Major Property Tax Bill Faces Opposition

A proposal from the top member of the Connecticut Senate faces some renewed opposition just a day before it could be sent to the state's powerful Finance Committee.

State Sen. Martin Looney's Senate Bill 1 would create a statewide property tax that the state would collect on cars. It would also include other taxes managed by a Regional Council of Governments that would, in effect, act as a county tax collection system for multiple towns.

"This is the kind of thing Connecticut has been missing that's been holding our state back," said Looney, a Democrat from New Haven, during an interview Thursday.

Looney said the lack of a regional government has led to lawsuits between towns and cities that have curbed development.

"This is a progressive measure," Looney said.

Opponents to the idea have started to line up against both the car tax element and the regional council proposal.

"We got rid of them in 1960 for a reason," State Rep. Gail Lavielle, a Republican from Wilton, said of the counties. "I think it will take the local control away from them and how their property taxes are spent."

On the car tax issue, towns and cities depend on more than $700 million from the tax each year, according to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, which represents more than 150 towns and cities in the state.

The mill rate in each town varies and that has led to wide ranges of car taxes in Connecticut.

"This is absolutely a fairness argument," Looney said of his proposal. "A car is a car is car. It has the same value no matter what part of the state it’s in. And yet we have to factor it differently."

The funds would be collected by the state – a new development – then sent back to towns and cities at the rates at which they collect property taxes currently.

Ron White handles policy and advocacy for CCM and says any change to the car tax, and even having the state collect it, could be very harmful to town budgets.

"The state is saying, 'Send revenue to the state and then we promise we’ll send it back to towns,' and there’s been a history of the state not really being able to fulfill that promise," White said. "You know, they take out a little bit at a time and before you know it they’re taking out quite a bit for administrative and other costs."

The bill is expected to be voted on tomorrow in the Planning Committee.

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