Connecticut OKs Budget, Income Tax

Connecticut’s 53-day budget impasse was broken in dramatic fashion Thursday when the House reversed itself and narrowly approved a spending plan that imposes a long-resisted state income tax.

Lawmakers applauded--and some hugged and kissed--when the measure passed the House. It was signed into law by Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., who had lobbied for the tax before the final House vote.

It was a decisive victory for Weicker, a former Republican senator who won the governorship last year running as an independent. He proposed the income tax in February to solve the state’s crushing fiscal crisis and vetoed three budgets that did not contain the tax.

“There’s a certain excitement, not over winning, but over what this portends for our state,” Weicker said. “God bless the Legislature of Connecticut, God bless our state of Connecticut.”

Connecticut had been the only state that remained without a spending plan for the budget year that began in July, and was one of 10 without an income tax.

The $7-billion budget, supported by a majority of Democrats and a small bloc of Republicans, would impose a 4.5% income tax and raise taxes and fees by $1.1 billion, but would cut the state sales tax from 8% to 6%. The income tax provides exemptions and tax credits to reduce its impact on low-income families.