Zawistowski Opposes Paycheck Tax for New Government Program

HARTFORD — State Rep. Tami Zawistowski this week said she’s unwilling to support a majority party proposal to siphon more money from Connecticut workers’ paychecks to create a new state program that would give people 12 weeks of paid leave from their jobs to handle family-related issues.

The legislation (H.B. 6932) approved Tuesday in a 29-27 vote of Appropriations Committee members would create a Family and Medical Leave Compensation (FMLC) program to provide wage replacement benefits to cover employees taking leave under the state’s private sector Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and similar programs.

Through the proposal from legislative Democrats, Connecticut workers would be forced to contribute a percentage of their weekly earnings to a FMLC Trust Fund to cover the cost of giving program participants 100 percent of their average weekly earnings up to a maximum compensation of $1,000 per week.

“This bill is, in essence, a tax on residents who are simply worn down by a legislature that’s turned the pursuit of new government spending into an art form,” said Zawistowski, an Appropriations Committee member who voted against the bill. “This isn’t like Social Security or Medicare, because the overwhelming majority of workers forced to contribute to this trust will never access its benefits. It’s an unfair mandate that will unfortunately bolster our reputation as an expensive state to live in.”

The employee contribution mandate would apply to private sector workers as well as state and municipal employees. It will be up the state’s Department of Labor commissioner to calculate the amount of the automatic paycheck withdrawals, and workers could see their paychecks shrink further should the trust fund run out of money.

Democrats who control the Appropriations Committee voted for the legislation despite significant questions and concerns about the exact role our cash-strapped government would play in the state-run trust fund—particularly, start-up money and administrative costs for the program.

The state’s business community opposes the legislation, viewing its accompanying bureaucratic reporting requirements and as a distraction from their core mission—running a business.

“Closing massive budget holes, most likely on the backs of taxpayers, seems to be the majority party’s preferred plan to solve our state’s budget crisis, and here they are moving to create a program that will cost everyone even more money,” Zawistowski said. “Their intentions might be good, but this proposal doesn’t register on kitchen table scale of common sense.”

The Appropriations Committee vote sent the bill to the House of Representatives for consideration.