Connecticut legislature “Saying Gov. Ned Lamont’s plan is not enough, Senate Republicans are calling for $1.5 billion in tax and electricity relief in an election year,” the Hartford Courant tells us in its February 12 report, “ GOP unveils $1.5B tax cut plan .” Republicans are calling for tax cuts. Democrats are calling for tax relief . The two are entirely different. A tax cut is an uncollected tax that leaves dollars in the accounts of taxpayers who are, free market Republicans will insist, better able than tax-hungry bureaucrats to decide how dollars should be allocated. The difference between a tax cut and a tax rebate or credit , preferred by state Democrats, is the same as the difference between a price reduction and a temporary price discount. A rebate must be collected before it can be rebated. But a tax cut leaves dollars at the disposal of taxpayers. Rebates and credits can be easily redistributed by the tax collecting authority, but it is not possible to re...
In Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield , Mr. Micawber finds himself headed to a debtor’s prison. Before it was abolished Dickens’ own father found himself in similar straights. Micawber, chronically unable to take his own advice, tells Copperfield, “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen, nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” The difference between economic misery and happiness may turn on a penny. Debt – or rather inattention to debt – accumulates, and cumulative debt is always painful. The state Office of Legislative Research (OLR) reported in 2024, “You [perhaps one of our tax-thirsty legislators] asked for a 50-state comparison of state debt as a percent of state gross domestic product (GDP) and how Connecticut’s debt burden based on these measures has changed in the past 10 years. “Connecticut had the highest NTSD [Net Tax Supported ...