Towns and cities always do a better job with taxpayer dollars than the state.
So argued state House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora when he joined the “Municipal Voice,” a co-production of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and WNHH 103.5 FM, to talk about the ongoing legislative session.
Also joining the podcast to speak from the municipal perspective was CCM Public Policy and Advocacy Director Brian O’ Connor.
The House Republican Leader noted that while state legislators can get away from the political fray of the Capitol, local leaders have to go grocery shopping in their towns. They are affected by their choices every day.
Speaking directly to the education costs, Rep. Candelora said they had become the biggest burden for towns and cities.
For special education costs, instead of forcing a situation of budget winners and losers based entirely on what side of a town line a family moves to, the state could step in and avoid it becoming a divisive issue, he argued.
This is also true of the HVAC repair issue. CCM and others had been advocating for the state to step in and help municipalities replace or rehab old HVAC systems where applicable.
“I think we have to look at the reimbursement rate,” he said, “really incentivize cities and towns to replace those systems, because not only is it important for air quality, but a lot of these newer systems are more efficient as well. So, long term, it will save our communities money.”
Gov. Lamont recently proposed some $90 million to help municipalities and their boards of education replace these outdated systems. Rep. Candelora argued that if they were reimbursed for these projects, schools would have done this a lot sooner.
In a similar vein, he expressed concern about the Municipal Revenue Sharing accounts’ obligations to towns and cities.
“This year was supposed to be an excess,” he said, “and that is being withheld.
“And so my concern always with the way things are structured for our cities and towns, that revenue stream is always the first stream that sort of gets held back whether it’s god times or bad time.”
Considering that Connecticut is in what many consider good times, both Candelora and O’Connor said that they should expect the funds to be distributed as the law prescribes.
For O’ Connor, this ties into the concern that unfunded pension liabilities are going to “squeeze some of the discretionary funding.”
“And cities and town, you know we’re considered discretionary.”
The Republican leader concurred, saying that while the state’s rainy day fund is up and pension liabilities are being paid, the unfunded pension liabilities have actually increased.
“If we don’t get a handle on that in the long run, we’re not going to have that money to utilize on stuff like special education services. So it’s a balance.”
The one area where costs might go up is if Connecticut gives its legislators a raise. Pay for lawmakers has remained stagnant for 21 years, creating a barrier to entry for prospective lawmakers who cannot afford to work two jobs.
As opposed to New York with its full-time legislature, Rep. Candelora, Connecticut needs to strike a balance, because as a part-time legislature “you get different perspectives, and that’s the great thing about the citizen legislature.”
This mirrors a statement he made at the very beginning of the interview:
“The political arena is very much a people’s business.”