The Affordable Housing Appeals Procedure (better known as “8-30g” has spurred the approval and construction of workforce housing that would not have otherwise occurred.
Bill Cibes
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Local option sales taxes and/or income taxes: NOT a solution
A recent article in the Hartford Business Journal, published as part of the “The Cities Project,” suggests that a solution to the revenue shortfall in cities might be the use of revenue sources other than the property tax. It’s not.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Be very, very wary of public-private partnerships
Assuming that it’s possible for Connecticut to impose tolls on roads constructed, reconstructed or maintained in part with federal dollars, how can the investment required to install toll gantries and cameras be funded before any tolls are actually collected? The answer is simple and straightforward: issue state revenue bonds, to be repaid from the future revenue stream generated by tolls. State revenue bonds issued for a public purpose are tax-exempt. Accordingly, they would likely bear a lower interest rate than any loan granted by a private entity looking for a rate of return that would not only cover the cost of any capital that it borrows, but also provide a profit to the entity.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
What price do Connecticut residents pay for state and local government?
Conventional wisdom is that the total price charged by the state and its local governments in Connecticut is one of the most burdensome in the country. A common measure upon which this conclusion is based is the total amount we residents pay in state and local taxes, relative to our aggregate personal income, i.e., our […]
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CSCU successfully graduates students prepared to become productive workforce members
A recent CTViewpoints opinion — Connecticut’s four year public state university graduation rates fall short — correctly observed that Connecticut’s state universities “have a responsibility to help students graduate.” Their success would “provide the state with more educated individuals equipped to enter the workforce and ultimately, enable them to become more productive citizens.” The good news is that the CSCU universities are in fact successful in achieving that objective. But that was not the conclusion of the author of the op-ed, who argued that six-year graduation rates of the CSCU universities were unacceptably low.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Revitalize CT’s cities to strengthening an already healthy economy
If you were surprised that the Hartford metro area ranks No. 4 in the nation in “digitalization,” you would probably be astounded to learn that it ranks No. 3 in the world in terms of productivity per capita. For some reason, we hear mostly about what is going poorly in our state when there is also a great deal of positive news, including the fact that there is an opportunity to support additional economic development by revitalizing Connecticut’s central cities.