Connecticut Senate Republicans recently unveiled a tax plan that imposes mandates on municipalities and relies on unlikely savings like state employees agreeing to a two-year salary freeze.
The proposal includes promises of tax cuts that would be funded by a combination of one-time revenue, concessions from state workers, and potentially costly elimination of tax breaks for Connecticut families.
Republicans touted their fiscal agenda during a press conference earlier this month, when they did not note that their proposal was based in large part on an event that was almost certainly not going to happen.
Their recommendations would hinge on arbitrators agreeing to freeze the wages and benefits of state employees — an event that casual observers of labor policy agree is unlikely to occur.
That’s because Connecticut state employees gave up their right to strike in exchange for binding arbitration. And so, after state employees likely vote down a contract that declines to adjust their pay in the face of costs that are increasing around the country, their contract would eventually be decided by arbitration, which is unlikely to freeze wages on behalf of an employer with billions in surplus funds.
And so, the Republican budget hinges on savings, which they lack the power to achieve.
Democratic leaders in the Senate called the GOP plan an attempt to shift the narrative of recent news coverage away from chaos imposed by Republican President Donald Trump’s administration.
“Their plan is really about tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, and it’s about freezing wages for working people,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said in a statement.
In an interview with the Connecticut Mirror, Senate President Martin Looney said the GOP proposal also relied on expanding the state sales tax by closing existing exemptions for working families.
“Republicans talk about being the adults in the room, but they are the cowards in the room for what they’re talking about doing at this time,” Looney said in a statement. “Desperately flailing away and not willing to even acknowledge the reality and the enormity of what’s coming out of Washington.”
The Republican tax plan would also impose a cap on municipalities ability to raise revenues. According to news reports, they offered few details on how towns and cities would be expected to comply with this new mandate.
“Senate Republicans could not say how much this might force municipalities to cut their budgets, particularly since annual inflation rates typically exceed 2%,” the Connecticut Mirror reported.
This year’s proposal was not the first time Senate Republicans introduced a tax plan built on unrealistic proposals.
For instance, in April 2007, Republicans proposed a tax bill which included selling Bradley International Airport for $800 million to plug a revenue hole in their budget.
In April 2009, they proposed a “No Tax Increase Budget” which included an 18-month SEBAC wage freeze, requiring six furlough days per year per employee, and raised state employee medical co-pays.
In April 2011, they introduced “An Alternative: The Republican No Tax Increase Budget” which included $224 million in Medicare savings through “enhanced fraud detection.”
