Opinion: Connecticut Has a Tax Addiction

By State Senator Toni Boucher (R-26th):

Connecticut’s spending habit has caused its tax addiction.

Some say that we are not a high cost state; the facts say otherwise. Connecticut taxpayers have to work until May 20 to pay all of their 2016 taxes – longer than residents of any other state in the nation.

In the past five years, Connecticut taxpayers have been through the two largest tax increases in state history. The state has only recovered 80% of the jobs lost in the recession versus 160% in the US and 240% in Massachusetts- the beneficiary of GE's relocation. This has our biggest and smallest businesses leaving and taking needed jobs with them. The public demands fairness and Hartford must listen.

Last year Connecticut collected 360 different taxes and fees from its residents, but it seems no one in Hartford can answer the billion-dollar question: With all of these taxes, why is the state so broke?

In just the past year Connecticut generated more than $19.8 billion in revenue from taxes, but the bottom 200 sources brought in $29.6 million – which amounts to only 0.15 percent of total revenue.

Unbelievably, state officials can’t even tell us if it’s worth collecting many of the taxes and fees because they simply don’t know how much it costs to collect them. The cost may even exceed the revenue!

It’s time for lawmakers to review the 360 different taxes and fees that are dogging our state’s citizens. Cutting out nuisance taxes would provide some relief to our residents, while simultaneously increasing the efficiency of state government.