“The budget proposals released today by the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee demonstrate a disturbing inability to learn from the negative impact of past tax increases. Although we welcome the proposal to eliminate the gift tax, it’s remarkable that billions more are being demanded from taxpayers, after so little apparent effort was made to find any meaningful reductions in state spending. What’s more, as we’ve seen before, increasing Connecticut’s capital gains tax is likely to drive even more high-income residents from our state, thereby burdening those without the means to relocate with increased taxes, plummeting property values, and fewer services. This budget also continues the punitive taxation of our hospitals and places a new tax on restaurants. This means a further erosion of Connecticut’s businesses and hospitals, at a time the state can least afford to lose them. We ask Governor Lamont to keep his campaign promises and find ways to adjust the tax structure without increasing the tax burden on state residents.”
–Carol Platt Liebau, President of Yankee Institute
