Malloy: Eliminating Car Tax Unlikely This Year

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's controversial proposal to eliminate local taxes on cars worth $28,000 and less isn't likely to get enacted this year.

The plan, broadly opposed by municipal leaders across the state, failed to make it out of a legislative committee earlier this month and was unpopular as well with groups that lobby on behalf of towns.

In a press briefing on Friday, Malloy told reporters that while he thinks the proposal is dead for this year, he believes the discussion on the plan was productive and some form of the measure could be raised again in the future, according to the blog Capitol Watch.

Malloy had proposed eliminating local taxes on cars valued at $28,000 and less as a form of middle class tax relief. Although town leaders have argued the tax provides millions of dollars in local revenues, Malloy has countered it's not as lucrative as it seems because it's difficult and costly to collect.

Local officials say they believed that if car taxes were eliminated, they would have been made up by increasing other local taxes.

Oxford Tax Collector Sharon Scinto said she was opposed to the plan.

She said she wasn't surprised that the plan likely will not go through, especially because lobbyists representing tax collectors have spoken out against it. 

"I think the idea of a standard mill rate throughout the state would have been more fair to everyone, so that a Cadillac is taxed as much in Bridgeport as it is in Derby," she said. "That would also stop much of the fraud, with people registering in towns in which they don't live."