State Rep. Elliott: Tax burden is backwards.
Josh Elliott is ready to run for governor to challenge the current governor’s take on taxing the rich — but only if the current governor isn’t on the ballot.
Elliott, a Hamden state representative running unopposed for a fifth two-year term, laid out that plan during an interview Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Elliott is among the Democrats putting out feelers about a potential 2026 gubernatorial run. Others include State Comptroller Sean Scanlon, Attorney General William Tong, Lt. Gov.
Susan Bysiewicz, and former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.
If he does pursue the candidacy, Elliott said, he would center it on an issue he has promoted at the Capitol for years: Increasing marginal taxes on the very wealthy so that they no longer pay three to four times less (percentage-wise) than hospital workers and teachers and other working- and middle-class earners.
Incumbent Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, who was born into extreme wealth and lives in Greenwich, has stymied any serious legislative consideration of that idea, which he characterizes as punishing success.
Despite that core difference, Elliott said, he would run in 2026 only if Lamont chooses not to pursue a third term.
“There’s nobody in the party who would” challenge Lamont in a primary, Elliott said. Lamont has regularly ranked among the most popular governors in the nation, in part because of Connecticut’s improving fiscal condition and (perhaps) his refusal to consider raising taxes. “That would be not just a losing battle, but I think you would be perceived as a fairly unserious person.
“I have had a lot of conversations with people who may disagree with him on policy, but really like him as a person. And I think people really want steady, moderate hands, especially when you have Trump running for president.”
That said, Elliott said he would run full steam on the “equitable taxation” platform if Lamont retires.
He and like-minded Democrats have been pushing to increase Connecticut’s top 6.99 percent rate to 7.5 percent on marginal income above a certain threshold, say, $1 million per households. Specific proposals vary; given Lamont’s refusal to consider the idea, other “equitable taxation” advocates like New Haven State Sen. President Martin Looney have proposed alternative proposals like a “mansion tax.”
Elliott pointed to state government studies showing that the average working- to middle-class household pays between three to four times the percentage of its annual income in state and local taxes than top earners do. He argues that Connecticut should join some neighboring states in adding the top 7.5 percent rate on top income to raise needed money to address pressing needs.
Opponents argue that that would drive top earners to leave Connecticut — and that some financial-industry titans in Fairfield County earn so much money that losing even one of them to, say, Florida, could blow a six-figure dent in the state budget. Studies have been mixed on whether higher taxes on the wealthy would lead to a costly net outmigration. Elliott cited these reports to rebut the idea.
“That idea that we have the 15 richest people, if any one of them leave it, it blows like a $300 million hole in our budge — we’re essentially running democracy based on the whim and will of the [wealthy]. It’s not true that nobody would move in. As a rule, you make more money” on balance with the higher rate, Elliott argued.
Before he makes a decision about 2026, Elliott is helping colleagues in other districts run for the state legislature this year, while reminding his voters to turn out for him as well. If reelected, he said he plans to continue building support in Hartford for a policy change through a Tax Equity Caucus he helped organize.
Click on the video below to watch the full discussion with Joshua Elliott, along with Hamden City Clerk Karimah Mickens, about election issues on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” (Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”)