Tell the Finance Committee: Repeal the Teacher Tax
Hundreds of educators from across the state in mid March submitted testimony to the Connecticut General Assembly’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee supporting repeal of an occupational tax targeting teachers. The measure would restore individual educators' contribution rates to the Teachers Retirement System (TRS), which legislative leaders last fall unilaterally hiked — without a public hearing — during state budget deliberations.
The proposal, House Bill (H.B.) 5430, is in the early stage of the legislative process to potentially become law. Once enacted, teachers would resume contributing six percent of their earnings toward their pensions — a fair share toward strengthening a valued public asset benefitting all residents.
Significantly, the additional monies levied by the tax imposed under last fall's budget package do nothing to shore up TRS assets — lawmakers diverted the resources to pay for unrelated expenditures. That's why Connecticut State Treasurer Denise Nappier also opposed the misguided scheme — and warned it actually threatens the stability of the pensions' future funding.
The legislature's tax panel needs to hear that it's time to repeal an unjust occupational tax that only siphons resources away from hardworking, middle-class families.
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