A STATEWIDE PROPERTY TAX?

Are Connecticut's already overburdened taxpayers prepared
for a statewide property tax? Not really. But that is the ruse State Sen.
Joe Markley R-Southington says Gov. Dannel -
don't call me Dan - Malloy and General Assembly Democrats may use to
"sell" tax hikes to Connecticut residents.

With Connecticut facing at least a $3.5B debt for the next budget
cycle - some say it's more like $5B - tax hikes are a certainty with
Democrats in control of the Assembly and the governor's seat for the first
time in 20 years.

Sen. Markley is back in the legislature for the first time in nearly two decades.
He was the senator in 1991, who led the charge against the state income
tax supported by Gov. Lowell Weicker and his budget chief William Cibes -
who now collects an annual salary of $112,000, as the State University Chair
Emeritus." Sen. Markley cringes, when he hears Gov. Malloy's repeated phrase, "shared
sacrifice." He, like many others, interprets this to mean tax hikes. As well
he should. Dannel 88 has made no secret tax hikes will be part of his
budget address Feb. 16, even though he hasn't directly said so.

On my radio show, Sen. Markley said, "I've heard some talk that the governor
and Democrats will suggest a statewide property tax - as a means to help
relieve the debt - figuring the public outcry will be so great, that Democrats
will abandon the idea." That, Senator Markley suggests, will pave the way
for an increase in taxes and an elimination of certain tax exemptions as
"acceptable" alternatives.

That is why the special elections scheduled for Feb. 22, to fill nine vacant
seats in the Assembly, three in the Senate and six in the House, are so
important, Sen. Markley stated.

"If Republicans can win these three senate elections, that would give us 16
seats in the 36 seat Senate," he said. "If we could convince fiscally responsible
senators like Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, Paul Doyle, D-Newington and Joe Crisco,
D-Ansonia to side with Republicans, we could stop at least some of these tax hikes,"
Sen. Markley said.

Sen. Markley agreed with Senate Minority Leader John McKinney R-Fairfield, the
legislature can present a spending plan that reduces expenditures without raising taxes.

And that should be the GOP stance throughout this session. Oppose! Oppose!
Oppose! The Democrats, from Dannel 88, to his fellow-party members in the Assembly,
do not need one Republican vote to implement their tax-and-spend agenda, other than to
validate their liberal doctrine. They control all the
levers of power. Therefore, it is paramount the Republicans oppose everything
offered by Democrats, that represents tax and spending hikes. No "reaching across
the aisle," as suggested by some on the GOP "side," is necessary.

Every tax hike needs to be loudly opposed and the possible Democrat ruse of a
statewide-property tax exposed for what it really is,
a disguise to implement other tax hikes to cover the budgetary sins of previous
Democrat-dominated legislatures.