April 30, 2009
The Honorable M. Jodi Rell
Governor of Connecticut
Executive Chambers
State Capitol Building
Hartford, CT 06106
Dear Governor Rell:
As you know, the ongoing budget stalemate and questions about the uses of federal stimulus funding have combined to put
towns and cities in the difficult position of putting together their budgets without really having a sense of the levels of state
and federal aid that will be forthcoming.
To help them cope with this year’s situation, CCM urges you to support:
- Early decision -- by May 15 -- on municipal aid levels for FY 09-10. CCM asks you and legislative leaders to
take the best municipal aid initiatives out of the three state budget proposals to cobble together this early, standalone
funding agreement (see enclosed analysis); and
- Special legislation to allow municipalities, notwithstanding their ordinances or charters, to amend their local
budgets and property tax rates after they have been adopted to account for (a) state aid levels that differ from
what is in adopted municipal budgets, and (b) funding that under federal law must go directly to boards of education
(otherwise, boards could get what the local budget authority provided plus a windfall of federal aid, even after other
local programs and employee positions have been cut and/or property taxes have been increased).
In these extraordinary times extraordinary policy responses are needed. We appreciate your consideration of these proposals
and your efforts at putting together a budget that makes municipal aid and property tax relief a priority.
Please contact me or Gian-Carl Casa (gcasa@ccm-ct.org, 203-804-6901) if you or your staff have any questions or would like
to discuss this further.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
James J. Finley, Jr.
Executive Director & CEO
Copies to:
The Honorable Christopher Donovan, Speaker of the House
The Honorable John McKinney, Senate Minority Leader
The Honorable Donald Williams Jr., Senate President Pro Tempore
The Honorable Lawrence Cafero, Jr., House Minority Leader
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