TAXED TO THE MAX, OP-ED

On March 21st several hundred residents took time away from their families and rallied to deliver a word of caution to their elected officials – Republican and Democrat alike – Enough!

And while the genesis of the rally was the federal stimulus package, the message can and should be heard in Hartford. Enough with the taxes that inhibit our choices! Enough with the excuses that it is someone else’s fault that the cost of government went up! Enough with the false promise that if we just pay a little more now, government will become more efficient and better at some point in the future!

Since the imposition of the state income tax in 1991 and the approval by voters of the constitutional spending cap the following year, state spending has increased 300 percent. This year in order to fill the budget deficit the Democrats proposed the largest tax hike in history, $3.3 billion, bigger than the creation of the income tax itself. We have built a state government we can no longer afford, we can do better!

The Ridgefield gathering has been followed by many others across the state and after the latest Tea Party in Hartford April 15th, Republicans answered the public’s outrage with a two-year budget that has no tax increases. It is balanced largely through Three Cs:

• Consolidation of state government;
• Concessions from state employs;
• Cuts in state spending.

This budget incorporates ideas from both Democrats and Republicans, a true bi-partisan budget with input from our mayors and first selectmen.
We restore municipal aid and preserve school funding at current levels and the $500 property tax credit for a family making as little as $46,000. We recognize that there are no easy answers because of the dire economic straits we find ourselves in.

Our No Tax Increase budget is not a knee jerk reaction to a rally, it has been worked on for weeks. It is the product of an honest effort to balance our state books without inflicting even more damage on our small businesses struggling to remain open and families trying to meet their monthly budgets.

This budget also requires state employees to play a role in the solving the budget mess. We recognize that state workers are not the problem, but they have to be part of the solution. We all do. We’ve asked for an 18-month salary freeze, have offered early retirement for thousands and modest increases in co-pays for prescription drugs. As an example, co-pays for generic drugs would increase from $3 to $10.

Every day we hear of layoffs or planned plant closings and a 30 percent business surcharge would be yet another clear message to employers that their “fair share” just isn’t good enough. We need to be a state that fosters business and individual achievement. Fairfield County including Ridgefield pays almost 50% of the state income taxes in CT, let’s not balance the budget on the backs of Ridgefielders, citizens who were hit extremely hard by the financial meltdown on Wall Street.

This fiscal crisis cannot be solved without all sides – labor, management, the executive branch, Republicans and Democrats – coming together with the taxpayers in mind. Taxpayers who, in their day to day lives, are already trying to manage with less.

Our task will not be easy but our goals will be clear: deliver a No Tax Increase Budget for the people of the State of Connecticut.