jockeyed for position on education funding, certain to be a contentious issue as the state confronts another difficult budget year.
"It's going to be a very tough sell," said state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin B. Sullivan, D-West Hartford.
But Sullivan, flanked by Democratic lawmakers and public education lobbyists, said, "Every millionaire knows a good investment when he or she sees it." He said the plan to bolster public school aid by $170 million would be "the most significant investment we have made in schools and kids in a very long time."
The proposal would eliminate an 11-year-old legislative cap that restricts the level of state school aid to towns from East Hartford to Greenwich. The cap this year affects more than two-thirds of the state's 169 towns, costing some towns millions of dollars each.
Republican legislators immediately criticized the proposal, which calls for a one percent income tax increase on joint tax filers making more than $1 million a year and single filers making more than $531,500.
"It's always been the Democrats' way. The first thing is, `What taxes can we increase so we can increase spending?'" said Senate Minority Leader Louis C. DeLuca, a Republican from Woodbury.
State Sen. William Aniskovich, deputy Senate Republican leader from Branford, said the legislature instead should revise the school funding formula, which he said rewards large cities at the expense of suburban and rural towns. The Democrats' proposal does not guarantee property tax relief and "simply pours money into a system that is broken," he said.
State aid accounted for nearly 46 percent of public education spending in 1990 but declined to about 41 percent by 2002, state figures show. As the state share diminished, local property taxes rose, educators say.
In the past year, the financial squeeze has led to "the most divisive, unhappy, nasty elections [and] budget referendums ... that we've seen in years," said Robert Rader, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, one of several education groups appearing with Democratic lawmakers at Tuesday's press conference.
One of those lawmakers, state Sen. Thomas P. Gaffey, D-Meriden, co-chairman of the legislature's education committee, said tight budgets have prompted some towns to charge students for extracurricular activities or even to consider closing schools. It is fair, he said, "to ask people in this state who make the most money ... to contribute an extra one percent."
— Robert A. Frahm
Democrats Want State's Wealthy To Pay More
Hartford Courant
2003-11-26
http://www.ctnow.com/news/education/hc-edfunds1126.artnov26,1,2696441.story?coll=hc-headlines-education
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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