Connecticut remains without a budget six weeks into the new fiscal year, but by law officials must still move forward with the state’s 17th-annual sales tax holiday later this month. The Department of Revenue Services estimates the state will miss out on about $4.1 million in revenue.
Sales Tax
Posted inMoney
Municipal lobby deserts House Dems on sales tax plan
One of the leading municipal advocates says the House Democrats’ plan to boost the sales tax to aid cities and towns is flawed — and would be opposed by most mayors and first selectmen.
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Sales tax hike, fiscal reforms are chips in budget negotiations
Though moderate Democratic legislators unenthusiastically helped ratify union concessions, the fiscal reforms they want in return may hinge on whether moderates also will tolerate a sales tax increase.
Posted inHealth, Money
Toubman: ‘If we don’t raise revenue somehow, we shred the safety net’
Attorney Sheldon V. Toubman of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association is one of Connecticut’s most ardent advocates for social services. In this week’s Sunday Conversation, he speaks with The Mirror about efforts of social service advocates to press for state tax increases to help close projected budget deficits and proposals to increase the income and sales taxes.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy on budget deadlock: ‘This is a failure of the legislature’
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy excoriated the General Assembly on Thursday for failing to vote on even a provisional budget, saving his greatest scorn for the House leadership and any rank-and-file member absent from Connecticut as the fiscal year nears its end Friday.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Finance panel eyes ending sales tax exemption for nonprofits
The legislature’s tax-writing panel is considering a measure that would repeal the sales tax exemption on goods and services sold to nonprofits — a provision that saves these entities more than $200 million per year.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Politics
Looney wants half-penny sales tax option for cities and towns
Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney of New Haven called Friday for an optional local sales tax increase to help cities and towns control property tax rates. This would add a local surcharge of one-half of 1 percentage point to the existing 6.35 percent state sales tax.
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Connecticut not alone in facing budget deficits
Connecticut is not alone in its budget woes, but it does have less margin for error in dealing with them than other states, according to new reports from two nationally recognized policy think-tanks.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Democrats eyeing sales tax hike to plug holes in next CT budget
While Gov. Dannel P. Malloy continues to push spending cuts as the chief solution to Connecticut’s latest budget crisis, his fellow Democrats on one key panel say a more balanced mix of reductions and revenue might be unavoidable.
Posted inCities & Towns, Education, Money
CCM: Pair sales tax hike, bargaining changes to bolster cities, towns
Connecticut’s cities and towns unveiled a sweeping financial plan Wednesday that included a major sales tax boost to aid communities, new regionalization incentives and collective bargaining changes. The bargaining changes would be designed to ensure new revenue for towns would not be used to boost wages and benefits for municipal workers.
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Children’s group says tax hikes must be part of CT budget fix
A progressive children’s advocacy group has issued the first call for a major tax increase to help solve the state’s latest budget crisis, outlining more than $3 billion in revenue-raising options.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy won’t reassure CT towns they are safe from the budget axe
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy offered worried municipal leaders Wednesday no assurances they would be spared from cuts to local aid as he and the General Assembly grapple with another major deficit in the next state budget.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Municipalities say CT’s property tax system is unsustainable
Just days after a landmark state court ruling found Connecticut’s education funding system to be “irrational and unconstitutional,” the chief lobbying group for cities and towns issued a new research paper calling the municipal property tax system “unsustainable.”
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Towns wary of local spending cap as state begins revenue sharing
Enjoying their first infusion of state sales tax receipts — albeit not as much as promised — Connecticut’s cities and towns remain wary of a revenue-sharing program that comes with a controversial spending cap.
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CT merchants hope sales tax holiday lures out-of-state shoppers
While Connecticut consumers gear up for the 16th annual sales-tax-free week starting Sunday, merchants hope that Massachusetts shoppers — whose home state suspended their annual sales tax holiday — will cross the border.