Municipal Mission
Simsbury Town Hall
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 1/23/12
Every year, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), representing cities and towns, outlines its priority issues that the group hopes lawmakers will consider in the new legislative session. Over time, the list of “wants” has earned CCM the nickname “Conference of Crying Mayors”. That verbal abuse never deterred city and town officials from making their requests anyway.
This year, local officials are counting on Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy and the Democrat-controlled legislature to keep their promises about a “do no harm” stance on state aid, basically agreeing not to cut existing levels of state aid. That’s priority #1 because municipalities are planning their annual budgets right now, and can’t afford to have lawmakers make cuts as the legislative session wears on.
Next on the list, municipalities want to be a big part of the discussion when lawmakers tackle education reform, Malloy’s desired special focus for the 2012 session. While state finances remain tight (Republicans would say shaky), CCM contends the state must correct what it views as persistent underfunding of education programs.
“You can’t do education reform on the cheap,” said CCM CEO Jim Finley. “A key element of education reform is to reduce the reliance on property taxes to fund K-12 education,” he said. “You can only do that if the state spends considerably more money than they’re spending now on public education.”
Some players in the education debate want the state to shift school dollars from more affluent towns to urban and other troubled school districts badly in need of added support. This is where the rubber meets the road, because a community branded “rich town” by some observers will argue it cannot afford to lose state funds.
“There’s been discussion about repurposing some of the education money toward the neediest school districts,” Finley acknowledged. “We (CCM) don’t support a rob Peter to pay Paul type approach.”
Education funding is all wrapped up in ECS (education cost-sharing), the formula used to dole out state school aid to cities and towns. It remains unclear if lawmakers will tackle a full-blown reconstruction of that formula in 2012 with its three-month legislative session that also happens be a legislative election year. School aid give-and-take surely has the potential to be a battle royal.
Finley was diplomatic in framing this challenge. “I think it’s going to be difficult in a short session (to change ECS) particularly with (lawmakers) running for reelection in November, and the time constraints in a short session to really do the entire job,” he said. “I think we’ll start that process, but I don’t think we’ll finish it.”
Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman, president of CCM, said municipalities want the Malloy administration and legislature to “hold us harmless”, that is make no changes in state aid to cities and towns, so communities can count on what they have now in their budget plans.
As part of education reform, CCM would like the state to assume a greater role in paying for special education and assuring balance, because towns that do a good job on special ed find families seeking a way to get their “special needs” kids into those school systems. “Special ed students are the entire state’s responsibility,” Finley argued, “and the cost should not be unfairly pushed on local school districts.”
Job growth and business expansion to improve the local grand list are also desired by cities and towns, and CCM wants the state to do more in streamlining its regulatory process, by removing hurdles to company expansion or location in any given city or town. This reform was on Malloy’s list from day one of his administration, but has it been achieved?
“In talking to some of the (state) commissioners, they’re working on it—but we haven’t seen the results yet,” Finley said. He suggested the state adopt a speed up mechanism used by many towns.
“If you go for a zone change at the local level, if (the town) doesn’t act within 90 days, (the change) is deemed to be approved,” he explained. “We think that same burden should be on the state,” he said. “Put a reasonable time limit in there and say if the state doesn’t act—then you’re permit is approved.”
Glassman said one option to curb state government delay would be designating one key employee in each state agency to be “an ombudsman” who would work with cities and towns on projects important to them, so permits, approvals, or other state actions necessary to advance a project won’t get lost in the bureaucratic abyss.
CCM also continues its push to allow cities and towns more leeway in raising revenues, instead of relying solely on the local property tax and whatever the state doles out. This time around, they will push for a land value tax, and a $10 surcharge on registered motor vehicles for local infrastructure needs. CCM also backs communities seeking state approval of so-called “red light cameras”. Remote cameras would record motorists who breeze through red lights and hit them with tickets. Touted as a safety measure, this move would also be a revenue raiser for municipalities that use the technology.
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