Sen. Kelly: Statewide Property Tax a Direct Attack on Middle Class Families

March 15, 2021

Public Hearing Today on CT Democrats’ Plan to Create a New State Tax on Houses and Commercial Property

 

HARTFORD – Connecticut Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford) blasted a proposal by CT Democrats to create a new statewide property tax. Today the bill is being heard at the Finance Revenue & Bonding Committee’s virtual public hearing. The proposal put forward by the Senate Democratic Leader includes:

  • A new one mill tax on top of the local property tax.
  • It would apply to all houses assessed at $300,000 or more as well as commercial property.
  • Revenue collected would go directly to the state, not to the town or city in which a taxpayer resides. State politicians would redistribute those tax dollars at their discretion.

 

Sen. Kelly said, “This new tax is a direct attack on middle-class families, at a time when they are already struggling to get by. It targets middle-class homes, in every community and every town across the state. It’s designed to suck money out of the middle-class and send it directly to Hartford Democrats to redistribute at their discretion – as if Hartford has been a good financial steward.

 

“In typical fashion, Democrats have tried to mislead the public by dubbing this a ‘mansion tax.’ In reality this is a tax on all our communities, and it will hurt middle-class families most of all. For example, a town like Stratford would send $1.2 million to Hartford under this new tax, and would only get back $127,000. Stratford is not the land of mansions. It’s a town with a median income of just $38,000. Yet this tax would take over a million dollars from a community that could be used to educate its children, plow roads, or keep residents safe. Instead it would go to Hartford to bail out other towns and support partisan agendas.”