This week the Berlin Film Festival is abuzz with the talk about a new film about Edith Piaf, La Vie En Rose (la mome). Piaf’s signature song could well echo the thoughts behind Governor Rell’s budget preparation. “Non, je regrette rien.”
Rell’s vision for the next 20 years is to fix Connecticut’s creaky educational system by throwing money at it. Tackling the ECS funding formulas is admirable, and elevating education to a spending priority, or as Rell puts it, as an investment, is courageous. But is throwing money at Education really going to change anything for the better? It may seem so, if you are a municipality only able to get revenue from residential property. But as long as local school boards continue unchecked spending, it doesn’t solve the issue of smarter spending and gaining operational efficiencies.
Rell’s plan is to raise the income tax. Which too the average Connecticut Tax payer would just add another burden to the already high cost of living in Connecticut. It’s not as if municipalities will lower property taxes they already collect. Sure, education spending on the part of the municipality may be less of a percentage, but its more likely that money will be redirected to the other basics of municipal spending like potholes.
Raising the income tax, while pitching the elimination of the estate tax and the car tax does seem like tax rearrangement to the order of having the middle class pay more than its fair share. Most estates, don’t pay the estate tax, it’s just the super rich ones that run out of tax shelters that end up paying it. While I’m a fan of eliminating the car tax, which is one of the most unequal taxes levied in the state, it doesn’t do any good to raise taxes off people who might not own cars as well.
Both Republicans and Democrats in the legislature will have problems with Rell’s budget plan, but it’s sure to generate debate.
