Connecticut is one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest country in the world. It also ranks, alas, as one of the states with the highest income disparities between its wealthiest residents and its poorest residents.
The recently released CT 2023 Tax Incidence Report revealed the depth of this disparity:
- 478 Connecticut residents “making” an average of $40 million/year have only been paying an average effective tax rate of 7.3%;
- This while 883,552 of our lowest paid residents, making on average $21,000 per year, have been paying an average effective tax rate of 39.9%;
- And while another 890,013 residents are still paying their “fair share “at an effective tax rate of 16.2%.
As these statistics and others show (see Keith Phaneuf’s March 11 article on the fact the current “Push for $600-per-child CT income tax credit faces big hurdles”): families struggling to live well below the 2024 federal poverty level for a family of four ($31,200), i.e. those least able to afford to pay taxes, are paying an effective tax rate well above that paid by our wealthiest residents. Phaneuf’s article reported that “the lowest-earning 10% effectively spent almost 40% of their income in 2020 to cover state or municipal tax burdens, more than five times the rate faced by Connecticut’s highest earners.”
This isn’t fair. It isn’t right. Our wealthiest residents should be taxed at a higher rate.
[Pandemic put tax burden on CT’s poorest, report shows]
They can afford it. It won’t impinge on their lifestyles one whit. They won’t flee Connecticut (Cristobal Young’s 2017 book, The Myth of Millionaire Tax Flight, cites statistics and evidence showing “How Place Still Matters for the Rich”.)
Connecticut reportedly has well over 10,000 households earning multiple millions of dollars per year. An incremental increase in their tax rates would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to address issues affecting those struggling to live in poverty: housing, healthcare, education, child care, and more.
Let’s do the right thing! Let’s give a hand up, rather than the back of our hand, to those most in need.
Please urge your legislators to pass legislation requiring our wealthiest residents to pay a bit more. And insist that Gov. Ned Lamont, who has so far refused to support this idea, sign the bill.
Courtney Bourns lives in West Hartford.