June 4, 2015

Bolinsky Slams Massive Middle Class Tax Hike Plan

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HARTFORD-State Reps. Mitch Bolinsky today voted against a state budget proposal which was pushed through the House of Representatives by the Democrat majority without Republican input. A budget which includes tax hikes on middle-class property owners, and bases revenue on gambling projects like keno while increasing taxes on struggling hospitals.

Citing concerns from Newtown residents and from face-to-face constituent meetings over recent months, Bolinsky voiced his opposition against the two-year $40 billion tax-and-spend package, which raises $19.82 billion in fiscal year 2015-16 and $20.47 billion in 2016-17.

Rep. Bolinsky said, “This year’s budget process started with an out-of-balance Governor’s budget that devastated human services and took aim at our state’s most vulnerable citizens. Our caucus produced a new kind of budget that restored nearly every safety net cut, yet balanced – without new taxes. Now, thanks in part to friction between the Governor and his legislative budget writers, we have a potentially crippling budget that shatters the constitutional spending cap, piles-on with taxes on every person and entity in Connecticut. In a state that’s already losing employers, jobs and highly-skilled workers, this is a tremendous gamble. Corporations like GE, Aetna, Travelers and Praxair have verbalized what all state employers are thinking: “ENOUGH!” How many of them will take their jobs and tax revenue somewhere that does not punish success?”

“The budget is not just about taxing corporations though this scheme includes $1.5 billion in new taxes on all residents so we can fund an out-of-control state bureaucracy that increases spending by 7.5% over the term of this budget with zero shared-sacrifice and built-in 5% raises every-year for our ballooning state employee ranks. In the private sector, we spend no more than we earn. In the public sector, that does not apply. In fact, in addition to the $1.5-billion in new taxes, this budget sweeps another $1.5-billion of unfunded pension liabilities under the rug. I’m having a hard time not thinking that this shell game is concealing what could be a $3-billion effective tax increase on this and future citizens and businesses of Connecticut, or at least on those who are left,” said Rep. Bolinsky.

I will go into far greater detail of where every one of us will be hit on my web and Facebook pages.”

The budget, passed on a thin 73-70 vote, obliterates the constitutional spending cap – an understanding set between voters and the government during the 1991 income tax implementation. The budget introduces new taxes to data processing services, car washes, surgeries, and includes hikes on businesses, insurance providers, hospitals and cigarettes, to name a few.

One of Connecticut largest employers General Electric, which is headquartered in Fairfield, released a statement that said the Connecticut tax increases are “truly discouraging” and the company would “seriously consider whether it makes any sense to continue” to remain in Connecticut.

Additionally, Aetna, Travelers, IBM and Boehringer Ingelheim all voiced unease with the proposed tax changes and all mentioned how they might have to reevaluate maintaining a presence in Connecticut.