The Governor Raises

Stakes And Expectations

Fed up with the muscle politics in Connecticut that eventually crossed the line into corruption and fraud, state voters embraced M. Jodi Rell last November as a symbol of decency, honesty, and fair play. She was elected in a landslide over her Democratic challenger, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano. It is not Gov Rell’s style to raise her voice or raise her fist in the conduct of her office, but last week she showed us that she is quite adept at raising the stakes and raising expectations for effective state government. It should be clear by now to those who may have doubted her political abilities that she intends to be something much more than a symbol.

Last week, the governor unveiled a two-year, $35.8 billion budget proposal that includes a $3.4 billion education initiative funded by an increase of up to one-half percent in the state personal income tax over the next two years. The increased state aid for local schools, the proposed elimination of personal property taxes on motor vehicles, plus grants to fully reimburse municipalities for car-tax revenues they would no longer collect under the governor’s plan address in one bold stroke the two major challenges faced by every town and city: providing both quality education in public schools and some relief from spiraling property taxes. Statewide, the net increase in municipal aid would increase $204 million in the next fiscal years.

The governor’s budget plan would bring more than $500,000 in additional school funding to Newtown in the next two years, yet reduce funding of PILOT and road grants. The net impact of the additional state aid to education, the reduced noneducation grants, and the loss of car tax revenues on the town would be a reduction of $185,000 in revenues in the next fiscal, which would have to be recouped through local taxes on real estate. But Newtown taxpayers would be paying $820,000 less in car taxes as a result. It is a net gain for taxpayers and for our schools.

Mrs Rell is challenging conventional wisdom that you can’t raise taxes and survive as a politician. That kind of entrenched thinking, however, has made tax hikes a way of life on the local level, choking off funds to our schools and forcing people of modest means to seek more affordable alternatives to owning their own homes. Public education is perennially the reason why taxpayers support tax hikes on the local level; why should it be taboo on the state level?

For decades, our state’s elected leaders have been slowly turning away from their commitment to public education. It is refreshing to have a governor willing to invest some of her own political capital in a system of public education that is gasping for resources. Not everyone is going to like everything about Mrs Rell’s proposals; some of the most critical questions have come from members of her own party in the legislature. But this week, she said she is willing to compromise to reach her goals before the end of the current legislative session on June 7. “It’s going to be a long four months,” she said. “And it will all be open to discussion.”

Mrs Rell has given herself and state lawmakers a tough challenge. But it is challenge that surely can be overcome through decency, honesty, and fair play.