Source: Kevin Maloney, CCM

For immediate release
Kevin Maloney (203) 710-3486

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) today said that it looks forward to beginning  the budget process with the Governor and legislative leaders and today’s address provides a starting point for those discussions.  We were happy that Governors’ proposed budget acknowledged that current education aid to municipalities is insufficient to meet the needs of our students and that additional funding to address this must be a priority as negotiations move forward.  While the proposed $135 million in additional ECS funding is a start we believe that as elected leaders we can and should do more and we look forward to working with all parties to ensure that our schools and the children they teach are getting the needed funding that has been promised.  

We were pleased to hear that the Governor and legislative leaders have reached an agreement to extend the current the budget guardrails i.e. the bond cap, volatility cap and an increase to the state’s rainy day fund.  These bipartisan policies have improved the state’s fiscal situation, allowed for the state to build a rainy day fund that will allow the state to weather future economic downturns and limit the need to reduce municipal aid or increase taxes.  These policies have enable the state top make significant and needed investments to reduce current unfunded liabilities and have freed up revenue that can be used to increase education aid and providing tax relief to residents and businesses.

CCM is disappointed that there is not more in the budget to address the regressive nature of the property tax and provide municipalities with additional financial support or mandate relief that would enable towns and cities to enact meaningful reductions to the property tax.  The additional money to ECS will help our towns and cities as they work to work to avoid increasing property taxes, but does not provide the needed support to reduce property taxes.  Municipalities are facing rising costs across the board and may be burdened with additional costs imposed by unfunded mandates currently under consideration by the legislature.  Maintaining municipal aid at or close to current levels does not offset the impact of increased costs and or new unfunded mandates.  We ask the Governor and legislative leaders to continue to work with our towns and cities to implement meaningful mandate relief and/or allow for revenue diversification.  Without these needed reforms, by simply maintaining current levels of state aid to our towns and cities, simply increases the burden on the local property tax. 

CCM remains committed to working with Governor and legislative leaders to achieve solutions that will reduce our overreliance on a regressive tax structure that continues to drive the cost of housing, and hinders economic development.