Politics & Government
Harding contends Connecticut is in a better position to ax car tax
However, state senator says it is 'very unlikely' to occur during 2024 General Assembly session
By Scott Benjamin
BROOKFIELD – Sam Posey, the longtime Sharon resident, placed fifth at the Indianapolis 500 in 1972 and later was a commentator for ABC Sports at 18 editions of the famed race.
Posey once said that, “Indy represents America’s love affair with the automobile.”
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Connecticut doesn’t have a love affair with taxing automobiles, yet its car tax has been on the books for generations.
The state doesn’t place a levy on Posey’s boyhood racer, the Mudge Pond Express, but just about every other multi-wheel vehicle is subject to a tax bill each July 1.
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Posey’s state senator, Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield, recently told Patch.com it is, “A burdensome tax that drives people away from living in Connecticut. Many other states don’t have it.”
Dating to 2006, the last three governors have tried to ax it and failed.
Drivers. Start your engines:
In 2006 The New York Times reported that Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield) said that the repeal of the tax would provide "direct property tax relief with money actually put in the wallets of taxpayers." She even had a plan to offset the loss of revenue to the municipalities.
In 2013, CT Hearst reported that Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex) called it “the most middle-class unfriendly tax we have. It's time to do something about it.”
In 2022, the Associated Press reported that Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich said during a news conference in South Windsor that, “The most merciless tax out there is the property tax on your car and on your home. It’s a tax that you pay good times and the bad. The tax you pay when there’s COVID and when there’s no COVID. It’s a tax that is relentless.”
A governor who once had an 83 percent approval rating in a Quinnipiac poll. Another governor who spent a record 14 years as mayor of Stamford before he moved into the executive residence. And another governor who claims he signed the largest tax cut in Connecticut history.
Not one of them has taken the checkered flag and drank a pint of milk with a wreath of 33 orchids draped around them.
If there are rallies held regarding proposed tolls, then why aren’t they held to abolish the car tax?
CT Hearst has reported that when Malloy made his sales pitch in 2013, “big city mayors and small town first selectmen say the loss of $632.8 million in revenue will be devastating and will force them to shift the tax burden onto homeowners and businesses.”
The Hartford Courant recently reported that a 22-member legislative task force has a February 1 deadline to submit recommendations for axing the car tax during the 2024 session. The newspaper added that, “New arrivals to the state often shake their heads because they have never heard of paying car taxes until they moved to the Land of Steady Habits.”
Harding said it is “very unlikely” that the car tax would be eliminated in 2024 because of opposition from municipal officials.
“I understand that the municipalities would say that there needs to be an alternate source of revenue,” Harding remarked. “If we’re going to do it, we need to do it in collaboration with our municipalities.”
“However, I do think that the state of Connecticut is in a different position economically than it was during the later part of the Rell Administration and where we were during all of the Malloy Administration,” the state senator explained.
The state Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Competitiveness stated in its 2018 report that Connecticut’s economy contracted by eight percent between 2008 and 2016.
Harding noted that the state now has had five consecutive budget surpluses.
CT Mirror budget reporter Keith Phaneuf wrote in November that, “While Connecticut is no longer setting records with its budget surpluses, its massive savings program could keep finances in the black for at least five more years,” according to recent reports.
However, some observers might say the state is already doing a yeoman’s job for the municipalities.
Malloy and Lamont have suggested that the municipalities take over some of the costs for the public-school teacher pensions.
The state has paid the full share since 1939, and Malloy warned in a 2017 news release that, “This year, the state is expected to pay $1.2 billion toward teachers’ pensions – representing over one third of the state’s total educational aid and close to one quarter of total municipal aid.”
Said Harding, “I still say it is our obligation to do that. I don’t think that burden should be shifted to the municipalities. This is an obligation that we took on 80-plus years ago. . . It would significantly burden them and force municipalities to raise taxes.”
Speaking of teachers, will there be enough of them in the future?
Harding said that his wife, Kelly, who is a math teacher at the Sarah Noble Intermediate School in New Milford, and other teachers have said “there is a difficulty in hiring in comparison to where it previously was.”
However, Lamont recently said that there is about $500 million in federal pandemic relief available for public education that could be used to address the teacher shortage.
Lamont recommended towns and cities target new teachers, offering them cash bonuses in return for commitments to remain in their classrooms for five years.
“I would fully support this effort,” Harding stated in an e-mail message to Patch.com. “It is critically important to ensure that our State excel in education our young students here in Connecticut. I think utilizing State funding in order assist municipalities in efforts to retain and attract our hard- working teachers is absolutely a worthwhile investment. I would be happy to work with the Governor's Office in providing this funding to the 18 town's in my Senate District.”
“We absolutely have to evaluate making teaching in Connecticut more attractive, whether it be financially in some manner to keep teacher here that are in our colleges,” Harding added.
However, teachers can work a second job for at least nine weeks in the summer and there usually are opportunities during the academic year to earn money as a coach or club advisor.
“The teachers do have opportunities that some other professions do not provide,” Harding said. “I don’t think that those activities – such as a temporary job in July and August or coaching a team or a club - rise to putting them at a lucrative level.”
On another topic, many years ago during a speech in New Britain, Washington lobbyist Toby Moffett – then the Democratic congressman from Connecticut’s Sixth Congressional District – said although Congress had not approved many items from his wish list, what he already been able to do is make people feel comfortable about interacting with their congressman.
Harding won a special election in the 107th state House District nearly nine years ago.
Has he been able to develop a better rapport with constituents?
Harding said he gets to as many public events as possible in his large district – which stretches from Brookfield to Salisbury.
A recent legislative mailer included a raft of photographs from events that he had attended in the 30th District.
“I want them to see me in an informal setting,” he said. “You want to speak with the people who may not otherwise be heard. Over the years, I think there has been an increase in constituent engagement.”
Resources:
Interview with Stephen Harding, Patch.com, Sunday, December 3, 2023.
E-mail message from Stephen Harding, Patch.com, Wednesday, December 13, 2023.
https://apnews.com/article/202...
https://ctmirror.org/2023/11/2...
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/scanlon-optimistic-connecticuts-economy.
Sam Posey, “The Mudge Pond Express,” Putnam, 1976.
