First selectmen, mayors, and town managers from dozens of Connecticut’s small towns gathered at the state Capitol on Thursday to urge lawmakers to restore funding for municipalities.
Town Leaders Day at the Capitol, sponsored by the Connecticut Council of Small Towns (COST), provides municipal officials with an opportunity to communicate with their lawmakers about the big issues affecting Connecticut’s small towns.
“Connecticut’s small towns have worked hard to control property tax levels and deliver vital services to residents and businesses, despite years of flat funding of state aid and declining local revenues. At this point, every dollar of state aid that gets cut will mean higher local property taxes or the elimination of vital programs,” said Dick Smith, First Selectman, Deep River and COST President. “Lawmakers must adopt a “No Municipal Cuts” budget that keeps towns whole.”
COST members called on legislators to restore funding for the State Property and Colleges and Hospitals Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) programs, which were designed to offset lost property tax revenues. They also highlighted the need to restore funding for the Pequot Mohegan grant, Municipal Revenue Sharing Account and Manufacturing Transition Account, which provide much needed revenues to towns.
“Our town budgets are squeezed dry and property taxpayers are fed up with shouldering most of the burden for funding education and other programs and services. Small towns simply cannot absorb any more cuts in state aid,” said Smith.
Town leaders also called on lawmakers to enact two bills that would provide them with some relief from state mandates.
“Cuts to municipal aid combined with a failure to enact meaningful mandate relief will put towns between a rock and a hard place. There is still time this session to negotiate a budget that will keep towns whole and take action on bills to provide towns with relief from costly mandates,” said Betsy Gara, Executive Director of COST.
“Small towns spend between $5,000 and $35,000 each year to publish legal notices in newspapers,” said Gara. “Lawmakers should adopt SB-1112, which is a reasonable compromise that will allow towns to save money by publishing a summary of the legal notice in the newspaper and the complete notice on the town’s website.”
“In addition, lawmakers should adopt legislation to more equitably fund the Municipal Employees Retirement System. The employee contribution rate is capped by statute and has not been increased since the program was established in 1947. However, the employer share has increased 12 times in the last 12 years. Failure to address this imbalance will threaten the viability of these pension programs,” Gara explained.
COST is an advocacy organization committed to giving small towns a strong voice in the legislative process. Its members are Connecticut towns with populations of less than 30,000. COST champions the major policy needs and concerns of Connecticut’s suburban and rural towns. More information is available at www.ctcost.org.
