Connecticut needs to employ the same ingenuity, creativity and leadership that in the past vaulted us into the first ranks of the world economy and American public policy.

Connecticut has a rare opportunity to enact significant public policy initiatives that will, at long last, provide relief from soaring property taxes now and in the future. Confronting the property tax crisis head-on is necessary to sustain our much cherished quality-of-life and ensure that Connecticut succeeds economically.

In 2007 the Governor and the General Assembly took the first steps on the road towards securing Connecticut’s prosperity. Funding for education – the key to property tax relief and a skilled workforce – was increased by the largest amount in a decade, and the State’s share of total state-local education costs rose to 44%. Important new laws for “smart” or “responsible” growth were enacted to set the stage for better regional coordination and economic development. The State increased investment in transportation and clean water.

These building blocks present a solid foundation for farther-reaching change. In 2008 the State can reach goals that were not achieved last year.

Local officials recognize the difficult tasks faced by the Governor and the General Assembly in changing the way business is done in the “Land of Steady Habits.” But incremental progress, while helpful, is not getting the job done. Property taxes continue to rise as the local costs of service needs far outpace grand list growth. Municipalities are pressured to allow development that many citizens do not want and that is not in the best long-term interest of Connecticut -- but it is the only alternative to higher property taxes.

Municipalities and the State are partners in governing Connecticut. Enacting initiatives to provide relief from property taxes benefit both levels of government and the residents and businesses that support them. Let’s build a better Connecticut for the people who live here and the businesses that work here.

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF

• Make permanent the existing rates of the local real estate conveyance tax. The rates enacted in 2003 provide at least $40 million in non-property tax revenue. Unless made permanent, that revenue will disappear on June 30, 2008, and will have to be made up with higher property taxes and cutbacks in local services.
• Increase funding for K-12 local public education. Build on the increases made last year to greatly increase the State share of education (ECS, Special Education, categorical and other grants). Education costs are responsible, on average, for as much as 66.8% of municipal budgets.
• Increase funding for general government grants to municipalities. Some grants, such as the Pequot-Mohegan grant and Town Aid Roads, have never fully recovered from the massive mid-year cuts in 2003. Funding should be returned to at least pre-2003 levels, adjusted for inflation.
• Increase state investment in the Local Bridge Program, and restructure the program to make it more attractive to municipalities, and thus more effective. The recent bridge collapse in Minnesota has underscored the need to increase the focus on this long-neglected program. It has received just $5 million in new state funding since 1990. Local officials report that the program as presently designed is financially and administratively burdensome, resulting in towns seeking funding from private market or projects stalling.
• Increase funding to fully reimburse municipalities for state-mandated property tax exemptions, such as the payments-in-lieu-of-taxes programs for colleges and hospitals, state property, low- and moderate- income housing, and other exemptions.
• Enact a statutory prohibition against new unfunded and underfunded state mandates. Last session over 30 new unfunded mandates were passed that added to the administrative and fiscal burdens of towns and cities – and local property taxpayers dodged the bullet on many more. Driving up local costs with state mandates just means putting property taxpayers and the State on the hook to find more local revenue.

STRONGER REGIONS - More Efficient Service Delivery, Better Planning

• Increase staffing and other resources to the new state Office of Responsible Growth so that it can fulfill its mission to (1) provide needed technical and financial assistance to towns and cities and regions, and (2) facilitate smarter land use decision-making in our state.
• Create incentives for the voluntary establishment of newly empowered councils of government (COGs) in each of the 15 planning regions so that municipal CEOs in each region meet, on a regular basis, to discuss and act on issues of mutual concern – including economic development, land-use planning and joint service delivery.
• Enable such COGs to (a) share the property tax benefits of economic development in order to encourage cooperation and responsible growth, (b) share a portion of state sales tax and other revenues collected within a region, and (c) exercise other powers that encourage intermunicipal cooperation, decision-making and regional success.
• Create a state incentive program to help pay for one-time capital expenditures for equipment for joint municipal undertakings.
• Authorize COGs to (a) bond for capital projects that would benefit the entire region, (b) work jointly on planning and zoning issues, and to make regional land-use decisions, and (c) negotiate master contracts for the teachers and municipal employees within the regions with local approval.

