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OPINION: Governor’s Budget Relies on Municipalities and Taxpayers to Fix the State’s Fiscal Woes

Posted on February 10, 2017

The governor presented his budget proposal for the next biennium Wednesday, February 8, in a joint session of the House and Senate. Governor Malloy’s budget proposal aims to close a $1.7 billion projected deficit next year by relying on nearly $200 million in new fees and taxes. His proposal relies on municipalities and taxpayers to assume the state’s budgetary responsibilities. It is another tax increase – just in a different form. Essentially, we are once again bailing out the state for its mismanagement of funds.

A main concern I have with the governor’s proposed budget is that it aims to cut funding to smaller municipalities that work diligently to carefully balance their checkbooks, and instead provides aid to larger cities that have mismanaged and spent their funds irresponsibly. His proposal shifts approximately $300 million from 130 towns, including North Branford, Guilford, Wallingford and Durham, and increases $300 million of aid to 30 cities and towns.

The governor aims to make a total cut of $1.3 billion, but municipalities will pay $400 million of that amount, and $700 million in revenue is slated to come from union concessions. His proposal includes an array of miscellaneous fees and penalties that would raise $56 million more in Fiscal Year ‘18 and $96 million in Fiscal Year ‘18-‘19. These fees and penalties include: gun permits, criminal history record checks,  record filing, cremation services, urgent care center licensing, boosting the carbonated bottle deposits (increases from 5 cents to 10 cents), and civil fines for health care facilities.  I am most concerned about increasing a $70 gun permit fee to $300.  I believe this cost increase is an infringement on our constitutional right to bear arms given the cost prohibitive fee. I only await the day that this governor will assess a fee to vote!

If that’s not bad enough, the governor’s proposal makes municipalities responsible for approximately one third of the cost of municipal school teachers’ pensions, which was always previously fully funded by the state – again shifting the state’s burden on to our citizens. It is likely that this additional expense on municipalities will lead to an increase in property taxes. In addition, the governor takes another hit to the middle class by proposing to eliminate the $200 tax credit for property owners, which over 1 million homeowners in the state currently take advantage of.

Education funding is not off limits either, including special education services, which are both slashed in the governor’s proposal. The Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant, the state’s largest program for local school aid, would be revised to provide greater funding to low-income communities and cut funding in more affluent ones – essentially picking winners and losers.

The governor’s solution to fixing our fiscal crisis…passing the buck on to municipalities, taxpayers and future generations.

Simply put, this budget spends more (0.8% in Fiscal Year 2018) and is another tax increase. The governor’s budget completely ignores the state of our economy and I hope our legislators reject this proposal.  The people of Connecticut need a budget that provides long-term solutions to our state’s fiscal problems. I refuse to support a budget that expects municipalities and taxpayers to fix the state’s fiscal woes.

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