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News 12 Staff

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I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. Joining me now is Republican state senator Jason Perillo. Welcome back to the show. Thanks, Mark. Always nice to have you on. Uh, so, look, we've been talking about gas prices here. We know that they're going through the roof. The governor's proposed this gas tax holiday. Give me your thoughts on that and what else can be done. Well, look, I mean, the governor proposed the gas tax holiday. And it hasn't happened and it doesn't look like it's gonna happen, you know, it's interesting the, the, the, uh, special transportation fund in Connecticut is funded by the gas tax and with the increase in gas taxes. With the increase in prices we're gonna see another $15 million in taxes come into that transportation fund. So why wouldn't you extend that gas tax holiday to folks? We're paying so much more because the taxes in Connecticut are actually pegged to the price of gasoline. So the more expensive the gas is, the more taxes are collected. So it's kind of this sort of perverse situation and the government. Should extend the gas tax holiday, and I don't know why he hasn't, right? And look, we talk about affordability. I think every time we're together, but because it hasn't changed, right? And another one of those things is, are these energy bills? I mean, and Republicans in the state have really been pushing to change this. Yeah, so there's a couple of things we do. First of all, everybody sees that public benefit charge on their bill. We need to open that up. And maybe there are some things in there that people like and that we should keep, but they fund so many different programs, and I think a lot of them really just need to go away. That's, that's a really expensive thing on people's bill that we've got to fix and that we can fix here at the state level, um, and in short order we can do it in short order. Um, when you look at long term energy savings, we really need, need more generation here in Connecticut. That's a real problem. Um, but the immediate thing that we can do and that we, we should do is to minimize and or eliminate that public benefit charge. I'd like to see it eliminated, uh, but I know that politically that's a challenge, so we have to be realistic, but we need to get rid of as much of that public benefit charge as possible, and we can do it and look. People in Connecticut are really getting taxed no matter how you look at it. Property taxes are some of the highest in the country. What's the relief there, if any? Yeah, I mean, look, you go around and you talk to people and they're talking about their property taxes. A lot of folks have seen a revaluation of their property. So there's a couple of things you can do, right? So first of all. We have education cost sharing in Connecticut where the state helps pay a percentage of um the cost of public education in each town um that's been grossly underfunded for years. If the state would put more money into that, it would help depress property taxes uh at the same time we can. Um, do tax abatements whereby, you know, if given your certain, um, income threshold we can actually lower the property taxes you pay at the local level and then the state can backfill that so the municipality doesn't lose any revenue but that individuals at the local level paying those property taxes pay less. Those are things that we can do right now also for seniors, uh, especially for seniors who've lived in their home for 5 years or longer, we can actually, uh, cap the valuation on their property. A lot of folks got socked, you know, my dad's 83. He's gonna get killed when he sees his new tax because his house went up so much in value. That's right, right? It's a catch 22, right, right. So if we could, if we could actually freeze, uh, valuations on your home, we wouldn't see those big huge shifts, um, in what you have to pay in terms of property taxes and especially for seniors. I think that really matters. But then I think what we're gonna see in a lot of towns like we're seeing in Bridgeport, maybe even Fairfield is an adjustment to the mill rate. Yeah, you know, here's the thing, you're right, the mill rate tends to go down when those values go up, right? But the mill rate is just, it's like an imaginary number. But the big thing that happens is residential property values go up, right? We saw that big time. Commercial property values either go down or don't go up as much, so the reason why people's residential property taxes go up is because there's a shift in the tax burden from commercial properties to residential properties. So even though that mill rate goes down and you'll see mayors say, Well, look, I lowered the mill rate, but still residents are paying so much more in property taxes because they're taking more of the tax burden. I'm glad you explained that for our viewers. That's very good. Uh, so vaccines have been in the news as well. Uh, where, where are we on that? Yeah, so you know, the, um, governor's approach had been to basically give all authority over, um, vaccination schedules and what vaccines were needed to one individual, the commissioner of the Department of Public Health, and to remove that from the entire regulatory review process. But regardless of your opinions on vaccines, I think most of us can agree that no one person. Should decide what those vaccine schedules are and there needs to be some degree of oversight to it which we have right now it's called a regulatory review process um and when you wanna eliminate those review processes and give all that power to one person. I, I think everybody needs to take pause on that and home schooling has come up as well. Yeah, well, and it's honestly, it's not just home schooling, it, it's anybody who chooses an alternate education for their child other than public schools. So it's homeschooling, anybody who chooses private school, Catholic school, um, and basically what the proposed legislation would do, and it's a huge overreach and it was in response to some, you know, um, problems at the Department of Children and Families, but what the bill proposed to do. Private schools and home schooling levels was equivalent to what was being taught in a public school. Now how you measure that remains to be seen. At one point I heard that parents would have to bring in portfolios of the work that their kids were doing to bring it into the local public schools. You know, the public schools don't want that. They don't have the resources for it. Quite honestly, the parents who've chosen to take their kids into another educational setting, be it private school or home schooling, they don't want that either. In fact, many cases they removed their children from the public school system because they didn't want that public school structure, uh, so you know, in many ways it's a solution in search of a problem. And I think it's it's sort of big government run amok, which happens here in Connecticut from time to time, you know that, yeah, so that, so I, I, I don't think that that's going to move forward. I don't think that's going to move forward. All right, Jason, thank you so much for the time. Thanks, Mark. Well, worried about your wallet, the US Treasury Secretary says rising costs may only be temporary.

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US Treasury Secretary and Yale grad Scott Besson, who used to live in Greenwich, says high prices are only temporary. News 12's Rich Barrabi hears more in an exclusive one on one interview. We're going to get to the other side of this. I think oil prices are going to be lower on the other side, which will mean gasoline prices will be lower. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Besson doubling down on his belief that increased oil prices due to the war in Iran won't harm the American economy over the long haul and won't last much longer, even as gas prices are up more than $1 on Long Island from this time last month. I don't think it's going to be long. Term and I think that the American people are willing to accept 50-60 days of volatility for 50 years of security. What we had before was the illusion of security, but you believe the other side of this is sooner rather than later. I believe that I'm not going to give exact timing because I don't. Know it, but that this is not going to go on for an extended period. In an exclusive interview with News 12, Secretary Besson insists that the long-term benefits of President Trump's signature tax reform law will override the short-term impacts of the war. Tax refunds are up more than 10%, that almost 50% of the tax returns that have been filed have had one of the president's 4 signature. Policies they claimed no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. They have reduced taxes for our seniors on Social Security and deductibility of auto loans for American cars, and especially the no tax on overtime. 25% of the tax returns that have been filed, people have claimed that deduction. The secretary also touts the increase of the salt cap for places like. Nassau County, you know, high value, high income, high property values that I think it's a game changer. But Democrats are pushing back on the Secretary's outlook. The minority leader of the Nassau legislature tells News 12, quote, Nassau residents aren't stupid. They feel the squeeze every time they fill up. Check out at the grocery store or pay a bill. The cost of living crisis is real, and it's being driven directly by the disastrous tariffs and global instability. The war will end. We will get to the other side of this. Prices will come back down, but the economic momentum will endure. Rich Barabbe, News 12. That's all our time. I'm Mark Suto. Thanks for watching.

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Sen. Chris Murphy and State Sen. Jason Perillo join the program this week.

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