Paul Bass, Melissa Bailey Photos
Lemar, Megna: That other guy did it.
Hopes for East Rock tax relief died as the Capitol clock struck midnight, and finger-pointing and recrimination began.
Twelve a.m. — the closing moment of this year’s state legislative session — came and went Thursday without the state House calling a bill designed to help cushion the effect of a spike in property values in New Haven, particularly in East Rock.
The plan would have phased in taxes on some residential properties over five years. A vote by the state legislature would have allowed New Haven’s lawmakers to approve the plan before the results of a once-in-a-decade phsyical-inspection property revaluation takes effect later this year.
The plan required state permission, but not all of New Haven’s state legislators got on board, so the bill finally failed to come up for a vote Wednesday night.
Why didn’t the plan come up for a vote? That depends on whom you ask.
State Rep. Roland Lemar, who represents East Rock, said all members of the state delegation were on board with the plan, except for two. That’s why it didn’t pass, he said.
One of those two, state Rep. Bob Megna, said that everyone was ready to support his alternative tax-deferral plan, except Lemar.
Both lawmakers agreed on another factor affecting passage: the capitol is chaotic over the last two days of a session, filled with infighting and filibustering and last-minute gambits to pass laws.
Whatever the reason, with no plan passed, the city has no choice but to use the new property values for setting taxes citywide, said mayoral spokeswoman Elizabeth Benton.
“We’re left with no viable option other than a full implementation,” she said Thursday.
When property values for some homes skyrocketed under new appraisals this year, Mayor John DeStefano introduced his so-called Homeowner Fairness Initiative that would have phased in residential taxes based on the new values, thus cushioning the blow to homeowners.
State Sens. Martin Looney and Toni Harp were two members of the delegation who signed on. They got a modified a version of the mayor’s plan passed in the Senate Monday night.
Across the stairwells in the Capitol, New Haven’s House members weren’t as unified.
State Rep. Megna had voiced reservations from the beginning about the mayor’s plan. While it would help some property owners, for others it would mean higher taxes than full implementation would, he argued.
Megna introduced an alternative plan that would have allowed the city to set up a five-year tax deferral program for people hit hard by the revaluation. That bill was never voted on in the Senate, but Megna said on Thursday that all New Haven’s state representatives were on board with the plan, with the exception of Lemar.
“We clearly could not come to an agreement,” Megna said. “Even though the Senate was in agreement, the House was not.”
When Megna proposed the “drop-back position” to deferral, “Roland [Lemar] wasn’t on it,” Megna said. The plan therefore died, out of respect for his disagreement, Megna said.
Lemar, however, said the modified mayor’s plan, which passed the Senate, died in the House because “we had two members of our delegation who remained unconvinced that this was a fair proposal for the city.”
Lemar declined to name the two unconvinced lawmakers. “We had a lot of conversations about what is fair,” Lemar said. Some legislators believe that the state shouldn’t mess with municipal revaluations at all, that it’s up to cities to figure out on their own, he said.
Lemar dismissed Megna’s deferral plan as “a program that never got asked for” rather than a serious proposal with a chance of becoming law.
“I guess if it’s trying to make it look like you’re doing something, you can pass that. It’s not solving any issue of what’s happening in a lot of communities,” he said. “Bob introduced a deferral program at the last minute. No one at City Hall of the Board of Aldermen ever said this was a good idea or something they wanted.”
“What Bob Megna was working on only existed as an amendment to a bill that he didn’t want to see called,” Lemar said. Megna’s amendment could never have passed because even if it cleared the House, it would have had to go back the Senate, and there was no time for that, Lemar said.
At any rate, the capitol has not been a legislation-friendly environment recently, Lemar and other lawmakers said.
“Last night was just a disaster of the legislative process,” Lemar said. “Everything was stalled. Everything was filibustered. The whole system was shut down for large parts of the last few days.”
Lemar said the reval difficulties are just a part of a larger problem. “This is going to happen to more and more communities across the state. The state has to get serious about property tax reform, fully fund pilot and ECS [education cost sharing].”
A 2‑Year Plan
Meanwhile, back in New Haven, East Rock’s predicament remains unchanged.
“I’m hopeful the mayor’s office doesn’t just say there’s nothing we can do,” East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker said. “I think we all have a responsibility to try to address things at home.”
Elicker said he hopes people will consider the proposal that he and Downtown Alderman Doug Hausladen recently put forward, calling for a statistical revaluation in two years. That could even out some of the spikes in property values, Elicker said.
While East Rock will be hurting, much of the city benefits from the new revaluation. Especially areas which, unlike East Rock, have suffered a wave of foreclosures since the last revaluation.
Under full implementation of new property values, “72 percent of residential properties would see a tax decrease” in addition to a reduction in all motor vehicle and personal property taxes, noted mayoral spokeswoman Benton. “The budget continues a pattern of very small spending increases supported by grand list growth that has led the state year after year.”
“While the mill rate is decreasing, a small number of residential properties will see an increase [in taxes] due to revaluation,” she said.
Under the mayor’s Homeowner Fairness Initiative, the mill rate would have increased to 40.56. Under full implementation the mill rate would be 38.96.
Some property owners will nevertheless see tax increases under full implementation, due to the fact that property values shot up in certain neighborhoods. East Rock saw some of the most dramatic increases, with taxes increasing by as much as 100 percent, according to Elicker. Some other neighborhoods, on the East Shore and in Westville, saw many taxpayers’ bills rise, usually slightly. But only in East Rock, where tax bills will rise by as much as $10,000, did public outrage and demands for help surface.
The failure of the phase-in also makes budget-trimming “all the more urgent,” Elicker said. He pointed to another budget amendment he and Hausladen have proposed, to prevent the city from borrowing $43 million for school construction and renovation. “Every year to come that will cut a couple million dollars off the budget” in saved debt service payments, he said.
Benton disagreed with that approach. “It’s important to continue to invest in public education and public safety and to continue to support grand list growth.”