ATTACHED PDF  is the slideshow that the Coalition to End Child Poverty in CT used for presentations around the state produced in 2005.  Researched and created by Art Perlo.

While the legislation drafted for a 2 % tax on incomes above 200,000 was not passed, the legislature did establish a Child Poverty Council with the mandate to 
present policies to the Legislature that would cut child poverty in half in ten years. When the ten years expired (2015), Connecticut still had significant child poverty but the Child Poverty Council was lapsed.

After 2005 child poverty overall decreased slightly in CT but beginning in 2008 it increased and by 2015 it had reached 15 % (it was 12 % in 2005).
In 2016 child poverty in CT declined to 13 %.  For Black children For Black children child poverty was 34% (!!) in 2012 and declined to 23% (!!) in 2016. 
Unacceptable, even more so in the richest state.

The slideshow breaks down by race, union and other factors.
It would be possible to update this for today if there is a similar campaign.

The Coalition was centered in the CT AFT when George Springer was president.
The co-chairs were George Springer, Joelle Fishman and Luz Santana who represented Vecinos Unidos from Hartford.  It formed in 2000 and had a wide and impressive array of 40  labor, community, faith based and economic rights organizations.

In 2001 the coalition introduced legislation for a 2% tax on the portion of income above $200,000 to establish an End Child Poverty Social Investment Fund.  It was co-sponsored by 25 legislators.

The refusal to tax the rich was approached by placing the results of that up front -- child poverty.  The 2% on the portion of income over $200,000 was arrived at based on the fact that a two income skilled worker family's income would be under $200,000.  The proposal unified everyone versus the very richest.  This was well before the Occupy movement that popularized the 1% v 99%.

The underlying racism of those who did not support because it is "not a problem in my town" (ie just about Black children in urban areas) was approached by showing that a much higher percentage of Black children are hurt, but in fact the largest number of children hurt by poverty throughout the state are white. There are children living in poverty in every town in Connecticut.

The campaign broke through a lot of barriers. It is a forerunner to the national Child Poverty Tax Credit developed by Rep Rosa DeLauro and enacted in 2021.

The groups who signed on to the Coalition to End Child Poverty in Connecticut:
A.Philip Randolph Institute; American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Council 4; Black Parent Teacher Organization; Capitol Region Conference of Churches; Caucus of Concerned Democrats; Centro San Jose; City of New Haven Peace Commission; Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; Coalition for People; CT AFL-CIO; CT Alliance for Basic Human Needs; CT Call to Action; CT Citizens Action Group; CT Communist Party; CT Federation of Educational and Professional Employees; CT Green Party; CT Interfaith Budget Watch; Democracy Works; Fair Haven Housing Initiative; Families F.I.R.S.T.; Greater New Haven Labor Council; Hartford Federation of Teachers; Interfaith Cooperative Ministries; Junta for Progressive Action; Mothers for Justice; New Growth Outreach Ministries; New Haven Federation of Teachers Retiree Chapter, 933-R; New Haven Peace Council; New Haven People’s Center; Student Health OUTreach of New Haven; Yale; Survivin’ N Da Hood; Top Ten Karate Studio; Trinity College Womens Center; UCONN Organization of Black Social Work Students; Vecinos Unidos; Western CT Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Hartford ~ List in Formation

Produced by Art Perlo about the historic 1984 Local 34 Unite Here union recognition strike. Narrators Art Perlo and Pamela Mouzon  Photos Joe Taylor