ADDITIONAL 2008 STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA ITEMS
(by likely committee of cognizance)

CHILDREN

1. Reduce violence, substance abuse and other anti-social behavior in youths by increasing funding for: (a) after school programs - encourage municipal officials to work with community organizations for maximum impact; and (b) summer and year-round jobs and youth development initiatives - allow municipalities to allocate additional funds for administrative costs for supervisory, safety and program-evaluation purposes.
2. Expand school-based health clinics (SBHCs) through infrastructure development and operational funding. In addition to providing much-needed health services (including prevention programs), SBHCs work to reduce bullying, obesity and other youth-oriented problems.
3. Amend the state’s youth employment age threshold to match that of the federal government’s, which would allow (a) 14- and 15-year-olds to work in most job settings and (b) 16- and 17-year-olds to work in any job setting that hasn’t been declared hazardous by the US Secretary of Labor.

EDUCATION

1. Support implementing the remainder of the recommendations of the Governor’s Task Force on Education Funding. Specifically, a. Provide, and commit to, a clear timetable for uncapping the ECS grant for all municipalities, and b. Reduce the special education excess cost threshold from 4 times to 3 times the average per-pupil expentiture.
2. Revise PA 07-66, which requires school suspensions to be held in school: a. Allow municipalities to establish a suspension policy that best meets the needs and abilities of the individual school district, and b. Require the state Department of Education to develop best practices regarding in-school vs. out-of-school suspensions.
3. Require the State to be fully responsible for all expenses incurred by a school district for special education services provided to children who are wards of the State and residing within that district.

ENVIRONMENT

1. Help municipalities meet the clean water needs of Connecticut by:
   1. Extending the amortization of loans for sewer separation projects from 25 to 30 years. The work done on this type of project lasts much longer than 25 years (that is not true for most other projects);
   2. Allowing the life of long-term consent degrees to be extended beyond the present 15 years to a maximum of 25 years, if justified. At present, DEP and municipalities enter into such agreements to ensure that work is done so that environmental standards and goals are met. Extending the deadlines for such agreements would better match the ability of the State and localities to pay for the work; and,
   3. Continue to provide needed funding to the Clean Water Fund for grants and loans to municipalities that are ready to proceed with Clean Water projects. Use state surplus funds to reduce the need for general obligation bonding.
2. Create state regulation of solid waste disposal rates of privately owned trash-to-energy facilities. Over the next few years, ownership of most resources recovery plants could transfer to private companies. Rate regulation is the only way to protect property taxpayers from exorbitant tip fees while ensuring that the plants are profitable.

FINANCE, REVENUE & BONDING

1. Either (1) repeal C.G.S. § 12-80a, which allows the State to assess the personal property of telecommunications companies, or (2) treat such personal property in a manner similar to all other business personal property by:
   1. Providing municipalities the information they need to plan for fluctuations in this PILOT payment by requiring telecommunications companies to report their inventory of personal property to local governments by October 1st of each year;
   2. Allowing municipalities to audit the personal property declarations sent to the State by telecommunications companies, and
   3. Establishing a minimum residual depreciation value of 20% for such personal property.
2. Commit to re-building Connecticut by increasing infrastructure investment in areas such as the Town Aid Road grant, Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP), Local Capital Improvement Program (LoCIP), Urban Action Program, Clean Water Fund, and School Construction.
3. Support property tax relief for elderly homeowners by:
   1. Expanding the number of residents eligible for the Elderly/Disabled Circuit Breaker program by increasing (1) the amount of credits allowed [the amount of credits has not been increased since 1993], and (2) the program’s income eligibility thresholds (from the current $28,800 for single persons and $35,300 for married persons) [currently, the income thresholds increase with an annual cost of living adjustment -- this recommendation is for an increase above-and-beyond the cost of living adjustment].
   2. Fully funding the Elderly Circuit Breaker reimbursement to towns and cities.
   3. Studying the impact on municipalities that adopt optional property tax freezes for seniors, and evaluating methods by which the State can help municipalities pay for this tax relief.
4. Establish a task force of local and state officials to examine various funding issues and fiscal impacts of GASB requirements concerning Other Post-Employment Benefits on local and state government.

GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION & ELECTIONS

1. Make changes to the laws concerning prequalification of bidders on municipal projects to make the process more cost effective for municipalities: (i) provide for a penalty for bids and prequalification documentation that are not in the same sealed envelope. Presently, they are discarded, which may result in the town having to consider only more expensive bids, and (ii) provide that projects with bids under the threshold for prequalification rules ($500,000) need not comply with those rules even if the municipality's estimate of the cost is above the threshold.

HUMAN SERVICES

1. Increase the availability of community-based prevention services by allocating 25% of state tobacco settlement funds to municipalities for public health and social service-related initiatives.

INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE

1. Eliminate all legal and regulatory impediments to municipalities voluntarily joining with one another to purchase health insurance for their employees either through pooling or other methods.

