Coach Looney Eyes The Long Game

Marty Looney found himself in a political conversation that summed up the challenge that he and his fellow progressives face at the state Capitol. It happened not in the halls of power, but at a Dunkin Donuts.

Looney — who has represented New Haven in the state legislature since 1980 and now serves as president pro tem of the State Senate — was picking up his usual medium coffee with cream and no sugar when a constituent put in his own order: for better results from his senator.

“You’ve got to do more for the elderly,” he told Looney. ​“You’ve got to do more for the poor. You’ve got to do more for the disabled. You’ve got to do more for the people who need assistance from home health care workers. You’ve got to do all those things.”

“By the way,” he added, ​“don’t raise any taxes!”

Looney told that story as part of a conversation about the now-completed 2023 state legislature session, during an appearance on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program.

He spoke of how he was proud that he and fellow Democrats made progress on a mission they’ve pursued since the passage of a flat 4.5 percent state income tax in 1991: to gradually make the tax, and the overall way Connecticut collects revenue from its citizens, fairer. Right now the wealthy pay far less of their income percentage-wise than middle and working-class households do in state and local income and property taxes.

This session, the legislature made ​“significant progress” toward that end by lowering the income tax rate for the lowest earners from 3 to 2 percent and, for the next tier, from 5 to 4.5 percent, Looney noted.

In previous years Looney and his allies have succeeded in broadening the earned income tax credit to help service workers and other low-paid employees hold onto more of their money. He has championed a cap on local car property taxes, since an owner of a car in Greenwich pays far less in property taxes on it than does the owner of the same car in New Haven.

Amid all these efforts to chip away at a system rigged for the rich, Looney and fellow New Haven Democrats have not been able to pass what progressives consider the better solution: Increase taxes on the very highest earners from 6.99 to 7.5 percent. That’s because even though Democrats control both houses of the state legislature, the governor — a Democrat — refused to even consider the idea of raising taxes. It’s off the table. And the Democrats lack a veto-proof majority to do it on their own.

So while progressives can gradually make the tax system fairer, they can do it only by decreasing the amount of revenue that comes in from city-dwellers and the working middle class. That leaves less money for programs to help the working middle class.

In the ​“Dateline” interview, Looney noted a broader shift in the American political debate over taxation and paying for government since Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980: Liberals and progressives were put on the defensive as the ​“government” and ​“taxation” became a dirty word.

Hence the conversation at Dunkin Donuts, which mirrors countless others here in Connecticut and nationwide.

“People have in many cases an unrealistic view about the realities of government. Government services are in fact popular, broadly supported. But raising the revenues for paying them is not,” Looney observed.

So while they work to elect fellow progressives to support tax fairness, Looney said, Democrats meanwhile need to seek progress incrementally, year after year, within the confines of what can pass. Which can add up to plenty over time.

Click on the video to watch the full conversation with State Sen. Martin Looney on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven,” in which he discusses 2023 legislative session successes ranging from gun control and baby bonds and speed cameras, to unfinished business ranging from zoning to property tax reform. Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of​“Dateline.”