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Citing the financial toll that the pandemic has taken on many Connecticut residents, progressive Democratic lawmakers and advocates on Thursday renewed calls for higher taxes on the states wealthiest.

While Gov. Ned Lamont, planning re-election this year, opposes raising more revenue from the rich, the legislative Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, during a day-long, virtual public hearing, heard impassioned calls for the highest earners to pay more for state services.

Republicans on the tax-writing panel oppose the three bills that are the focus of the progressive push, including an added tax on houses worth more than $1.2 million; a capital gains surcharge of one percent on the sale or exchange of assets; and a permanent Earned Income Tax Credit of 41.5 percent of the federal EITC.

As our country and our state continue to recover from the brutal physical and emotional trauma of COVID-19, we cannot forget the financial toll it has taken on many of us, especially our working poor and middle-class wage earners who have borne the brunt of the economic crisis, said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, who submitted all three bills. Meanwhile, many at the high end of the income scale have prospered like never before.

Under questioning from committee members, Looney quoted non-partisan legislative staff who estimated that the one-percent capital gains surcharge would generate about $131 million in annual revenue.

Similar bills in recent years failed, except for an increase in the EITC, which Looney and Speaker of the House Matt Ritter this week vowed to make permanent at 41.5 percent. Last year the committee approved a so-called consumption tax that would have hit Connecticuts wealthy, but the proposal died without action in the biennial budget-setting process.

Ed Hawthorne, president of the state AFL-CIO, said that while people such as Connecticuts 13 billionaires have gained wealth during the pandemic, most of the rest of the state has struggled.

Hundreds of thousands of working people, especially working people of color and our essential workers that went to work every day saw their lives upended, Hawthorne said. The ultra-wealthy have been allowed to rig the rules in their favor for years. Theyve skirted their responsibility to fund our schools, our education infrastructure, healthcare programs and other vital public services.

He also supports a 10-percent tax on digital advertising on corporations with income over $10 billion, to bring in about $140 million in new revenue.

Like other speakers in favor of the bills, Hawthorne had a digital backdrop of the Recovery for All CT, an umbrella group of faith, community and labor organizations, behind him as he spoke.

Across Connecticut, regardless of our race, gender, income level, or town in which we live, we have all pulled together to navigate the pandemic and its ensuing financial devastation. But not all of us suffered equally, said Beverly Brakeman of West Hartford, regional director of the United Auto Workers, Region 9A, which has 30,000 members in New England, New York City, and Puerto Rico.

In 2022, we remain a state of vast inequality despite being one of the wealthiest states in the nation, she said. This is not something of which we should be proud because the result of such disparity is despair and suffering. We see this vast inequality play out every day in income, wealth, housing, food security, health and health care outcomes, education, and access to public services.

The lowest earners of our state are paying 26 percent of their income to state and municipal taxes, while those making $1.6 million and above are only paying 6.67 percent, said state Rep. Kara Rochelle, D-Ansonia, whose district includes part of Derby. This is obviously incredibly unfair and creates a deep burden that goes beyond just the numbers. She said her district includes 12,463 households classified as the working poor. These are folks living from paycheck-to-paycheck and cannot even afford a $500 crisis.

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association testified against the legislative proposals. It is clear that towns and cities cannot rely solely on property taxes and inconsistent state aid to fund essential services and often mandated programs, the CBIA said in prepared testimony. Adding 2 mills to high-end homes is not the answer.

Republican push back on the committee was led by lawmakers including Rep. Devin Carney of Old Lyme and Rep. Laura Devlin of Fairfield.

I just think we give certain urban leaders a pass when policies that they put into place that negatively affect students and I think they did during this pandemic, Carney said during an exchange with Brakeman, who had pointed out the disparity between school systems in wealthy suburbs and those of the inner cities. I think, honestly, those leaders have gotten a pass for a long time. Coming to the Finance Committee and asking for us to make changes in the things that happen in Hartford and New Haven may be a little bit short-sighted.

I would say that I think what this committee can do, with your charges, is to look at the system of taxation, which is not fair, Brakeman replied. And that is a way to equalize how we mete out our education, housing and all those kinds of services.

Devlin during an exchange with a representative of state certified public accountants, warned that the wealthy can easily leave the state if they believe taxes are too high.

This years short, 12-week session that ends at midnight on May 4, is focused on adjusting the second year of the budget, which starts on July 1. Lamont wants to focus on property tax credits, a statewide tax rate for motor vehicles that would lower taxes for many, as well as ending income taxes for pension income.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT

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Progressive Democrats, unions, again push for higher taxes on CTs wealthiest - CT Insider