Rep. Case fights for towns on legislature’s MORE Commission

HARTFORD – State Rep. Jay Case (R-63) has said the state legislature too often passes laws and hands down mandates negatively affecting towns – specifically smaller, rural municipalities. Now, Rep. Case is joining a bipartisan effort to provide these towns with mandate relief, and in turn, save taxpayer dollars.

Rep. Case was recently appointed to the Municipal Opportunities and Regional Efficiencies Commission (MORE), focusing to create effective legislation to help these smaller towns and rural areas – especially his 63rd Assembly District of Colebrook, Goshen, Torrington and Winchester. His new duties include serving on three subcommittees: Fair Housing, Special Education, and Boards of Education.

“This is about me going to bat for my constituents who are burdened with extra taxes, out-of-control governmental spending, and local elected officials who have mandate after mandate passed down to them,” Rep. Case said. “The legislature has been pigeonholing local education boards, town boards, and others, and I believe it has harmed our local governments. We need to ease the workload locally and let the communities address their local issues without a bigger government getting in the way. I will be meeting with leaders from all throughout my district to better understand what they want done at the state level.”

While introductory meetings began this week, Rep. Case, a member of the General Assembly’s Appropriations, Energy & Technology, Environment, and Human Services committees, will be meeting in upcoming weeks with other legislators — both Senators and Representatives – to address these issues in a bipartisan manner.

“Whether it’s special education, fair housing or local education boards, we need to address and reconsider laws that might have a profound impact on the way municipal governments operate – and we need to save taxpayer money while doing it,” Rep. Case said.