New Haven Independent

For a state as wealthy as Connecticut it should be beyond embarrassing for everyone. The governor, the legislature and all of us.

Democrats claim they have cut the budget and argue the budget could be adopted tomorrow if Republicans would agree to taxing the wealthy in Connecticut an additional $20 a week. They call the Governor’s budget cuts “heartless” and “draconian.”

To balance her budget, the governor has proposed to close six courthouses, cut funding for public libraries, job training programs, nonprofit agencies that perform state services, reduce funding for non-emergency dental care for the elderly, services for emotionally disabled and blind children and magnet schools. She also wants to cut state spending for state cultural institutions and wipe out the subsidy for the Life Star Emergency helicopter.

Not enough? Add proposed cuts for nursing homes and the High Meadows treatment hospital which the state calls, “residential treatment facility for male adolescents age 12-20 with significant emotional and behavioral problems.”

The Governor’s argument (if I understand her correctly) is that during a recession we all have to live within our means and “tighten our belts.” She repeatedly says the state has to make the same type of decisions that “every family in Connecticut is making right now” and raising taxes on the wealthy during the recession would make matters worse.

And she and others have said if we raise taxes then the wealthy will just move to lower tax states.

Assuming someone isn’t so wealthy they are no longer working, where would these folks move? New York? Doubt it, the income tax there is just under 2 percent higher than Connecticut.
New Jersey? Even worse. 1.4 to 4 percent (depending on income) higher than Connecticut.

Well there is always Vermont right? Not really. Make over $164 thousand and your income tax rate is 9 percent, over $357 thousand and it is 9.5 percent. Even West Virginia has a 6.5 percent income tax rate.

But there is Pennsylvania. The income tax rate there is just a hair over 3 percent.

But I lived in Pittsburgh, Penn. and I can tell you that the state income tax is only the beginning.

First there is the state income tax, then the county tax, then the city of Pittsburgh income and property taxes. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are allowed to levy income taxes but not the rest of the cities and towns.

So if you work or live in a neighboring county you have the good fortune of paying the “privilege tax” on top of all the other taxes. It just happens to be based on income but since they can’t have an “income tax” they have a “privilege tax.”

Sure, the neighboring “privilege tax” is deductible from some of your other tax obligations, but talk about a paper nightmare!

If you compare the other states around us to Connecticut and the answer is obvious: living in Connecticut is a deal.

And the reality is only the uber-wealthy will even consider moving and it is highly unlikely even these hedge fund babies will leave. For where? Texas, Florida or Nevada when New York City and the world are only a 30 minute limo ride? Please.

Strip away all of the rhetoric and it comes down to this: do we believe in standing up and assisting those less fortunate than ourselves at a nominal cost to some of our more well-to-do taxpayers or have we been reduced to, “I got mine who cares about you?”

God help us if it is the latter.