What we’re working on
Four places to start.
Connecticut is one of the most expensive states in the country to live in. Housing, food, energy, transportation, health insurance, child care — the cost of nearly all of it has close to doubled over the last fifteen years, while household income has not kept pace with inflation.
Fixing these problems requires will, and being steadfast against entrenched interests. Build the Future works to elect people who are ready for these fights.
Electricity you can afford
Connecticut households pay some of the highest electric rates in the country. Public power is cheaper everywhere it exists — families served by publicly owned utilities pay 30 to 40 percent less than customers stuck with an investor-owned monopoly. Six Connecticut towns already run their own, and Nebraska runs an entire state on it. This is not a radical idea. It is what we should build toward.
Housing within reach
Housing costs are dramatically outpacing incomes. Connecticut is short of homes people can afford, and tenants lack basic protections. Teachers, nurses, and tradespeople increasingly can't live in the towns where they work.
Schools funded like they matter
Connecticut is among the best states in the country for public education and among the worst for racial equality within it. School funding leans so heavily on local property taxes that a town's wealth decides the quality of its schools. Every child in every zip code deserves the same shot.
A tax code that isn’t upside down
The wealthiest 4,500 people in Connecticut pay under 8% of their income in state and local taxes. Everyone else pays close to three times that. For decades the state has deprived municipalities of what they need, and towns have covered the difference with property taxes — a wealth tax on the middle class that the wealthy barely feel.
Who pays what
The wealthiest 4,500 people in Connecticut pay a smaller share of their income than the rest of us do.
Share of income paid in combined state and local taxes — nearly three times the rate. Connecticut's top earners take home more than 37 times what the bottom 99% do. The state's own tax incidence report, which the Department of Revenue Services is required by statute to produce, finds the system regressive overall, with the property tax the most regressive piece of it.
Where this goes
None of these fixes pass without the votes.
Every fight above comes down to who is in the building. Build the Future works to elect the people who will pass these, and to help more people get in the room in the first place.