The Connecticut Business & Industry Association would like to see more support for small businesses folded into Gov. Ned Lamont’s recently released $336 million tax cut proposal.
In a statement, the business lobbying group offered some praise for the plan’s broader focus on affordability but said the package ultimately “fell short” in certain key areas, including helping small businesses rebuild their workforces after a tumultuous two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While it is always great to be discussing tax cuts instead of tax hikes, this proposal represents just a part of the solution for ensuring a robust economic recovery,” said CBIA President and CEO Chris DiPentima. “Too many of Connecticut’s small businesses — critical to our recovery prospects — are struggling and desperately need support to address the labor shortage, inflation, pending tax increases to repay monies borrowed to keep the unemployment fund solvent and numerous other challenges.”
Lamont’s tax plan, released last Wednesday, would lower the cap on motor vehicle property taxes, expand eligibility for the state’s property tax credit and speed up an already approved plan to phase out income taxes on pension and annuity income for individuals receiving less than $75,000 per year and couples receiving less than $100,000.
The plan also proposes expanding an existing tax credit for companies that help their employees repay their student loans.
But as the CBIA pointed out, few small businesses would qualify for that program.
The CBIA last month released its own list of policy focus areas for the upcoming 2022 legislative session.
Among the group’s goals is a repeal of the corporate tax surcharge, use of pandemic relief funding to decrease the state unemployment fund’s $1 billion debt and sales and use tax exemptions for workforce training programs.
It is also asking legislators to expand the state’s manufacturing apprenticeship tax credit program to include small and midsize manufacturers, and to step up workforce development efforts for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated residents.
