John A. Elsesser, longtime Coventry town manager, has been one of the leading figures in municipal government for nearly four decades. He understands the varied and intensifying fiscal pressures facing Connecticut and its municipalities, recognizes the need to raise revenue; and sees one possible way to do it fairly — a commercial activities tax.
Connecticut Conference of Municipalities
Posted inMoney
Advocates for teachers, towns say voters oppose pension cost shift
The survey, commissioned by the Connecticut Education Association and the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, found 64 percent of voters would cast ballots against legislators who back such a plan.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Politics
Looney wants half-penny sales tax option for cities and towns
Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney of New Haven called Friday for an optional local sales tax increase to help cities and towns control property tax rates. This would add a local surcharge of one-half of 1 percentage point to the existing 6.35 percent state sales tax.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Bill to give towns more time to pass budget bogs down in Senate
State legislators sparred for the second day in a row Wednesday over whether to give communities more time to adopt their local budgets — a fight that left the extension issue in limbo after a 90-minute Senate debate.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
No one wants a share of CT’s teacher pension bill
Municipalities and hospitals both fear the new cost burdens they would assume in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget would grow quickly as state retirement benefit costs surge in the coming years.
Posted inCities & Towns, Education, Money, Politics
Malloy proposes easing mandates on cities and towns
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled a plan Tuesday to ease municipal mandates, including tighter wage standards on construction projects and greater flexibility in property assessments.
Posted inCities & Towns, Education, Money
CCM: Pair sales tax hike, bargaining changes to bolster cities, towns
Connecticut’s cities and towns unveiled a sweeping financial plan Wednesday that included a major sales tax boost to aid communities, new regionalization incentives and collective bargaining changes. The bargaining changes would be designed to ensure new revenue for towns would not be used to boost wages and benefits for municipal workers.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Towns watching grant cut as harbinger of things to come
Connecticut’s municipal leaders are watching closely to see how swiftly —if at all — lawmakers and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy release $30 million in promised-yet-withheld capital improvement funds for cities and towns once the new legislative session gets underway.
Posted inMoney
CT’s fiscal woes could mean higher municipal borrowing costs
A major Wall Street credit rating agency warned Thursday that Connecticut’s state budget woes and “dim economic growth” could make it more costly for its cities and towns to get credit.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics, Transportation
Municipal, business and labor leaders plan summit on economy
Connecticut’s municipal, business and labor leaders will convene their second annual fall summit next month to develop strategies to bolster the state’s economic future.
Posted inMoney, Politics
CCM tries to increase fall campaigns’ focus on urban poverty
Connecticut’s urban centers are shackled by unemployment, homelessness and other poverty indicators that dwarf those of surrounding suburbs, the state’s chief municipal lobbying group wrote Monday in a bulletin to state legislative candidates.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Municipalities say CT’s property tax system is unsustainable
Just days after a landmark state court ruling found Connecticut’s education funding system to be “irrational and unconstitutional,” the chief lobbying group for cities and towns issued a new research paper calling the municipal property tax system “unsustainable.”
Posted inMoney
Towns will craft their own plan to regionalize, ease local tax burden
As state officials increase their warnings that municipal aid may be curtailed in the coming years, Connecticut’s cities and towns will craft their own plan to regionalize services and make local government more efficient.
Posted inMoney
Towns wary of local spending cap as state begins revenue sharing
Enjoying their first infusion of state sales tax receipts — albeit not as much as promised — Connecticut’s cities and towns remain wary of a revenue-sharing program that comes with a controversial spending cap.
Posted inJustice, Money
CT towns, medical examiner compromise on handling of remains
Connecticut’s cities and towns and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner appear to have reached a temporary resolution of their disagreement over responsibility for unclaimed human remains.