Derek Slap, a spokesman for Senate Democrats, said this afternoon that chamber of the legislature will convene tomorrow at 11 a.m. to vote on the Democratic majority’s budget proposal.
I understand the two-year package still includes income tax hikes on households earning over $500,000 but there is talk the amount of the increases may be lowered.
The current maximum income tax rate is 5 percent. Democrats had proposed imposing a series of increases ending at a new, 7.9 percent maximum, but they may no longer be aiming that high.
The big question is how many of the 36-person Senate’s 24 Democrats will vote for the budget and accompanying tax increases? Some, including Sens. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk and Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, balked at the initial income tax hike because it started with households earning $250,000 – what they continue to argue is “middle class” in expensive Fairfield County.
Duff today told me he still plans to vote “no” despite alterations to the income tax proposal. He said he would explain further tomorrow during the actual debate.
McDonald said he needs to see additional details of the budget.
I suspect he and Stamford Democrats in the House of Representatives, which convenes Friday to vote on the budget, might be won over by fine print in the budget proposal which gives Stamford an additional $853,538 in education grants over the next two fiscal years despite the fact all other municipalities are flat-funded.
Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven, a chairman of the legislature’s appropriations committee, said a few years ago Stamford did not receive as much money as the 14 other so-called priority school districts.
Priority school districts are defined as having the greatest academic needs and include the state’s largest cities, including Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury, Bridgeport, Norwalk, Danbury and New London.
“They (Stamford) were the only ones who didn’t get the full increment,” Harp said. “So they have been really angry about that (and) they’ve been complaining about this for a couple of years. They argued they may in fact be a wealthy community but if you look at their school system it looks a lot like others that did get the increment and they felt they were penalized unfairly.”
So, Harp said, Democratic leaders decided to try and do right by Stamford and throw a little extra education cash their way.
Could this have anything to do with the delegation’s stated concern about voting for a Democratic budget that includes income tax increases?
McDonald declined to comment.
“Are we trying to buy a vote? … Absolutely not,” Harp said. “They made a compelling case.”
Perhaps, but it’s sure going to make it that much harder for Stamford lawmakers to oppose the budget.
