With barely one month complete in year 2021, several senators have proposed bills that should leave Connecticut taxpayers wondering if they have lost their minds.
Sen. Martin Looney proposed a bill establishing a statewide tax on real property, that’s an additional tax on top of the property tax we all pay to our municipality. The good news is if your property is assessed for less than three hundred thousand ($300,000) you are exempt.
Sen. Looney likes to call it a “mansion tax” but in some parts of Connecticut a house with a $300,000 assessment is anything but. It’s pricey enough to live Connecticut and try to buy a home here. This will just make it worse.
But the statewide property tax would also be assessed on every single commercial property. So much for making Connecticut business-friendly. The money from the tax would be sent to cities like New Haven, which Sen. Looney represents. New Haven is facing a massive budget deficit this year and apparently we’re all expected to bail it out.
Sens. Alex Kasser and Will Haskell again introduced a bill to implement tolls on our state highways. Haven’t we beaten this to death? Didn’t the taxpayers of our state make it clear we are against this regressive tax? Like a broken record the same song just plays over and over again.
Sen. Haskell also introduced a bill that will subject you to a $20 fine if you don’t vote. If you can’t afford to pay the fine you will be subject to two hours of community service.
Last I check we live in the United States, land of the free. Or maybe those freedoms ironically end when you cross into the Constitution State.
I have not had a chance to look at all the proposed bill this session, but it appears that with one political party having secured a more lopsided majority this past election, they’re throwing every tax proposal and authoritarian edict they can think of at the wall in order to see what sticks — all in an effort to extract more money out of the very people who voted them into office.
I hope people remember this in 2022.
Patrick Sasser is the Founder of No Tolls CT.