On Tax Day, workers, students, small business owners, and union members gathered outside the Capitol with a simple message: The system isn’t working, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
As part of a Connecticut For All coalition action, which CSEA is a proud member of, more than 1,500 postcards were delivered to Governor Lamont calling for a fairer tax system .
The event brought together people across industries to highlight the upside down logic of working people paying their share, while the wealthiest continue to benefit from a system tilted in their favor, subsidizing their wealth gains.

Speakers included Alicia Hernandez Strong, a 4th grade teacher from New Britain who doesn’t mind paying taxes, but is frustrated with a system where there’s not enough money for schools, but enough money to keep taxes low for the ultra wealthy; Lauren Anderson, a small business owner struggling to compete with a rigged system; Amir, a working class Southern CT State University student who has seen the impact of rising prices and low wages first hand; and Seth Freeman, SEIU The 4Cs president and coalition leader calling on Governor Lamont and lawmakers to pass the Stand Up for CT Agenda and tax the ultra wealthy to fund Connecticut. 
 

At the same time, a new report shows that Connecticut’s 17 billionaires increased their wealth by $24.7 billion—a 34% jump. Speakers also emphasized that Connecticut has one of the more regressive tax systems in New England. Maine passed a millionaires tax last week, and Rhode Island is expected to pass one this year. Massachusetts has had a millionaires tax in effect since 2024.
 

That contrast is hard to ignore.
 

As one speaker put it, the issue isn’t whether Connecticut can afford to invest in its people—it’s whether leaders are willing to make that choice.
 

Because right now, the system is working exactly as designed. The question is who it’s designed to work for.