Carter Demands Allie-Brennan Retract Campaign Mail Statement

Press release from Carter 2020:

Oct. 9, 2020

Republican Dan Carter responded to his opponent’s recent campaign mailer sent to residents of the 2nd Assembly District.

“Frankly, I was stunned when I read Allie-Brennan’s claim that he lowered taxes with the budget last year,” said Carter. “I have never had an opponent that blatantly misrepresented their record like this.”

At issue is the campaign mailer that arrived at doors on or about October 5th that stated that Allie-Brennan had supported a “balanced budget that lowered taxes.” Carter contends that Allie-Brennan’s budget actually raised taxes.

“Last year’s budget raised taxes on families and businesses by $1.75 billion,” remarked Carter. “There is no way around that fact and it’s been widely reported in the news.”

Carter cited numerous news articles including an article published in the CT Mirror on June 26th, 2019 that reported on details in the budget. Carter made reference to Allie-Brennan’s major campaign promise was to eliminate the $250 bi-annual business entity tax, which was eliminated and replaced with other fees and tax changes.

“Allie-Brennan can’t be referring to his promise to help businesses by eliminating the business entity tax, because he raised taxes and fees by three times that amount on those same businesses,” said Carter. “This can’t be chalked up to inexperience, so it must be a direct effort to hide the fact families are paying more because of him. He should apologize and publish a retraction to the statement in the mailer.”

Carter also cited a few of the tax changes Allie-Brennan supported that amount to higher taxes for struggling families.

· Increased the tax on digital downloads from 1 percent to 6.35 percent
· New 1% surcharge on prepared foods tax on restaurant meals and prepared grocery meals, on top of the 6.35 percent sales tax already charged on prepared meals.
· New tax on parking
· New tax dry cleaning and laundry services
· New tax on Interior design services (primarily women-owned businesses)
· Plastic bag tax (10-cent fee)
· Vehicle trade-in fees
· Rideshare fees
· Alcohol excise taxes
· Repeal sales tax exemption on safety apparel
· Increased the Secretary of State's (SOTS) filing fees
· Continued the corporate surcharge for two more years
· Reduced the pass-through tax credit on businesses

“To recover from Covid-19, rebuild our economy, and make Connecticut affordable, we must have transparency from elected officials,” said Carter. “I have never and would never misrepresent or hide my record from the people I represent.”

This press release was produced by Carter 2020. The views expressed here are the author's own.