Here in Connecticut, though the state does receive...

2008-11-30T08:48:00.000-05:00

Here in Connecticut, though the state does receive significant revenues from the income tax, everyone is taxed at the same rate. So if you are struggling to make ends meet in this economy but are lucky enough to have a decent job, you pay at the same rate as the owners of the suburban MacMansions that populate sections of West Hartford, Avon, Glastonbury, etc.

In spite of a severe economic crisis that could profoundly increase unemployment and poverty in Hartford and other Connecticut cities, Gov. Rell has already announced that she will not even discuss creating a graduated income tax where the wealthy pay at a higher rate. And Democratic Party politicians do not seem inclined to challenge her on that in any kind of serious way.

With a flat rate income tax, every discussion about money to be spent on social services, jobs, health care, education - and especially with respect to the urban areas - is immediately recharacterized as a struggle between "hardworking Americans" in the suburbs and "those people" in the cities. Because the bulk of public funding really does come from taxes on working people. Shifting the tax burden to the wealthy and the corporations in Connecticut would permit that discussion to change and for urban and suburban working people and poor people to consider their common interest in rebuilding the urban infrastructure and maintaining and expanding funding for human needs.

Comments on Racial and Class Discourse from an Ivory Tower in Connecticut: Urban Policy and Corporate Dominance

Here in Connecticut, though the state does receive...