OK Paying More Sales Tax? It Depends

Tracey Rose said she wouldn’t mind paying an extra 25 cents in a proposed new city tax for $50 worth of art supplies — if she knows that it’ll go towards fixing municipal problems.

Picking up paint and brushes at Artist & Craftsman on Chapel Street, Rose weighed in on a state bill that would allow cities like New Haven to create their own sales tax on top of the existing state sales tax.

Proposed by Democratic State Sen. Martin Looney of New Haven, the bill would authorize municipalities to levy a local sales tax of up to 0.5 percent. It would be added to the 6.35 percent sales tax (and be collected by the state, which would in turn send the 0.5 percent portion back to the cities) for a total of 6.85 percent in cities.

At a recent press conference in Hartford, Looney said that the hike from municipalities, were it imposed at its full .5 percent, could bring in up to $214.5 million in local sales tax revenue. Using 2013 estimates, that could mean up to $10.5 million in local sales tax revenue for New Haven, added Looney spokesman Adam Joseph.

Cities can’t enact their own taxes without state permission. Right now the state allows cities to collect only property taxes — which sticks in the craw of communities like New Haven, where the state also orders about half of the property to be tax-exempt. New Haven’s elected officials have sought for years to win state permission to raise revenue from alternative sources.

“We can and must change the legacy colonial property tax system that ties the hands of our towns,” said Looney. ​“Municipalities have long been asking the state for revenue diversification … Doing so will help to make our state and its towns both more competitive, and more equitable.”

In Massachusetts, the sales tax is currently 6.25 percent. In Rhode Island, it stands 7 percent.

New Haven Mayor Toni Harp endorsed Looney’s bill during an appearance on WNHH radio’s ​“Mayor Monday” program. In a testimony submitted to a hearing last week of the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee, New Haven state legislative liaison Michael Harris called the bill ​“an important step to diversify how schools, police, and parks are funded.”

“Tens of thousands of workers and visitors from outside New Haven come to our city and use our streets and buildings and parks and sewers. A local option sales tax would fund our local government in a way that better reflects those shared costs,” he argued.

At Artist & Craftsman, shopper Rose, who owns a tattoo parlor in Woodbridge with her husband Jim LoPresti, recalled when the state sales tax went up from 6 to 6.35 percent in 2011. She said Monday afternoon that ​“it felt like a lot” to her at the time, and it still does. If municipalities are allowed to impose an even higher amount, she said, she hopes the extra money goes straight to ​“things we care about” as taxpayers — like fixing roads and infrastructure, cleaning up public spaces, and homelessness outreach.

“Who wants to pay more taxes?” she said, laughing as she helped her small daughter pick out a colorful animal-shaped mask. ​“But I’d want to know what [services] it was for.”

She estimated that her purchase — two cans of paint and a few packs of brushes — would be close to $50, or $53.18 at the current sales tax. If that came up to $53.43 instead to help New Haven, she said, she’d deal. 

Over at the Dollar Tree across the street on Chapel, shopper Dan Vanson of New Haven said he feels the same way. A musician who works at B Natural Cafe, he said that he’d need to know more about the municipal services to which that extra .5 percent would go before making any conclusions on the bill. In one hand he held a $2 hairbrush for his dog that would cost $2.13 under the current sales tax. Would he support paying the extra penny if the bill passes, and New Haven embraces that extra .5 percent?

“If it’s going to go to Yale, or the cops, or shit like that, than no — because they don’t really need it,” he said as waited to be rung up. ​“But if it’s going to go to mental health, yeah.” He’d also support the money support street-cleaning: ​“I live off of Whalley, so everything’s pretty shitty there.”

Louise Anderson, who was three aisles away perusing Sesame Street stickers for her bible study classes, shook her head no at the prospect of a 0.5 percent incrase. Maybe a few extra dollars and cents don’t sound too bad to middle- and upper-class consumers, she said. But it would hit poor consumers hard, because every penny counts for them.

“When you’re looking at people who are barely surviving, it can be very destructive,” she said. She added that while she might be able to afford a bump in the sales tax, she is looking out for those who can’t.

Following is a status report on bills of particular interest to New Haven before the state legislature this session:

The 2017 Agenda