Opinion: Two bills threaten to take power from local governments

March 29, 2015

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Suzanne Bates is the policy director for the Yankee Institute for Public Policy. She lives in South Windsor with her family. Follow her on Twitter @suzebates.

Today the state’s Planning and Development Committee passed two bills that — if they become law — will create vast new powers for state and regional bodies over local governments in Connecticut.

The two bills — which started out as Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 6851 — were introduced without much fanfare despite the huge changes they make to the power and tax structures in Connecticut.

Senate Bill 1 is Senate President Martin Looney’s attempt to fix an old problem — how to reimburse cities and towns for lost property taxes from nonprofit hospitals, government offices, and universities.

See the complete story at CT News Junkie.

Comments

One response to “Opinion: Two bills threaten to take power from local governments”

Casey Smith

March 31, 2015

Gee, Looney’s bill sounds like he’s expecting Fairfield County to subsidize other Connecticut towns. The thinking seems to be everybody knows the “most money” is in Fairfield County, so it’s time to share the wealthy.” Think again. And then consider the bizarro formula for Educational Cost Sharing funding that results in Norwalk getting the short end of the stick. I wouldn’t bet the farm on that not happening again.

And I say kudos to the Council members who are sponsoring a resolution against the Transit Orientated proposal that would seize control of land on either side of the railroad tracks. That’s not the State’s job. They can’t even manage the railroad well and now they want even more control? If it wasn’t so typical, the amount of hubris involved would be down right amusing.

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