Newtown First Selectman Herb Rosenthal had no challenger at the polls this week, and while he may have had an easy time of it on Election Day, he faces significant challenges and a difficult campaign on another front — the looming property tax battle in Hartford.

As head of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, Mr Rosenthal also chairs CCM’s Property Tax Reform Task Force. On October 27, while other first selectmen and mayors were busy campaigning for reelection, Mr Rosenthal was sitting before the State Legislature’s Program Review and Investigations Committee pressing for an overhaul of the state and local tax systems. Lawmakers have been talking about serious property tax reform in recent years, but nothing of real consequence has come of all the talk.

Yet the property tax burden gets worse every year. Property taxes constitute 40 percent of all state and local taxes. Seven years ago, it was 36 percent. Given the legislature’s habit of passing costs along to towns and cities, seven years from now up to half of the taxes levied in Connecticut could be property taxes. This runs counter to trends in most other states where there has been a recognition that property taxes are regressive and place an undue economic drag on business. (The property tax is the single biggest tax levied on businesses in Connecticut.)

The stakes in Newtown are particularly high. The unrelenting pressure on local property tax rates is making it increasingly difficult to win taxpayer support for municipal budgets while still adhering to fiscal policies that maintain the town’s good standing in the financial markets. School budgets in particular, which typically account for about two-thirds of local spending, are getting extra scrutiny. Newtown’s Board of Finance and Legislative Council are keenly aware of these financial challenges and are pressuring school officials to cut costs, scale back capital plans for school renovation and expansion, and to put off projects designed to accommodate Newtown’s burgeoning student population and enhance the overall educational program. Expect a contentious budget battle in the spring — and another property tax hike.

In the past, state legislators have deflected to local elected officials the political heat they would have felt if they had cut their own expensive spending programs, choosing instead to ignore their obligation to fully fund grants to towns and cities — especially educational cost sharing grants. With budget battles looming in Newtown and other municipalities in the coming years, Mr Rosenthal, even without a 2005 challenger, was fighting one of the most important political battles of the year in his testimony last month. We encourage Mr Rosenthal and other local elected officials around the state to toss this political hot potato right back to Hartford where it came from with this message attached: real property tax reform is spending reform.