by Christian Wade
Connecticut House Republicans have unveiled a two-year, $50.7 billion budget proposal that includes more than $1.1 billion in tax relief and repeal of a new highway tax on commercial truckers.
The plan, rolled out by the Assembly’s GOP minority caucus on Tuesday, includes a buffet of income tax cuts, tax relief of businesses and expanded tax exemptions for pension and annuity earnings, and restoration of a sales tax exemption on children’s clothing costing less than $100, among other changes.
The Republican plan is offered as a counter-proposal to the executive budget and tax relief plans pitched by Gov. Ned Lamont and Democratic legislative leaders, with debate set to get underway.
House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said the GOP’s package “avoids accounting gimmicks that violate our state’s bipartisan fiscal controls” to provide much needed relief for inflation-wary taxpayers.
“Connecticut residents desperately need tax relief, but they also deserve a government that responsibly prioritizes and funds core services and programs our communities need,” Candelora said (pictured above).
Another architect of the GOP plan, state Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-West Lyme, said it includes proposals to pay down debt and invest in state pensions, making good on a “pledge to provide much needed relief for those that need it most — our middle-class citizens.”
“Our finance package was crafted to deliver for working and middle-class Connecticut families the most significant income tax cuts in three decades,” she said.
The GOP plan would also repeal a new mileage tax on tractor-trailers that went into effect earlier this year and reverse a plan to provide Medicaid coverage to undocumented children younger than 12, regardless of their immigration status.
Republicans are proposing a plan to create a new income tax deduction for families with children that would lower taxable earnings for middle-income households by $2,000 per kid. But they reject a plan to increase the state’s existing income tax credit for working low-income families, which targets families generally earning less than $60,000 per year.
Democrats, who control the state Assembly and Senate, unveiled their budget plan last month, calling for boosting spending in the next fiscal year by an estimated $400 million over Gov. Ned Lamont’s preliminary budget, filed in February.
Lamont’s budget proposal includes a buffet of tax cuts, including a plan to restore Connecticut’s pass-through entity tax credit to its original level of 93.01%, which he says will cut taxes for more than 120,000 small and mid-sized businesses, saving them as much as $60 million a year beginning in 2024.
He has also called for permanently lowering the state’s income tax rate, which he says would save taxpayers $440 million annually if approved.
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Christian Wade is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Vincent Candelora” by Vincent Candelora.
