Over the next year, Gov. Ned Lamont has to help guide Connecticut’s economy out of the coronavirus pandemic and close a huge budget deficit.

Many of the governor’s fellow Democrats say these things cannot be accomplished without doing something Lamont loathes: raising state taxes on Connecticut’s wealthy.

But since Lamont also is expected to begin his campaign for a second term over the next 12 months, the governor may have no choice but to compromise with those who want reform.

“I think there has to be some movement and some creative and open-minded approach” to solving Connecticut’s economic and fiscal challenges, said Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven.

The governor and others are hopeful President-elect Joe Biden will funnel more aid to states shortly after he takes office on Jan. 20.

But with more than 180,000 residents still collecting weekly unemployment benefits, a fragile retail and hospitality sector and municipalities out hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, Connecticut can’t expect Washington to solve everything, Looney said.

The top Democratic senator and others in his caucus want to expand two key non-education grant programs to assist poor and middle-class communities.

For more than a decade, PILOT [Payment In Lieu Of Taxes] grants have reimbursed communities for less and less of the taxes they lose on tax-exempt property owned by the state, colleges and hospitals…. [Read the entire article by clicking on the link.]