It was 20 years ago today that the Connecticut General Asembly ended a long fiscal crisis by narrowly approving a budget that included a broad-based tax on wages.

Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., a Republican-turned-independent, vetoed three so-called conventional tax packages, all of which he branded as laden with gimmicks.

He finally prevailed with a new tax structure that imposed a tax on wages, while cutting the sales tax and the taxes on interest and investment income.

Mark is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.

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