Town Would Lose $85K If Proposal Goes Through

At first blush, the numbers collected by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) detailing the amount of money each town and city will lose during Gov. Malloy’s Plan B cuts, Berlin would only less than $85K.

Mayor Adam Salina was pleased to see that number and explains that it will have little or no impact on the town.

“That amount is not part of the general fund and is not included because it fluctuates from year to year,” Salina said Thursday from the Capitol. “If we do get that funding from the state, it goes into a special account and we would spend it as an equal amount expenditure.”It is called a town aid road fund and in the last 10 years the amount has been shrinking. If we are going to do major road work we will budget for it and bond it. This small amount will not get you very far. We would use the amount to seal cracks or do small repair work.

“When looking at a budget of $70 million, $85K is not a significant part. The good news for the residents is that it will not have an impact on the budget that was just passed. It will not affect the mill rate and there will be no supplemental tax bills.”

Salina said that while things look good right now, legislators and the Governor were still haggling about numbers on Thursday afternoon.

“This is the proposal they have in front of them but they are still talking about the numbers,” Salina said. “I talked to (State Rep.) Joe Aresimowicz who took a 5 a.m. flight from a family vacation in Myrtle Beach to be here this morning. I asked him to let me know if any of the numbers looked like they were going up and he told me he would.”

Despite the small slice Berlin would lose, CCM, sent the letter below to legislators asking them to reject the proposal and reject any cut to municipalities.

“We are a member of CCM and they were basically hired to work on the towns behalf,” Salina said. “If one of the towns lost a dollar, they would ask to get it back. CCM was in favor of the first package because it split the cuts pretty evenly but in this proposal, the bigger towns are getting hit a lot harder. They are doing what they have been hired to do.

“I’ve said many times before that I would like us to get more state funding for things but at a time like this I’m glad that we don’t get more. Because, the more you get, the more you are going to get cut.”

Letter from CCM to state legislators:

TO:  State Legislators

RE:  Municipal Aid Cuts and Gubernatorial Rescission Authority

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities urges you to reject (1) the over $54 million in municipal aid cuts proposed by the Governor in each year of the biennium, and (2) the proposed elimination of the municipal-aid exemption  from existing or enhanced gubernatorial rescission authority.

Virtually every town and city has adopted their FY12 budget, set a tax rate, and sent tax bills out in the mail.  Hometown CT relied on the municipal aid in the Adopted State Budget.

Please note that the town-by-town impacts of about $30 million in proposed cuts were not provided.

The proposed cuts include a 50 percent cut in Town Aid Road grants (-$15 million) and 5 percent cuts in PILOT State Property and in PILOT Colleges and Hospital reimbursements (-$9.4 million).  The proposed TAR cut comes on the heels of one of CT’s worst winters that decimated town snow-removal budgets.  The PILOT cuts would hurt our poorest cities and towns that host state-mandated tax-exempt property.  Such property benefits regions and the state as a whole but the host communities take the tax loss hit.  The cut list goes on to include elimination of Interdistrict (Non-Sheff) Cooperation funding (-$7.2 million), elimination of After School Programs (-$4.5 million), Priority School Districts (-$4 million), as well as cuts to Charter Schools (-$1.8 million), and elimination of funding for Tourism Districts (-$1.7 million), etc.

CCM urges you to protect the towns and cities and the residential and business property taxpayers in your legislative district.  Reject these proposed cuts in municipal aid and protect the municipal aid exemption from gubernatorial rescission authority.