It will require all hands on deck for our state and country to recover from the current pandemic. Throughout the crisis front line workers have answered the call to service, risking their own health and safety as well as that of their loved ones, while billionaires throughout Connecticut continue to see pandemic profits.
CEA has joined with a coalition of labor unions, including the Connecticut AFL-CIO, State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), and Connecticut Service Employee International Union State Council (CT SEIU State Council) to run a television and digital ad campaign calling for a state budget that focuses on helping working and middle class people recover from the impacts of the pandemic.
The ad campaign thanks workers for their sacrifices, pushes our state to lessen the burden on our working- and middle-class families and, finally, to tax the rich in Connecticut.
Right now in our state, the top one percent of earners make 37 times more than the bottom 99 percent of workers, making Connecticut the third most unequal state in our country, and adding urgency to the labor coalition’s message about fairness for working people.
“Tax fairness is about the future of every child in our public schools. Investing in public education provides a greater return to our economic prosperity than perpetuating an unfair tax system,” says CEA President Jeff Leake.
The 400 wealthiest Americans now pay a lower total tax rate than any other income group. The 400 wealthiest households in America pay only 23 percent of their total income in federal, state, and local taxes, compared with 70 percent in 1950 and 47 percent in 1980.
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” the ad says. “It’s up to us. We deserve a People’s Recovery.”
