Rep. Srinivasan on the Governor's Budget Proposal

Glastonbury’s leaders worked hard to deliver a town budget with no mill rate increase in 2016 – only to have Governor Malloy pull the rug out from under them by cutting state aid, forcing the town to enact a small increase in our property taxes and make up for the difference. This year, it’s much worse. The governor hasn’t just removed the rug – he wants to rip out the entire floor. The result will be massive property tax increases in Glastonbury and every other town in the state that is not teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

After six years of the Malloy administration, our state finances are in shambles, and things are even worse in our largest cities. Governor Malloy’s solution to both problems is to force well-run and solvent towns like Glastonbury to pick up the tab for years of Democratic mismanagement in our cities and state.

This week, the governor presented his budget proposal for the next two years. Despite his insistence that income tax and sales tax rates would not increase, this budget is a de facto tax increase for all of us. We were told that the state plans to save $1.3 billion by pushing $400 million of its responsibilities onto solvent cities and towns and extracting $700 million through unspecified union concessions. Funding for local health districts would be reduced as well. Towns would be burdened with a third of the state’s teacher retirement obligations.

The union concessions sound like a good idea, but they have not been realized in the past. Towns will have no choice but to adapt to huge cuts in their budgets. What will this mean? Significant changes in the education cost sharing formula, or ECS, that will punish towns who budget responsibly and reward the towns that have not exhibited financial restraint.

Our town stands to lose roughly $8 million in state aid. We will be receiving only $165,000 in Fiscal Year 2018, and Glastonbury will be owing the state $136,000 in Fiscal Year 2019. We will be bailing out the state’s teacher retirement obligations. Our town leaders do a wonderful job responding to budget pressures, but Governor Malloy’s plan will leave them no choice but to raise our taxes significantly.

As expected, on the other hand, Hartford and other cities on the brink of ruin stand to gain. Governor Malloy is taking ECS money from Glastonbury and other high-performing towns and giving it to these cities. The catch, however, is that he is not requiring them to use this money for education; meaning that our schools will be hurt but the Hartford schools will potentially not be helped. All Connecticut children will lose.

Governor Malloy also proposes to eliminate the $200 tax credit for property owners. This credit is a wonderful boost for over one million homeowners in our state, many of whom have worked so hard to achieve homeownership. These taxpayers struggle on fixed or stagnant incomes in the face of rising taxes and increasing living costs. A $200 tax credit matters, and eliminating it is a de facto tax increase on those who can least afford new tax obligations. After all, 81% of those receiving the property tax credit earn less than $100,000 a year.

The sad truth is that the brunt of the financial impact of Governor Malloy’s budget will fall on middle-class homeowners. The governor talked about disparities in our state and claimed that his budget is an equalizer. I disagree. This budget increases our taxes once again. Governor Malloy insists that “[w]e need to support our neighboring towns and together we will rise or fall.” But Glastonbury cannot be held responsible for the woes and the lack of leadership in Hartford. We should not be pouring money into a broken system. Without real reform, our cities and our state will eventually fall into bankruptcy. Sadly, you won’t find those reforms in Governor Malloy’s proposed budget.

This budget proposal is not the answer to our troubles. We need a budget that is fair to all of us. We need to revive Connecticut, and prosper.