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Still No Budget As Connecticut Wrestles With Which Taxes Might Go Up

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Connecticut’s Democratic lawmakers have proposed increasing the state sales tax to 6.85 percent from 6.35 percent -- part of a nearly $40 billion budget plan released Wednesday.

The prospects for the proposal may not be good.

Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy has said he doesn’t support the sales tax hike. In fact, Malloy has also said he doesn’t want to fix the state budget primarily with tax increases.

Speaking on WNPR’s The Wheelhouse, Connecticut Mirror reporter Keith Phaneuf said Malloy’s budget still increases taxes; it just pushes those taxes off of the state -- and onto its towns.

“The governor’s never really said why he went from, in his first term, being the patron saint of guarding against property tax increases,” Phaneuf said, “to wanting to make the property tax, basically, the workhorse to handle Connecticut’s unfunded liabilities, its pension debt, for another decade. That’s a tremendous shift in policy.”

A House vote on the budget is expected in early September.

The state faces a two-year, $3.5 billion budget deficit. Lawmakers have been unable to agree on a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 and the following year.

This story includes information from The Associated Press.

Patrick Skahill is a reporter and digital editor at Connecticut Public. Prior to becoming a reporter, he was the founding producer of Connecticut Public Radio's The Colin McEnroe Show, which began in 2009. Patrick's reporting has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, Here & Now, and All Things Considered. He has also reported for the Marketplace Morning Report. He can be reached at pskahill@ctpublic.org.

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