The state’s Revenue Services Commissioner Kevin Sullivan told his colleagues Tuesday that income taxes make up a bigger portion of total state revenue collections that it did two decades ago.
Income taxes now make up 52 percent of the state’s tax collections. It represented just 36 of revenues in 1993 and 44 percent in 2003. In comparison, the sales tax made up 32 percent of revenue in 1993 and 2003 and 25 percent in 2010.
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the state income tax.
Sen. Joe Markley, R-Southington, who opposed the tax when then Gov. Lowell Weicker introduced it, said Connecticut’s current economic woes are directly tied to the implementation of the income tax, which has allowed the state to increase its spending.
“In the two decades since the legislature—against the clear will of the people—passed a state income tax, Connecticut has been dead last in the nation in economic growth,” Markley said. “Seeing the result here, not a single additional state has adopted an income tax.”
There is a lot of dispute about whether Connecticut is really one of the most taxed state’s in the nation, or if that’s just a perception.
Sullivan said Connecticut doesn’t have the third highest taxes in the nation, when local property taxes are excluded. He said Connecticut ranks 19th highest in just state taxes.
