The Governor and legislative leaders from both sides of the aisle agree: The time has come to enact significant property tax relief.

But there is no single, silver bullet solution. Real property tax relief demands a wide-ranging, comprehensive approach. Many of the components important to property tax relief are found in legislation before the 2007 General Assembly.

Below are the key initiatives that would allow Connecticut to take a giant step towards relieving the crushing burdens of the property tax. Connecticut could phase-in many of these proposals over the next four - five years.

1. Aid to Municipalities for Education Finance
   • Phase-In of Education Cost-Sharing funding levels proposed by the Governor
   • Increased Special Education reimbursement, restoration of Special Education Equity grant
   • Funding for categorical education grants
2. Aid to Municipal General Governments
   • Restore, and fully fund at 100%, Payments-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILOT) programs
   • Restore and fund the Pequot-Mohegan grant to the pre-2003 levels ($135 million)
   • Increase funding for Town Aid Roads to at the least the pre-2003 levels ($35 million)
   • Maintain present rates of the municipal real estate conveyance tax
   • Restore other funding that would be cut in Governor’s budget
3. More Municipal Accountability
   • Enact Governor Rell’s proposal for school accountability
   • Adopt more rigorous requirements for uniform financial reporting
   • Requiring OPM to use the reports to assess the financial management of each municipality, annually
   • Create more aggressive mechanism for state financial oversight if one, or a number of triggers are exceeded
   • Increase state technical assistance to local governments
4. Encouraging Regional Cooperation, Decision-Making and More Efficient Delivery of Services
   • Encourage all Regional Planning Organizations to become Councils of Governments (COGs)
   • Provide incentive funding to COGs for joint service delivery and other regional efforts
   • Allow COGs to negotiate master contracts for regional service delivery
   • Provide capital grants to municipalities for constructing facilities for regional use (such as shared fire stations)
   • Allow COGs to share state sales tax revenue in order to support intermunicipal cooperation efforts
5. Capping Property Taxes
   • After the five-year phase-in period, adopt a temporary taxing cap (five-years) on municipalities. Cap total tax increase at the greater of 3% per year or inflation, but exempt items such as capital construction and debt service, school transportation, new mandates and court orders, special education. Allow the cap to be exceeded under the criteria recommended by the Governor. As part of this effort, enact a statutory prohibition against new unfunded state mandates.