Public Finance
Revenues
Connecticut
is one of only a few states which do not impose a state personal
state income tax. The state ranks 12th nationally in state
and
local taxes collected in 1981 and spends approximately $1,150
per capita. The state raises 34% of all taxes, and local governments
raise the balance, 66%, through their single available tax—the
property tax.
The
state struggled financially through the middle 1970's by adding
and increasing taxes. The sales tax went from 3 1/2%
in 1968 to 7 1/2% in 1981. The corporation business
tax has doubled from 5 1/4% to 10%, with the equivalent
of another one percent being added with the expansion of the tax
base in 1982. Capital gains and dividend taxes were initiated
in the early 1970's, with interest being taxed beginning in 1983.
A one percent gross earnings tax was imposed on oil companies,
and the telephone and cable taxes have risen from 6% in 1968 to
9% in 1983. Gasoline taxes have increased from 7 cents per gallon
in 1968 to 17 cents per gallon in 1984.
Expenditures
Though
Connecticut ranks second in per capita income ($12,995 in 1981),
it nonetheless has fallen over the last decade from 15th to
27th
among all states in per capita expenditures, from 23rd to 41st
in per capita expenditures for health and hospital care and from
37th to 43rd in highway expenditures.
Connecticut's
169 municipalities raise their revenues from the property tax
(66% of all revenues raised in the state) and this tax ranks as
the 47th most regressive tax in the nation. Coupled with this,
state aid to local governments over the last decade has held at
a constant 20% of the state budget and on a national level Connecticut
has fallen from 33rd to 47th in aid to local governments and from
22nd to 47th in aid to elementary and secondary education, though
Connecticut ranks 17th in education spending.
For
Further Reading
Bushman,
Richard L. From Puritan to Yankee: Character and the Social
Order inConnecticut, 1690-1765. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Heath, Frederick M. "Politics and Steady Habits: Issues and
Elections in Connecticut, 1894-1914." Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation, Columbia University, 1965. Janick, Herbert P. A Diverse People: Connecticut 1914 to the Present. Chester,
Connecticut,
1975. Jones, Mary Jeanne Andersen. Congregational Commonwealth:
Connecticut, 1636-1662. Middletown, Connecticut, 1968. Morse,
Jarvis Means. A Neglected Period in Connecticut's History:
1818-1850. New York, 1978. Niven, John. Connecticut for
the Union: The Role of the State in the Civil War. NewHaven,
Connecticut, 1965. Purcell, Richard J. Connecticut in Transition:
1775-1818. Middletown, Connecticut, 1963.
Taylor,
Robert J. Colonial Connecticut: A History. Millwood, New
York, 1979. Van Dusen, Albert E. Connecticut. New York,
1961.
Zeichner,
Oscar. Connecticut's Years of Controversy: 1750-1776. Hamden,
Connecticut, 1970.
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