Minority Republicans in the General Assembly renewed their call Wednesday to slash state income taxes and offer other relief to middle-class households struggling with Connecticut’s high cost of living.

But Republicans didn’t pitch major spending cuts to pay for the relief. Instead it likely would be covered by the huge budget surpluses state government has forced since 2017 to shrink its hefty pension debt, a task that’s far from over.

The linchpin of the plan involves income tax rate cuts that would save individuals earning less than $100,000 and couples below $200,000 a collective $975 million annually starting in 2028.

The GOP also pitched: a sales tax exemption for prepared meals sold in supermarkets; a one-year, retail gasoline tax holiday; and elimination of the public benefits charge on consumer electric bills.

“Connecticut’s trajectory is going in the wrong direction,” House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said during a midmorning press conference at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. “We continue to see other states thrive while Connecticut’s cost of living continues to rise. And the crisis doesn’t seem to have an end in sight.”

The Senate’s Republican leader, Stephen Harding of Brookfield, said this stems from decades of almost uninterrupted Democratic control of the General Assembly.

“Democrats have controlled this building and have done nothing but raise costs, raise taxes, and make the state more unaffordable by the day,” he said.

But the majority quickly fired back that the Republican claim is both false and misleading.

Gov. Ned Lamont and his fellow Democrats in the legislature enacted one of the largest tax cuts in state history in 2022 and 2023, including the first reduction in state income tax rates since the mid-1990s.

Income tax changes alone saved most middle-income filers about $300 to $400 per year. Democrats also ordered a 13-month gasoline tax holiday during this period.

“The Connecticut GOP would love to distract you from the fact that Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have been doing their best to drive the American economy into a ditch for the last two years,” Ian Clarke, spokesman for the state Democratic Party, said Wednesday, referring to federal cuts expected to strip $1.1 billion from healthcare and food assistance programs by 2034. “This is typical political theater.”

But Republicans say the tax relief Lamont and Democratic legislators have authored was far too modest, given the context.

Sen. Ryan Fazio, the Greenwich Republican who is challenging Lamont for governor this year, said other taxes and fees have crept up to offset those tax breaks and make Connecticut more unaffordable, including:

• A 0.5% payroll deduction was ordered to finance a Paid Family and Medical Leave program in 2019.

• A 1% sales tax surcharge was placed on restaurant food and other prepared meals.

• A highway use tax on large, non-farm, commercial vehicles.

Fazio also noted Connecticut, which already has some of the highest electricity rates in the nation, has seen them rise higher in recent years.

The Republican plan would waive the sales tax surcharge and base 6.35% rate on prepared meals available in grocery stores.

The public benefits charge, which supports various state-mandated environmental, social and grid-management initiatives, would be repealed, saving ratepayers an estimated $30 per month. The Republicans did not outline how they would preserve these programs if the charge is removed.

The 25-cents-per-gallon retail tax on regular gasoline would be waived for 12 months starting next July.

Republicans also pledged to offer incentives to cities and towns to offer homestead exemptions, protections that can prevent credit card companies and other creditors from forcing debtors to sell their homes to cover their obligations. The GOP also would help businesses form association health plans to reduce insurance premium costs for their employees.

“These are real efforts to lead and to solve the problems facing our families every day, to make this state affordable and to make this economy work for everybody,” Fazio said.

But Lamont campaign spokeswoman Lauren Gray said “while Ryan Fazio was busy taking credit for ideas he didn’t come up with and making pie-in-the-sky promises, Governor Lamont was busy actually working with Treasurer Russell to strengthen Connecticut’s pension funds,” referring to reforms that have greatly improved pension investment earnings in recent years.

Gray added that Lamont also has supported or launched other initiatives to help working families, including the state’s debt-free community college program and more than $700 million reserved for a new endowment to expand affordable childcare.

Democrats also have questioned the Republican tax-cutting plan, arguing it would chip away at the big state surpluses Lamont has used since 2020 to pay down more than $11 billion in state pension debt. Connecticut still owes more than $30 billion in this area, making it one of the most indebted states, per capita, in the nation.

But Candelora countered the Democrats live by a double standard. Democrats have weakened surpluses to provide average annual raises of 4.5% for most state employees since 2022 — that outstrips most private-sector compensation — while blocking GOP efforts to curb Medicaid benefits for undocumented residents.

“It really is a matter of priority,” Candelora said. “Are you serious about fixing the affordability issue or not?”