Malloy Dodges Bullet on Millionaire’s Tax

Dan Malloy, the Democratic Stamford mayor and gubernatorial explorer, was just up in the Capitol complex blasting Gov. Jodi Rell’s alleged neglect of the 300 non-profit providers who help half a million state residents cope with everything from mental illness to Alzheimer’s and autism.

Inevitably, the news conference steered to the current budget mess. “I think people in the state are tremendously frustrated,” he said, noting that Rell’s February budget proposal, which she called a balanced spending plan with no new taxes, was a conceit that was $2 billion in deficit.

“The damage done by that fallacy, the damage done by not starting with an honest discussion when it came to what the budget of the state of Connecticut needed to be to protect the services we provide is untold,” Malloy said.

 “I think there’s one person responsible for the negative, difficult turn that this discussion has taken,” Malloy said. “The one person in the state charged by the Constitution of the state of Connecticut to present a balanced budget at the beginning of the session, failed to live by the Constitution of the state of Connecticut.”

Blogster: So do you support the legislative Democrats’ proposal to raise $1.8 billion over the biennium.

Malloy: “I’ve been very clear that part of this solution has to be on the revenue-adjustment side and revenue adjustment substantially in excess of what the governor has called for and I think levied in a fairer way than what the governor has called for…. I will tell you this, the Democrats have it closer to right than the governor does and I predict if we ever are to have a budget in this state, that will be borne out….Democrats aren’t infallible, either….”

Blogster: So should couples who make over $600,000 pay $20 more a week in income taxes, mayor?

Malloy “….I think the reality is and I want to be very clear about this, that I think the Democrats are closer than the governor and I think the governor’s emphasis on the sin taxes is yet another gambit by a governor who began the discussion without speaking the truth when it came to the budget…”

 

Is that a yes or no?

 

A few hours later, Malloy sent this to the Blogster:

“I’ve been very clear that I support a more progressive income tax, especially if the alternative is unacceptable cuts that will hurt the neediest people in Connecticut, and irresponsible borrowing that will mortgage our future.  But I’m not going to play a numbers game.  If I say yes to $600,000, the next question is “what about $500,000”?  Then it’s $400,000.  And so on.  I support a more progressive income tax, and yes, I think asking people who are fortunate enough to have such high incomes to pay a little bit more — $15, 20 a week – is reasonable, given where we are and the problems we’re facing.  My guess is that most of those people would be willing to chip in to help out if they had any confidence that state government was being run in something resembling an efficient fashion.  Under this Governor, that’s not been the case.”