Equity Agenda Offers New Vision for Connecticut

 

A strong message demanding funds for higher education and other people's needs reverberated through the State Capitol as the Equity Agenda of the Connecticut for All Coalition was unveiled on the day before the legislative session opened.

 

The 60 member coalition of labor, faith and community groups preempted Governor Lamont's State of the State address with their own State of the People, calling for easing the spending cap and raising more revenue by taxing wealth to meet peoples' needs.

Senator Gary Winfield and State Representative Jillian Gilchrest joined advocates from across Connecticut to deliver the message along with testimonies depicting daily hardships faced by working class people alongside a huge surplus, claiming Connecticut is not in good fiscal health.

New Haven Federation of Teachers president Leslie Blatteau emphasized, “Our focus is to work together to strengthen our multi- racial working class coalition across the state. We are here to present our lived experience and remind elected officials that “Two Connecticuts” is no longer acceptable.

“We have over 1,300 paraeducator vacancies across Connecticut and our higher education system is facing hundreds of millions of dollars in deficit,” said Victoria Ceylan, a Danbury Paraeducator, “As a para working since 2014, I still don’t make $18 per hour and my coworkers who have been paras for over 20 years are barely making $20/hour. Governor Lamont, are you going to let a silly thing like the fiscal guardrails prevent us from spending the billions we have in surplus on critical investments like paras and higher education?”

“Let’s remind ourselves of our joint vision of the mission of our public higher education system,” said Oskar Harmon, a UConn Economics Professor, “It is a tool to lift up entire communities, to address racial and economic disparities and to set us up for a strong and stable economy.  It is an economic engine of growth.”

In addition, the Equity Agenda would raise new revenues with a 5% surtax on capital gains, dividends and taxable interest for individuals earning $500,000 and joint filers earning $1 million or more and robustly fund public institutes of higher education to enhance instructional quality and expand affordable access to post-secondary education.

“Every Connecticut resident deserves access to an affordable college education that provides them with the skills to succeed, regardless of their income level and location,” says Connecticut for All.”