by Donald Eng
HARTFORD, CT — Senate Republicans once again pitched the idea of wide-ranging tax cuts and credits Wednesday, the day after Democrats unveiled a $25.6 billion budget for 2026-27.
The proposal, which the caucus said would amount to a total of about $1.5 billion, or more than 5% of the total annual appropriations, would cut licensing fees for professions, reduce the CT Paid Family Leave payroll tax by 20%, cut all public benefits charges from utility bills, slash income tax rates by up to 40% depending on income and introduce a 100% income tax credit on car taxes paid to towns.
“We had a budget before us that got voted out of the Appropriations Committee yesterday that does nothing to reduce your electric bills, nothing to reduce your property taxes, nothing to produce your income taxes,” said Minority Leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield. “At what point are the people of this state going to realize what is being done to them? And that’s why we’re screaming from the rooftops, trying to get everyone in this state to understand the Democratic Party in this building continues to want to tax you to funnel their bureaucracy here in Hartford and not return the money back to you.”
State Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich, who is running for governor, called the proposal “genuine, long-term tax relief” and added that the plan also includes removing hundreds of unspecified unfunded mandates.
“The plan for property tax reform and a property tax cap calls for, basically, putting together a commission of people from municipalities and legislative leaders to go through the 1,400 unfunded mandates and determine which of those, probably by the hundred, should be rolled back or eliminated.”
Though it is not clear how the state could either make up the reduced revenue or reduce expenditures, Harding said one potential source of funds was modifying the state volatility cap. That is the limit on the amount of so-called volatile tax revenues that can be appropriated for the budget.
“If you’re going to modify the volatility cap, as they did yesterday in appropriations, instead of spending more money, we’re saying return it back to the taxpayers,” Harding said.
Senate Democrats called the proposal an empty political promise and pointed out that it had not been reviewed by the state’s nonpartisan fiscal staff and had not been subject to a public hearing.
“The last time they proposed a real budget was 2018. Since then, they have abandoned responsible participation in governing and resorted to back-of-the-napkin promises,” said Senate President Pro-Tempore Martin Looney of New Haven and Majority Leader Bob Duff of Norwalk.
Referring to the Republicans as the MAGA Caucus, the two said Connecticut voters had stopped taking them seriously.
“The Democrats will continue the real work of building a vetted budget that delivers actual tax relief rather than political talking points,” they said.