House approves state budget that would increase cost of alcohol, plastic bags, parking and prepared meals
After nearly nine hours of often-passionate debate in an all-day marathon at the state
"We're really proud of the document that came out," House Speaker
The budget closes a projected two-year deficit of
The total tax increase in the budget is nearly
The package includes a so-called mansion tax of 2.25 percent on homes that sell for more than
In an impassioned wrap-up speech, House Republican leader
"How, in a multi-billion-dollar deficit year, can we spend more, borrow more and raise taxes?" Klarides asked on the House floor. "This is more of the same. I get angry on a regular basis here, but today I'm really sad. ... We're borrowing more, spending more, taxing more. How many years have we been doing that? And look where we are."
But House majority leader
"We have a constitutional spending cap ... that we cannot override by a vote of the legislature," Ritter told his colleagues. "Within those constraints, we found a way to invest."
The final package maintains tax exemptions for
The debate, which lasted nearly nine hours, started shortly after
Deputy House Republican leader
The budget also allocates
Candelora said the legislature should have held a public hearing on the high-profile pledge by
The bill also calls for increasing the membership of the powerful
Both
Senate Republican leader
"Out of all the years I've been here, I find this budget really to be disgusting," Fasano told reporters Monday. "There are over 60 new sections of legislative policy. That is probably the most I have ever seen. .... It's a complete disregard of the legislative process.
The reason, he said, is that the so-called implementer bills have been jammed into the 567-page document, rather than being debated separately.
"This is more than just a budget crafted in darkness. It's a slew of brand new state policies being forced on residents in one fell swoop," Fasano said. "Some of these policies had no public hearings and zero input from the families and job creators who will be most affected."
Lamont, though, hailed the budget deal, saying that it calls for saving
One of the most controversial tax increases in the budget concerns owners of limited liability companies and other pass-through entities that
While an earlier proposal for a tax of
The budget would also expand the state's 6.35 percent sales tax to include parking, dry cleaning, laundry and interior design services, but coin-operated laundries would be exempt.
The fiscal plan increases the sales tax on digital downloads, such as movies or online books, to 6.35 percent, up from the current rate of 1 percent, which would generate
A
The fee that ride-sharing companies like
Under the proposed budget, a sales tax would be imposed on electronic cigarettes at a rate of
The plan also calls for an excise tax increase of 10 percent on all beverages aside from beer sold at locations intended for off-premises consumption, such as those sold at craft breweries, which would have a tax reduction of 50 percent. In the past several years, the state has seen the breweries expand from just a handful to more than 80.
Klarides said the budget has numerous problems.
"The anti-business taxes continue with
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