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10/16/2018 03:30 PMState Representative James Albis (D-99) has served as the district’s state representative since 2011. In January 2017, he was appointed deputy majority leader and chair of the Screening Committee. He also serves on the Finance, Revenue and Bonding, and Transportation Committees.
During his time in the legislature, Albis has focused on bringing money from the state to East Haven, where state money makes up about a quarter of the town budget and helps to keep property taxes stable.
“Obviously, the state budget is the number one issue and I feel like my top priority during budget negotiations is to make sure East Haven is getting its fair share of state aid,” Albis said. “I’ve helped increase our share by $2 million since I’ve been in office.”
Albis seeks to correct what he sees as an unfair tax system in the state of Connecticut.
“We have a system where if you’re living on a fixed income or you’re a middle class family, you’re paying anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of your income in state and local taxes. If you’re the wealthiest in our state, you’re paying about five percent.”
Albis proposed legislation to lower the sales tax and raise the income tax on people making more than $800,000 per year. He also supported legislation currently being phased into the tax code that will eliminate income taxes on retirement income like social security and pensions.
Albis believes that taxing the wealthy at a greater rate will help to correct the state’s revenue problem.
“I think we should look to penalize large corporations that pay their employees so little that their employees are forced to go on state assistance,” he said. “That could either generate revenue or save cost for the state.”
In particular, Albis supports proposed legislation that would target companies like Walmart and other big-box stores that would be in Connecticut regardless of the tax situation.
Ablis said that Governor Dannel Malloy’s First Five program is not an effective way of generating jobs and that offering tax incentives is “corporate welfare.”
“[Tax incentives are] not actually benefiting our residents. It’s using our residents’ hard earned money to subsidize wealthy CEOs,” Albis said. “I think we need to be creating an environment that creates businesses who want to come here.”
For Albis, this would mean investing in the work force and infrastructure, rather than offering reduced income taxes to corporations. He said that the state’s education system has made Connecticut’s work force one valuable to businesses.
“I’ve supported efforts to allow our [vocational technical] schools to be more flexible in how they teach their students so that they can develop partnerships with companies…that can’t find workers with the desired skillsets,” he said.
To improve the state’s infrastructure, Albis supports reintroducing tolls to Connecticut roads contingent on eliminating the state's existing tax on gasoline. He believes that a state E-Z pass should also be created to toll residents and commuters lower rates and out of state drivers.
“Companies want to be located in cities and we don’t have to type of cities in Connecticut that are attracting business,” Albis said.
Improving transportation with the revenue generated from toll roads is one way of make Connecticut cities more attractive.
“The land of steady habits mentality has kept us in the mindset of the mid-20th century and we’re in the 21st century now. We need to rethink the way Connecticut is structured,” he said.