By Paul Hughes, Staff Writer
Gov. Ned Lamont continues to campaign on providing big income tax breaks to working families. Lamont, featured here, speaks at the Connecticut Democratic Convention on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at the Bushnell in Hartford as he accepts the party nomination to run for a third term.
Gov. Ned Lamont has talked in recent weeks about eliminating income taxes on working families, a claim that has some truth to it but requires some unpacking.
The Lamont campaign claim is based on an updated analysis from the state Office of Policy and Management that calculated the tax savings for a family of four from reductions in the two lowest marginal tax rates and increases in the local property and earned income tax credits.
According to this OPM analysis, joint filers with two children who make $55,500 or less pay no state income tax when the income tax changes approved under Lamont are taken into account. Increases in the state earned income tax credit in 2023 and 2025 are the biggest factor in that tax savings calculation, said Chris Collibee, an OPM spokesman. The state EITC is based on a percentage of the federal EITC.
So, while there are people and families who pay no state income tax, it is by no means widespread for all working families.
The biggest beneficiaries based on that OPM analysis are families of four with Connecticut adjusted gross incomes ranging from $20,500 to $30,500.
Like the federal EITC, the state EITC is a refundable credit. If the credit exceeds the taxpayer’s Connecticut income tax liability, the taxpayer receives the difference as an income tax refund. The credit for four-member households earning between $20,500 and $30,500 exceeds their tax liability by $3,176.40, according to OPM calculations.
The maximum 2025 state and federal EITC thresholds ranged from $26,214 for a married couple filing jointly with no children to $68,675 for joint filers with three or more children. The maximum credit ranged from $649 for an EITC qualifying couple with no children to $3,218 for joint filers with three or more children.
Lamont said the cuts to the bottom marginal rates and the increases in the EITC, coupled with automatic cost-of-living increases to the state minium wage approved in his first year in office are making life more affordable for working individuals families.
“If you talk about affordability, you’ll pay people more, especially working families that are working two jobs,” he said. “That’s what the minimum wage is all about. That is what the EITC is all about. That’s why we reduce the tax rate on those working families, and that’s why with the ETIC, you get money back. We’re making the code a lot more progressive.”
Income tax changes under Lamont
Lamont and the legislature approved a bipartisan two-year state budget in 2023 that cut the two lowest marginal rates of the income tax. Starting in the 2024 tax year, the initial rate declined from 3% to 2% and the second rate decreased from 5% to 4.5%.
In addition, the state EITC was also increased in 2023 from 30.5% of the federal EITC to 40%. Under federal law, people who work and earn incomes below certain levels qualify for the refundable tax credit. Credit amounts vary based on a taxpayer’s income, filing status and family size.
The number of credits claimed increased from 184,135 for the last tax year before EITC went up to 40% to 193,283 in the 2024 tax year, and value of the credits jumped from $129.7 million to $195.1 million, according to the latest available annual state figures.
In 2025, the legislature and Lamont approved a two-year budget that increased the EITC amount by $250 for eligible taxpayers with at least one qualifying child for federal income tax purposes. The bump took effect for the 2025 tax year.
Before this change, OPM had estimated in 2023 that two-parent families with two children earning up to $45,500 paid no income taxes between the reduction in the marginal rates and increases in the EITC and the property tax credit.
In 2022, the legislature and Lamont increased the property tax credit from $200 to $300 and expanded the number of taxpayers who may claim it. In 2015, the credit was lowered from $300 to $200, and another change made then phased out the credit at a steeper rate, reducing the number of taxpayers eligible to claim the credit. In 2017, the credit was limited to taxpayers who were age 65 and older, or who had dependents for the 2017 and 2018 tax years. Two years later, Lamont and the legislature extended the eligibility limit for the 2019 and 2020 tax years.
An estimated 657,000 were expected to claim $138 million in property tax credits for the current 2026 fiscal year, according to the legislature’s Office of Fiscal Analysis.
Lamont tax record
Lamont and his campaign are also claiming that Lamont eliminated a multibillion budget deficit that he inherited and balanced eight state budgets without raising taxes. While the first two assertions are true, he did raise some taxes. But he has generally opposed broad-based new taxes or increases in tax rates.
The first Lamont budget broadened the sales tax to cover more goods, services and transactions, continued a surcharge on the corporation tax that was due to sunset, and raised taxes on wine and liquor. It also imposed a new 10-cent fee on plastic shopping bags, new taxes on e-cigarettes and vaping products, and an additional 2.25% tax on sales of homes for $2.5 million or more if sellers move out of state after the sale.
Lamont defended his expansion of the sales tax. He singled out the decrease in the threshold for online retailers such as Amazon for collecting sales taxes on Connecticut customers from $250,000 to $100,000. Out-of-state retailers are obligated to collect sales taxes if they make 200 or more Connecticut sales in a 12-month period ending every Sept. 30.
“I think it was an act of fairness,” Lamont said. “I mean, the idea that Amazon doesn’t pay a tax and the store on Main Street does pay a sales tax seems fundamentally unfair to me. Why did these guys get an enormous tax exemption is beyond me.”
The second two-year budget under Lamont largely avoided additional taxes because of the use of $2.8 billion in one-time federal coronavirus relief funding.
Lamont and Democrats also approved a new mileage tax on heavy trucks in a separate bill to secure Republican votes for the budget package. The highway user tax has raised more than $160 million since being imposed three years ago. Lamont previously pursued highway tolls, and then unsuccessfully proposed a carbon-emission fee for fuel distributors that could have cost Connecticut drivers $800 million to $1 billion over 10 years based on administration estimates.
Lamont is campaigning on his record of lowering taxes. An OPM analysis determined major tax changes enacted over the governor’s first seven years in office will have provided $954.8 million in tax relief through the 2028 fiscal year. The analysis projected tax relief enacted in the 2026 session will bring that total to more than $1.2 billion.
Hamden state Rep. Josh Elliott has largely premised his primary challenge to Lamont for the Democratic nomination on the governor’s opposition to raising income taxes on taxpayers earning $1 million and up. Meanwhile, Greenwich state Sen. Ryan Fazio, the Republican nominee, is campaigning on a plan to lower income taxes by $1,500.
“I got one guy saying to raise taxes more. The other guy is saying you’re raising them too much. I kind of like where I am,” Lamont said. “And you know what? the economy is growing.”