JUDICIARY

1. Provide the same protections from liability for use of recreational land to municipalities that are currently provided to the state and private landowners.
2. Amend CGS Section 47a-42 to (a) exempt trailers, boats, and motor vehicles, including four-wheelers and ski-mobiles whether licensed or not, from items belonging to evicted persons that must be removed and stored by municipalities and (b) authorize municipalities to place a lien on the real property from which items have been removed.

LABOR AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

1. Amend the State’s prevailing wage rate law [CGS 31-53(g)] by increasing, to $1 million, the thresholds for both new and renovation construction projects, and index the thresholds thereafter. The prevailing wage thresholds that trigger the mandate have not been adjusted in Connecticut since 1991. Prior to 1991, state legislators adjusted these thresholds on a six-year schedule.
2. Amend 07-473c to allow municipal representation on the Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration by providing CCM the ability to recommend to the Labor Commissioner two appointees for permanent and alternate management member positions.
3. Amend the municipal employee collective bargaining statutes to clarify the statutory definition of "department head" for purposes of excluding such personnel from collective bargaining. Specifically, (a) amend section 7-467(4) so that the definition of a department head includes an employee who heads any department in a municipal organization, has substantial supervisory control of a permanent nature over the municipal employees, and is accountable to the board of selectmen of a town, city or borough not having a charter or special act form of government or to the chief executive officer of any other town, city or borough directly or through a superior within the municipal organization, and (b) amend section 7-467(5) to delete “major” and define “department” as “any functional division in a municipal organization which shall include identified departments and divisions within a department, notwithstanding the provisions of any charter or special act to the contrary.”

PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT

1. Add more reason and clarity to the state’s affordable housing laws by: (a) increasing state financial assistance for construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing, especially for municipalities which have complied with CGS 8-30g, the affordable housing land use appeals procedure. Incentives should be provided to muncipalites under the 10% threshold to assist them in increasing their inventory of affordable housing; (b) restoring DECD housing PILOT and tax abatement funds ($3.9 million); (c) amending PA 07-04 (Special Session) -- which provides incentives to municipalities to allow higher density housing -- to reimburse municipalities for education and water and sewer-related expenses incurred by permitting such housing, (d) allowing mobile homes and accessory apartments to be included as affordable housing under CGS 8-30g, and (e) prohibiting the development of housing on environmentally sensitive land, under CGS 8-30g .
2. Amend procedures regarding state designation of historic districts to (1) require that the State notify municipalities when applications are made and (2) require that hearings regarding such proposed districts be held in the community requesting the designation.
3. Curb blight and encourage economic development by establishing a task force to examine the issue of alternative building codes for rehabilitative purposes.
4. Amend CGS 7-148gg (municipal liens) to ensure that municipalities do not have to conduct additional title searches when issuing a notice of violation on a property.

PUBLIC SAFETY

1. Ensure local governments’ ability to prepare for and respond to man-made and natural disasters by requiring a stronger, permanent state commitment to fund all aspects of local emergency management and homeland security. Local first responders need appropriate state funding, in lieu of shrinking federal dollars, to (a) enhance statewide interoperable communication systems, (b) nurture regional collaboration of emergency management planning and response, and (c) improve the infrastructures and operations of Connecticut’s regional fire schools.
2. Amend statutory requirements and procure adequate state funds to municipalities for the direct costs associated with Public Act 07-04, which mandates local police departments treat 16 and 17 year-olds as juveniles (effective 2010). This new unfunded state mandate will result in added costs to local governments for new facilities, training, operational and investigative requirements.
3. Establish a pilot program on Route 44 (Avon Mountain) for automated speed and traffic-signal enforcement. Current law in Connecticut does not enable law enforcement officials to effectively use such technology to apprehend red light violators and ultimately make roadways safer.
4. Allow municipal police departments to conduct criminal background checks on seasonal and volunteer municipal employees, with written consent from the applicant.

TRANSPORTATION

1. Improve Connecticut’s infrastructure by expanding mass transportation systems, including (1) funding to municipalities for elderly and disabled transportation services and (2) rural transit and commuter bus funding.
2. Require the State to reimburse municipalities for costs associated with municipal emergency responses on limited access highways.
3. Enable municipalities to collect disturbed-roadway excavation-permit fees that include damages to roadways that were recently paved, surfaced or reconstructed.
4. Require that vehicle identification numbers (VINs) are included on assessment information that the State sends to municipalities for tax purposes and on information provided at the time of sale of a vehicle. This will enable municipalities to more easily track property tax scofflaws who change names, etc.

VETERANS’ AFFAIRS

1. Provide increased program assistance to curb homelessness among veterans.