The new ad out today sets Connecticut’s budget drama in an action movie trailer. The ad sets the stage by opening “In a state where some legislators side with corporate lobbyists to protect billionaires and corporations while attacking middle class workers.” The ad awaits the “heroes” who will “rise to rebuild the middle class and have the courage to stand up to the wealthy and the powerful” but much like Hartford the trailer ends without a hero showing up. The ad concludes “Connecticut, the movie. Now casting for heroes.”
Themis Klarides and Len Fasano have clearly defined themselves as the protectors of billionaires and corporations. Their budget solutions revolve around pain for working class people. Meanwhile they defend and protect billionaires and corporations at every turn and refuse to ask them to pay a penny more. The working class people of this state are waiting for someone to stand up and ask the same of billionaires and corporations that they do of everyone else.
KEY FACTS:
* In the five years after the financial crisis, the incomes of the top 1 percent in Connecticut grew 17 percent, while the incomes of everyone else dropped about 2 percent
*$535 million in revenue could be generated by closing the carried interest loophole
*Another $500 million in revenue could be generated by raising taxes on the wealthy and increasing the capital gains tax.
*According to CNBC Connecticut ranks second in the nation in the percentage of millionaires in its population.
*Connecticut relies less on business taxes for overall revenue than any other state in the nation.
*Connecticut has 17 billionaires in the state. An increase of more than 50% since 2010.
*The top 1 percent of the population of Fairfield County earn more than $6 million, ranking Fairfield County as the third wealthiest among the nation’s more than 3,000 counties.
*Connecticut is one of the slowest states to recover from the recession. Recent EPI study shows that the culprit for slow recovery is government austerity spending.
Watch the ad below:
