I wrote last night about the outcome of
the local budget referendum. The Hartford Courant put its thoughts on the matter in the morning paper:
The defeat marked the first time since 1993 that the budget did not pass on the first try. Voters went to the polls
five times to approve the 1993-94 budget. The council trimmed about $2.5 million from that budget before it passed by 126
votes.[...]Town officials said Tuesday that in light of the significant defeat, large budget cuts are expected.[...]
Democratic Town Chairman Leo Canty said Tuesday that the state is largely to blame for its tax structure which puts a heavy
burden on towns to raise most of their revenue through property taxes. Canty said anger over high gasoline and energy prices also
played a factor in the defeat, but added that last year’s budget, which proposed a tax freeze and only passed by nine votes, was a
sign of things to come.
While I’m hardly a person in tune with town politics, I’m not so sure that it’s quite accurate to shift blame for the referendum’s
failure to external factors. Part of it might have to do with some of the fluff added to this year’s budget, as well as the
built-in “mandatory” increases caused by our under-performing schools having contracts that offer rich automagical increases in
salaries and benefits.
(Again, don’t get me wrong. I think teachers in general are underpaid, and I’d happily support changing that IF some
standards were set to ensure that such an increase was based on actual merit and resulted in better academic performance, rather
than ending up being an entitlement.)
However, there is a point to be made that Connecticut’s municipal tax structure is set up to be overreliant on property taxes. The
implicit comment behind Canty’s words is that the state should be handing out more State General Fund money to the towns…which is
an incorrect position to take. Instead, there ought to be a concerted effort in the Capitol to grant towns more flexibility over
how they derive their funding (e.g. different residential/commercial mill rates and options to piggyback off state sales and income
taxes).