Fasano: Gov. Lamont Should be Honest About Democrat Budget

Democrat Budget Out of Balance and Increases Income Taxes, Sales Taxes and More

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven) released the following statement in response to claims from Governor Ned Lamont that the Democrat budget is on time, balanced and does not increase income taxes or sales taxes.

“Governor Lamont did not disappoint. I anticipated that he would claim victory for a budget that was ‘on time’ and ‘balanced’ when he knows the budget is actually not complete because it counts on savings from a contract that doesn’t exist.

“The governor’s claims that his budget does not increase tax rates demonstrate a lack of knowledge of what’s in the budget. The governor’s budget increases income taxes on small business owners. It increases the tax rate on digital downloads, ridesharing services and alcohol. It expands the sales tax, adding a new tax to things like prepared foods sold in grocery stores and fast food restaurants, soda, safety apparel, parking and more. It puts a new tax on plastic bags. It creates new car registration fees. It increases business filing fees. It counts on $50 million in ‘fee increases’ that have yet to even be identified.

“The reality is the governor’s budget relies on $1.8 billion in new revenue. It increases taxes, creates new taxes, and expands current taxes. These taxes will be felt the most by the middle class and working families as well as all the small businesses who are being hit with new crushing burdens. This budget will make it harder to grow jobs and adds more costs to people’s everyday household expenses. The Democrat budget is also out of balance, as it counts on over $450 million in labor savings yet to be agreed upon in concept, let alone achieved.

“The robust rainy day fund the governor has repeatedly tried to take credit for is not the result of this partisan budget. The rainy day fund grew as a result of the bipartisan budgets passed the last two years and the protections Republicans fought for that ensured these funds could not be touched. The only reason there’s over $2 billion in the rainy day fund is because our caps make it impossible to touch that money. Democrats want a gold star simply because they are not spending money that they legally cannot spend.”