Connecticut’s tax fairness debate took another leap forward recently when the Senate’s highest-ranking Democrat proposed new taxes on high-value homes and on the capital gains of the state’s highest earners.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, also said his caucus hopes to channel about $130 million in additional state aid annually into poor cities and working class suburbs.

“Municipal property taxes are as high as they are primarily because the state has not been able to raise enough revenue to provide municipal aid,” Looney added. “”We are, after all, one state, and we need to look at [taxes] on a statewide basis, and not a hyper-local basis.”

Looney wants to create a new statewide tax on residential and commercial property. The rate would be one mill — or $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value — with one big qualifier.

The first $300,000 of assessed value would be exempt. And because Connecticut assesses property at 70% of its market value, the proposed levy would target houses, commercial buildings and lots marketable at about $430,000 or more…. [Read the entire article by clicking the link.]