Stewart's Ally On City Budget Isn't The Governor

By Jack Hayford
(NB Politicus Commentary)

In his upbeat State of the City address on March 14th Mayor Tim Stewart pledged “to trim costs wherever we can in order to assure that services are maintained and our taxpayers are spared the burden of undue increases in their property taxes.”

You would think that Republican Stewart’s best ally on holding the line on taxes now would be Governor Rell. Less than a year ago Stewart was rumored to be on Rell’s “short list” for Lt. Governor or another high-level post. When he wasn’t dreaming of a big, soft job in Hartford, he was bashing the city’s Democratic legislators as a bunch of “clowns” (as quoted in The Hartford Courant last year) who didn’t deserve re-election. He has routinely scoffed at greater use of state dollars or reforms to get residents out from under the regressive property tax burden. His mantra has been “to trim costs” without specifying where the costs should be trimmed.

In 2007 Stewart will not be so quick to dismiss New Britain state legislators in a year when he is up for re-election.. Despite his fealty to Rell and the derisive name calling of Senator DeFronzo and Reps. Geragosian, O’Brien and Tercyak last year, the Mayor will do the math and will need Democratic budget numbers to ensure “our taxpayers are spared the burden of undue increases.”

In the current 2006-2007 approved state budget, New Britain received $83,115,925 in state aid. Governor Rell’s proposed budget for the year would have reduced state assistance by $2,302,755. The Governor’s new budget, notwithstanding a positive step in support of K-12 education, would take more dollars away from the city and increase the burden on hard-pressed homeowners and tenants to pay for basic municipal services.

Rell’s budget proposal for 2007-2008 is unkind to New Britain. She has proposed a major cut in the payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) grants that provide revenue in communities with entities exempt from property taxes. “New Britain, where Central Connecticut State University is located, and nine other communities are likely to take the biggest hit in Rell’s plan,” according to a March 18th news story (“Budget-cutting tactic raises concern” by Don Stacom, The Hartford Courant). Loss of PILOT grant funds would reduce revenue by $950,000 in the city where Governor Rell accepted her party’s nomination for a full term in 2006..

Unquestionably Rell’s K-12 education initiative would provide new funds for school districts via an across the board income tax hike. New Britain lawmakers have asked the Governor to adopt her own education commission’s recommendation to increase money for the city’s schools. The Rell plan would give New Britain $42.2 million more in Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) and other school aid over five years. Aid to local education would go from the current $64.1 million to more than $100 million by 2010-2011. But the education aid increase must be tempered with New Britain’s situation in which school needs have been ignored for years. The city is way behind other communities in providing early education. In addition to ongoing costs, the city needs to increase the education budget just to add all-day kindergartens. There is also continuing pressure to alleviate overcrowding at New Britain High School that inevitably will require an influx of state aid just to keep up.

It is the non-education aspects of Rell’s budget that takes money away from the city, putting the burden to pay for such things as fire, police, parks and recreation squarely on the property tax.

Rell’s renewed push for the elimination of the property tax on automobiles, for example, has many local officials of both parties worried. While the Governor has amended her proposal to allow taxation of luxury cars ($30,000 assessment and up), the measure would eliminate the $500 property tax credit for homeowners, making the elimination of the car tax a wash for many residents. Rell remains silent on other property tax relief measures that would be comprehensive and provide a more equitable tax structure from town to town.

For New Britain, Rell’s tax policy preserves a status quo that makes it more difficult to maintain services and alleviate the property tax burden. Don’t expect any candor from Mayor Stewart about the downside of Rell’s budget for the city. He doesn’t want to offend someone who could give him a big job in Hartford. But he will be secretly relying on the work of the city’s Democratic lawmakers to make the state budget fairer. It would give him an opening he wants to take credit for holding the line on taxes. New Britain lawmakers may have been “clowns” unworthy of their offices last year, but they are delivering what is needed this year for New Britain to attain some measure of budget stability.