Redeeming State Government

All eyes are on the state legislature and the governor, but not for the usual mid-winter reasons. Both are preparing, as usual, for a new legislative term and the governor’s annual State of the State address on Wednesday next week. But will their hearts be in it? Budget cuts and a new legislative agenda may be their occupation in the coming months, but the possible impeachment of Gov John G. Rowland will be their preoccupation. The grim examination and possible judgment of the governor’s misdeeds, acknowledged and alleged, will have its place on the dark side of Connecticut history. Legislative paralysis on issues critical to the quality of life in Connecticut, however, may prove to be the real political tragedy this year.

Against the backdrop of the historic events in Hartford this week, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) announced its 2004 state legislative priorities. The group’s message was pretty simple: property taxes and urban sprawl are ruining the state. Connecticut’s current land use policies and property tax system are driving people and businesses away from the cities to suburban and rural areas where they eat up diminishing inventories of open space while charging the costs of redundant infrastructure to increasingly strapped property taxpayers. The result is that poverty is on the rise in cities and older suburbs, and middle-class suburbs and rural areas are having to build roads and schools at a record pace at a time when the state support for such municipal projects is in full retreat.

The CCM has researched and proposed a comprehensive legislative initiative for property tax and land use policy reform that includes proposals for greater regional cooperation on land use and economic development as well as taxation and revenue sharing. It has also offered specific state budget proposals for 2004-05 to help stop and eventually reverse the trend of state neglect that is driving most towns and cities, Newtown included, toward fiscal exhaustion. These include an increase in the state share of K-12 education costs by removing the caps on grants for Educational Cost Sharing, student transportation, and adult education; restoration of funds cut from town aid road and capital improvement programs; elimination of unfunded state mandates on towns and cities; modification of the present revaluation system and schedule to protect property owners from dramatic tax increases like those seen in Newtown last year; and exploration of alternatives to the property tax, including other fees and taxes levied on the local or regional level.

After satisfying its preoccupation with the sordid business of parsing the lies, ethical lapses, and politics of personal gain that will be the unfortunate legacy of the Rowland administration, the legislature may be looking around for a source of redemption. We suggest that it start redeeming state government by enacting the property tax and land use reform proposals of the CCM.