Jodi Rell to propose massive increase in educational funds & increase in income tax

[NewJeffCT]

Conservatives in the state must be having a heart attack - increasing the income tax (from 5.0% to 5.25% next year and then 5.5% the year after) and also a massive increase ($3.4 billion over 5 years) in state funding of education.

For years, the towns have been shortchanged by the state, who have had to increase property taxes to make up for the state shortfall.

Interestingly, some of her proposals sound suspiciously like those liberal Democrat John DeStefano made a few years back...

Gov. Rell's Tax Surprises
She'd Raise Income, Cigarette Levies To Pay For Ambitious Education Plan, Insiders Say
February 7, 2007

Seeking a way to pay for a proposed substantial increase in education spending, Gov. M. Jodi Rell will call for increasing the state income tax during each of the next two years, sources said Tuesday night.

The governor will urge a one-quarter percentage point increase in the tax each year - increasing the current maximum tax rate of 5 percent to 5.5 percent, according to state Capitol sources.

Her annual budget message today will also call for boosting the state's cigarette tax to $2 per pack, up from $1.51 per pack, according to high-level sources at the Capitol.

Such bold tax proposals, coming from a Republican governor who prides herself as a fiscal conservative, stunned legislators and political insiders Tuesday night. In fact, many did not believe them when the details first started circulating in the afternoon at the Capitol. As the day wore on, word began spreading beyond the tiny circle of Rell confidants who have been crafting the budget for months in secret.

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-conntax0207.artfeb07,0,5021190.story?coll=hc-headlines-home


columnist Rick Green had a surprising column the other day about conservatives giving up the ghost of local school funding, which had led to several cities having exorbitantly high property taxes, while the wealthy suburbs sometimes had a much lower tax rate… (check out the property tax rate in posh Farmington compared to its more urban neighbor West Hartford – the same house in Farmington would have about half the property tax in West Hartford) so, it seems Republicans in Connecticut are realizing that sometimes they have to move left in order to get things done.


I Smell A Tax Conspiracy
February 6, 2007

Loyal defenders of the Land of Steady Habits, it isn't just liberal devils who want to shove Connecticut into the 21st century and scrap our beloved property tax.

Troublemaking Republican dogs in the legislature want to toss out the property tax entirely. Very tricky!

"Maybe this is not the best way for our local communities to collect money," state Sen. David Cappiello told me. "I'd like to empower the municipalities to get rid of the property tax and let them think of a better way to collect revenue.

"We are encouraging home ownership and yet we are taxing them and making it more difficult to be homeowners," said Cappiello, from Danbury.


http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-rgreen0206.artfeb06,0,4305886.column