Connecticut Republicans were aghast last week when they heard that their party's governor was proposing a 10 percent increase in the state's income tax.

Now, a nationally known Republican firebrand - former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey - has joined the fight against Gov. M. Jodi Rell's proposals to increase both the income tax and cigarette tax.

In an e-mail circulating among Republicans, Armey calls Rell's plan "a potentially disastrous tax hike package" that would blow through the state-mandated spending cap.

"With a current budget surplus, the idea of a new multi-billion-dollar tax hike is even more outrageous," Armey writes. "If enacted, this tax hike will drive businesses and residents out of the state to seek more tax-friendly havens. As a result, Connecticut's economy will be left in ruins, and Gov. Rell's bloated education budget will do little for the residents of Connecticut."

Armey is co-chairman of FreedomWorks in Washington, a group that opposes tax increases around the nation and has field coordinators and state directors from California to Vermont. The nonprofit group, which operates under the motto "lower taxes, less government, more freedom," says it has more than 800,000 members nationwide and 6,000 in Connecticut.

Rell's spokesman, Rich Harris, who had not heard about the e-mail campaign Thursday, noted that Armey is known to be a longtime resident of Texas.

"Does Dick Armey have a house in Connecticut?" Harris asked. "Dick doesn't live here."

When asked if Rell is concerned that she is being criticized by a nationally known Republican, Harris responded, "We don't really get all that hung up on the partisan label thing. She's not that worried about Republican vs. Republican or Republican vs. Democrat. Her focus is on doing what's right."

Armey's seven-paragraph e-mail urges readers to click on a particular section to automatically send an e-mail to Rell and legislators and "send a clear message" that they are against the proposed tax increases.

In 2003, Armey traveled to Alabama to campaign against Republican Gov. Bob Riley's proposed $1.2 billion tax increase that was designed to close a budget gap and boost spending for the public schools. Under Alabama law, the issue went to a statewide referendum, where voters voted down the proposal 68 percent to 32 percent. Like Rell, Riley had always been known as a fiscal conservative, and he never mentioned the tax increase during his campaign for governor.

"We have a bit of a history of fighting against Republican governors on tax increases," said Rob Jordan, who works with Armey at FreedomWorks. "We pretty much led the fight to stop that [in Alabama] with Chairman Armey out in front. We have to go after these guys when they're wrong."

Jordan said it is too early to tell whether Armey would come to Connecticut to hold a rally against Rell's tax plans.

During her annual budget address last week, Rell called for spending $3.4 billion over five years on education, which would be funded by a 10 percent rate increase in the state income tax over two years. The current maximum rate of 5 percent would increase to 5.5 percent over two years. The cigarette tax, currently $1.51 per pack, would increase to $2 per pack - still below Rhode Island's $2.46 per pack and New York City's $3 per pack.

No Republican legislators have publicly embraced Rell's tax proposals, and many Republicans say they have not heard any of their colleagues declare support.

"She has even nickel-and-dimed the poor with another cigarette tax increase," said House Speaker James Amann, a fiscally conservative Democrat who has fought against higher cigarette taxes in the past as being disproportionately aimed at lower-income citizens.

Two Litchfield County Republicans - Rep. Clark J. Chapin of New Milford and Rep. Craig Miner of Litchfield - said Thursday that they had not yet heard about Armey's e-mail campaign.

"I have 24,000 people in my district, and to the best of my knowledge, Dick Armey isn't one of them," said Chapin, adding that he would listen first to his own constituents.

Chapin and Miner, along with Sen. Andrew Roraback of Goshen, proposed this week that the state's voters should be asked - in a referendum that could be held as early as mid-March - if they want to repeal the cap on state spending. In 1992, 81 percent of Connecticut voters approved an amendment to the state constitution to limit spending as part of an overall compromise to enact the state income tax. Since Rell has proposed blowing through the cap with billions of dollars for education spending, the three Republicans say the voters should have the chance first to say whether they agree with that proposal.

"The only way to keep faith with the people of Connecticut is to give them a crack at answering this again," Roraback said. "Are we going to respect what the expressed will of the people has been?"