Piscopo, House Republicans Unveil Budget Proposal

HARTFORD – State Rep. John Piscopo (R-Thomaston) stood with his colleagues on Tuesday morning to unveil the ‘Tax Relief Budget’ proposal for upcoming Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025. Rooted in funding core services and providing substantial financial relief to the state’s residents and businesses, the document published by House Republicans represents a grand total north of $1 billion in broad-based tax cuts.

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“This is a quality plan that will get our state going in the right direction,” said Piscopo. “We face the same challenges of affordability, year-in and year-out, here in the 76^th District. It’s encouraging to see the status quo be challenged in the proposal we have shared today.”

According to Piscopo, the document is soundly balanced because it was crafted to adhere to the already-approved financial guardrails. The caps on the state’s spending and borrowing have helped secure a sound financial picture for years to come, while paving the way for historic investments in local education, social services, and infrastructure.

Additional highlights of the plan include:

Tax Relief for Connecticut Residents
($200 million more than Governor or legislative Democrats)

• Adopt but enhance Governor’s income tax cut proposal by using one-time $300 million of FY23 surplus to make it retroactive to January 2023. Removes benefit from top 1 percent earners
• Create first-ever state child tax deduction for everyone, $2,000 deduction per child
• Help job creators by restoring pass-through entity tax credit to 93.01 percent
• Eliminate Highway Use Tax on trucks
• Establish phase-out threshold for state tax on retirement income
• Eliminates sales tax on children’s clothing under $100

Supporting Students, Parents, Educators

• Invests $290 million in education, including $214 million to implement components of H.B. 5003, $20 million to hold harmless towns that would have seen an ECS decrease; fully funds special education grants ($50 million); funds Danbury charter school ($4 million)
• Expands support for Care4Kids program ($60 million)
• Increases minority teacher scholarship funding by $1 million
• Meets Democrats’ funding level on higher education, but requires oversight
• Increase parent representation on State BOE and Parent Cabinet

General Government

• Increases funding for nonprofit social service providers by 2.5 percent ($100 million)
• Fully funds effort to eliminate DSS waitlist
• Save $200 million by reducing number of budgeted but unfilled positions across state government
• Increases investment in gun violence prevention programs
• Increases current services funding for rail and bus
• Eliminates proposed messaging program for inmates, saves taxpayers $3.5 million
• Enhanced 2-1-1 crisis services for housing and homelessness ($2.4 million)
• Reinstate Transportation Strategy Board to review investments and recommend savings
• Increases pay for assigned counsel in public defender cases ($23 million)
• Expands GPS monitoring for domestic violence offenders ($6 million)
• Increases funding to Women’s Business Development Council to almost $1 million
• Invests in firefighter training, creates $1 million support fund for families of fallen officers
• Doubles what Democrats provided for senior meals funding to $3 million