Issue Position: Finding Savings for the Tax Plan

Issue Position

Republicans want you to believe they can eliminate the income tax and punch a $20 billion hole in the biennial budget without offering a single way to pay for it. That isn't a serious plan. My proposal is different. It relies on practical and responsible ways to pay for the targeted relief that so many Connecticut families desperately need.

Here are some of the cost-saving measures over the next four years that will make a meaningful and responsible middle-class tax cut possible:

Reducing costs at the Department of Correction. We currently spend over $1.3 billion a year on prisons and corrections -- more than two and a half times what the state budget allocates to higher education. Thanks in large part to smart and sensible criminal justice reforms, Connecticut's prison population continues to fall -- as does the state's crime rate. Keeping pace on these reforms will drive down these costs by $125 million a year.
Improving tax enforcement and leveling the playing field for Connecticut businesses. By using technology, modern analytics, and rapid response, the Department of Revenue Services can improve tax collections, audit, and enforcement and close the "tax gap" (the amount of taxes that are owed but not collected). These reforms will generate savings and additional revenues from $150 million to $200 million.
People have long participated in under-the-table sports gambling; a recent Supreme Court decision makes it possible for Connecticut to regulate this activity, after negotiation with our tribes, and draw between $30 million and $50 million in annual revenues from it for the first time.
These cost savings range from $305 million to $375 million and will responsibly fund meaningful property tax relief for the middle class.

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