By CHRIS POWELL
For the sake of argument, concede the premise of much of Connecticut state government policy — that people no longer need to be prepared financially to support their own children and that there is never any shame in thrusting that responsibility on the state.
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But even then there would be two big problems with the legislation being advanced in the General Assembly to make school lunch free for all students in all public schools and to finance it by putting a special tax of 2 cents per ounce on the sugary soda and juice drinks that kids love and that parents too often provide them.
First is the general problem with dedicated taxes. They permanently exempt the programs they finance from having to compete for funding with all other undertakings in a budget. Exemption from competition in the budget process is exemption from regular evaluation, and state government already exempts from evaluation nearly everything it does. One dedicated tax will increase demand for more.
Second is the deception with this soda and juice tax proposal particularly. It would be a wholesale sales tax, built into the price of the products before they reach retailers. Insofar as consumers noticed the tax, it would look like a price increase imposed by retailers when it was really government policy. It would resemble state government’s “public benefits” charges on electricity bills, which are hidden taxes for which people are expected to blame the electric companies, and the wholesale tax state government imposes on gasoline, which makes higher gas prices look like the responsibility of oil companies and gas stations.
Free school lunch for all students is a good idea. When some kids pay cash for their lunch and others are seen not having to pay, the poor kids may be embarrassed. Connecticut arranged free school lunches after the recent virus epidemic but they were financed by a federal government grant — free money and thus inflation money — and stopped when the grant expired.
State government could restore free school lunches any time it wanted to find the money — as by taking some out of the hundreds of millions of dollars Governor Lamont proposes to reserve for raises for unionized state employees, whose job satisfaction state government continues to consider more compelling than easing the hunger of poor children.
If the governor and the legislature want to decide that sugary soda and juice are a serious public health problem, just like tobacco, they can put a special tax on them, like the tobacco tax, let everyone know that it’s there, place the revenue in the General Fund, and budget the money normally every year rather than lock it into one particular purpose forever.
LEGISLATOR MOCKS ‘MY PEOPLE’: Maybe state Rep. Ann Hughes perfectly represents her constituents – people in Easton, Weston, and Redding. She is a Democrat serving her third term in district that, while wealthy, lately has been trending against Republicans out of disdain for Donald Trump, who simultaneously has been gaining support among working-class voters, formerly the base of the Democratic Party.
But on April 15 — Tax Day — Hughes displayed a bit of Trumpian arrogance and recklessness at the state Capitol. She was part of a press conference held by the General Assembly’s Tax Equity Caucus to urge support for increasing state spending and raising taxes.
The press conference was broadcast on the Connecticut Network and the Yankee Institute’s investigative reporter Meghan Portfolio saw Hughes joking with fellow legislators: “I always tell the governor to tax my people. They won’t even notice.”
Hughes thought it was funny but seems not to have shared the humor with her constituents in her re-election campaign last year. Even if they concur with Hughes that they are rich and oblivious, her enthusiasm for raising taxes reduces the incentive for her colleagues in the legislature to try to make state government more efficient and accountable and avoid raising taxes, and a few people in other districts might notice that and resent it.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. (CPowell@cox.net)
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Chris Powell column 