OPINION: Don’t New York My Connecticut

Connecticut must be the luckiest unlucky state in the country.

Lucky because in the middle of a pandemic, we’ve become an attractive landing spot for young professionals leaving the big cities and looking for peace and quiet in New England.

Unlucky because, as if taking their cues from their counterparts in states like New York, some Connecticut lawmakers think now is the perfect time to greet these new residents with new taxes.

New Taxes on the Table

As our state government begins the process of making its budget, Democrats in the General Assembly have called for as much as $1.9 billion in new taxes over the next two years.

These include a tax on social media ads, a statewide property tax, a consumption tax, a convenience tax on credit/debit card purchases, a surcharge on the corporate and capital gains taxes, and an internet gaming tax.

Some have argued that we need new ‘wealth taxes’ to enforce equity and social justice. “It’s time to make the rich pay their fair share,” they say.

No explanation is given, however, for how other consumer taxes on gasoline and online purchases are expected to benefit the working class, who already pay more in taxes than the residents of 45 other states.

New York State of Mind

Albany progressives and Governor Cuomo had all the same reasons in mind recently when they hiked New York’s income and corporate tax rates to levels even higher than California.

And the wealthy residents and businesses that New York Democrats said would just put up with sky-high tax rates and stay put? Well, many of them are already shopping for real estate in states like Connecticut.

Last summer, a report found New York buyers made up 33% of one month’s closings in the red-hot Fairfield County real estate market. Many had already been planning to move for years and said the combined threats of the pandemic and this looming tax hike tipped them over the edge.

A recent New York Times article showcased my hometown of Shelton as an ideal location for young professionals leaving the city. They are looking for “more living space and lower property taxes” and, compared to New York City, Shelton promises both.

That is, if lawmakers in Hartford don’t follow through on their promised tax proposals.

“No Broad-Based Tax Increases”

For his part, Governor Lamont says he is opposed to many new taxes.

Back in February, when he laid out his budget priorities in a pre-recorded video, Lamont said he wanted no expansion of broad-based taxes, a move he said would slow the state’s post-COVID economic recovery.

Despite some contradiction — this is the same Governor who fought to erect toll gantries on Connecticut highways, and who still supports a new gas tax and a highway use tax — he was right.

When regressive taxes go up, we all get soaked, but it is middle-class families who hurt the most.

Don’t Tax Opportunity

That doesn’t mean so-called ‘wealth taxes’ are the answer. Tax increases on corporate earnings and real property would hurt communities like Shelton seeing increased investment in their residential and commercial real estate markets.

Despite a real estate surge in Fairfield and Litchfield counties, recent Census numbers tell us Connecticut still has the slowest-growing population in the Northeast. As fast as we’re adding population from neighboring states like New York, we’re losing our own residents every year, largely due to our overall tax burden which ranks in the top five nationwide.

Let’s Get Our House in Order

We’ve shown that achieve the best results for our residents when we work together, like when we adopted a bipartisan state budget just a few short years ago. Many Republican-proposed ideas in that budget, like instituting spending and borrowing caps, have helped create a healthy Rainy Day Fund surplus.

I look forward to leading with my legislative counterparts in a similar way in the coming weeks, so that we can focus on bringing about policies that help Connecticut’s residents and businesses, not crush them like our neighbors in New York have done.

State Representative Ben McGorty serves as an Assistant Republican Leader in the House of Representatives, where he represents the communities of Shelton, Stratford and Trumbull.

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