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Voices Speaking

March 19, 2012

Connecticut: Corporate Tax Haven?

Wade Gibson, J.D.

You wouldn’t know it from the headlines, but Connecticut has the lowest business taxes in America. According to the Council on State Taxation (COST), a trade association of large corporations, Connecticut has the Nation’s lowest effective state and local business tax rate.

COST found that taxes on business in 2010 comprised only 3.3% of private sector economic activity, compared to the national average of 5.0%. This finding has been consistent: COST has placed Connecticut at or near the bottom for the last seven years.

And COST knows its stuff. Founded by state chambers of commerce, COST has about 600 multistate corporations as members, including Aetna, CIGNA, General Electric, Pitney Bowes, and UTC. To carry out its tax calculations, COST engages Ernst & Young, one of the Big Four international accounting firms.

2010 State and Local Business Taxes as Share of Private Sector Economic Activity

Business tax state chart

Issue Area:
Budget and Tax

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March 14, 2012

Even After Tax Increases, Connecticut’s Poor Pay More — Much More

Wade Gibson, J.D.

Despite tax increases under both Gov. Rell and Gov. Malloy, Connecticut’s poorest still pay twice as much of their income in taxes as the wealthiest 1%. According to a recent analysis by Connecticut Voices and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the bottom 20% — who average $12,700 in income — face an effective rate of 11.2% in state and local taxes. The richest 1% — who average $3,164,200 — pay 5.5%.

Connecticut’s state and local tax code is regressive, taxing people more for being poor and less for being rich. Tax changes over the last several years have reduced this unfairness, but as the graphs show, much work remains to be done.

Issue Area:
Budget and Tax

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March 5, 2012

Op-ed: the Minimum Wage Should be a Stepping Stone, Not Quicksand

The New Haven Register recently published an op-ed by Connecticut Voices' Senior Policy Fellow Wade Gibson, who called for an increase in the state's minimum wage to help boost the state's economy and improve mobility for low-wage workers:

In Connecticut, it is an article of faith that if you work hard, you should earn enough to be in the middle class, or at least enough to work your way into the middle class.

Yet today, Connecticut workers at the minimum wage of $8.25 an hour make so little that they could not pull a family of three out of poverty if they work full time, 52 weeks per year.

...

Unfortunately, low-wage jobs ... are the likely careers for more and more people in Connecticut.

The minimum wage is not just for teenagers with summer jobs; it is for adults working full time or nearly so. In fact, 82 percent of those who would benefit from an increase are 20 or older.

For these workers and their children to earn a spot in the middle class, the minimum wage must rise and be a stepping stone, rather than quicksand.

As our recent report on the minimum wage concluded, this increase would improve wages for workers in growing sectors of the Connecticut economy. The Connecticut Department of Labor projects that the three occupations projected to have the most job openings between 2008 and 2018 -- cashiers, waiters and waitresses, and retail salespersons -- are also the most likely to pay at or near minimum wage. The 10 largest occupations in which at least a quarter of workers earn wages below $9.75 per hour account for a third (34%) of the state's workforce and many are among the fastest growing job sectors in the state.

Issue Area:
Family Economic Security

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March 1, 2012

Welcome to Connecticut Voices' new blog and website!

Voices websiteWe're excited to announce that Connecticut Voices for Children has launched a new blog and a new website at www.ctvoices.org! 

Our new blog, Voices Speaking, provides brief news updates, announcements, alerts, and analysis on emerging issues, as well as opportunities for you to share your views in our comments section.  If you use an RSS reader to follow blogs, be sure to subscribe to ours!

Among the new features of our website:

  • Our visual and navigational redesign makes our website more user-friendly and attractive.
  • Our new web address (ctvoices.org) is easier to recall than our previous address (ctkidslink.org).
  • Our overhauled Publications and Legislative Testimony sections offer new tools that can help you find our materials by issue, author, or date range.
  • A new Issues section provides background and resources on our issue areas, key issue staff, and publications.
  • Our Ways to Give area reviews the ways in which you can support CT Voices, including an online donation form.
  • Our Events and In The News sections keep you informed of upcoming CT Voices-sponsored events, as well as recent news stories that feature our work and staff.

To stay in touch with Connecticut Voices online, please be sure to:

  • Update the bookmark in your web browser from our old address (ctkidslink.org) to our new address (ctvoices.org).
  • Update our e-mail addresses in your address book from ctkidslink.org to ctvoices.org.  See our staff list for addresses.  (The first part of our e-mail addresses will remain the same, e.g., jbell@ctvoices.org will replace jbell@ctkidslink.org.)
  • Sign up for our e-mail newsletters, if you haven’t already.
  • Follow our Twitter feed and our Facebook page.
  • Use the “Share” feature (upper right corner of most pages) to share our reports and information with others via e-mail or social media.
  • If you use an RSS reader, subscribe to the RSS feeds for our home page and our blog.

Please spread the word!

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