HARTFORD — “Quit the whining and pay up.”
Labor groups are calling out General Electric as the corporation makes threats to leave the Nutmeg State amid the new budget which calls for higher corporate taxes.
The Working Families Party, Connecticut Citizen’s Action Group and a coalition of labor groups are planning on delivering a letter to the Connecticut Business & Industry Association at 11:30 a.m. Thursday. The CBIA acts as chief lobbyist for GE and other businesses and corporations in Connecticut.
The letter demands that GE become a contributing member of the community and pay its fair share of taxes like everyone else.
GE responded to the letter in a statement:
GE pays taxes in Connecticut and everywhere we do business. We also employ thousands of people in Connecticut, we spend billions every year with suppliers in the state and support the thousands people that they employ. We are incredibly active in the communities in which we operate and our economic and social impact in the state is very significant.
In the wake of the state budget that calls for higher taxes on corporations, GE has come under scrutiny for its tax burden and for complaining about the tax increase.
Governor Dan Malloy was quoted as saying that GE has not paid any substantial amount of corporate taxes in Connecticut.
According to the Working Families Party, GE made nearly $34 billion in profits in the U.S. from 2008 to 2013 and it received nearly $3 billion in tax refunds from the IRS.
In the wake of all of this, Indiana and other states have reached out to these big name companies like Aetna, Travelers and GE to consider moving their operations out of Connecticut.
You can read more about that here.
Gov. Malloy has not yet signed the budget bill into law but he is expected to do so but not before making some tweaks.
The CBIA President says it will take more than tweaks to come to an agreement to keep these employers here.
