Thomas MacMIllan Photo
As the mayor’s office prepares its state legislative agenda, it first tried to warm aldermen to the proposed laws. Aldermen stayed cool.
Adam Joseph, the mayor’s legislative director as of Tuesday morning, briefed a small group of aldermen on Monday evening on the mayor’s agenda for the state’s current legislative session. The agenda outlines bills that Mayor DeStefano would like to see passed by the state legislature.
Of the 13 proposed bills on the list, seven would establish new state, regional, or municipal taxes.
Aldermen Monday night balked at the proposed state taxes. Some stated they would have appreciated a little more discussion with the mayor’s office before he rolled out the agenda, since they will be asked to lobby for the legislation.
The mayor will officially unveil his legislative agenda at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
In addition to new taxes, the list of proposed bills includes several measures designed to increase public safety. These include a registry for gun offenders, a ban on online ammunition sales, and a requirement that the chief of police have the final say on liquor permits. The list also includes legislation that would allow red light cameras.
The Monday evening briefing in City Hall’s aldermanic chamber was attended to the end by six aldermen, four of whom are freshmen.
New Taxes
Joseph began his briefing with a theme that he returned to repeatedly: The state faces several years of enormous budget deficits. The deficit was $500 million last year, $300 million this year. It could reach $3 billion in the next three years, he said.
Faced with tough economic times — and more “lean years” on the horizon — the city needs to put some “irons in the fire” now, to ensure that money comes in for continued growth, Joseph argued. “We want the state to explore a variety of ways to increase revenue.”
One such measure would be the establishment of a regional hotel/motel tax that could bankroll regional development projects, Joseph said. Another would be a regional sales tax of 1 percent. That would raise at least $50 million that could be put towards regional development.
Joseph faced aldermanic resistance on the several proposed taxes — local income tax, local sales tax, local income tax, regional income tax, regional sales tax, and statewide property tax.
All those pennies add up, said West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson. “Pretty soon it’s a dollar.”
With this as New Haven’s legislative agenda, “How do we tell our constituents we don’t want to raise taxes?” Goldson said.
“On a realistic level, the state does have money issues,” Joseph responded. Those extra pennies could mean development dollars for New Haven, which in turn translate into jobs for constituents, Joseph said.
“This is going up there without any input from us,” Goldson complained. He said he wants to support the mayor, “but how do we support the mayor without saying we support more taxes?”
The agenda-making process should have happened differently, with more input from aldermen, he said. “If we don’t support it we look like obstructionists.”
Joseph reiterated: The state is having budget troubles; the city needs to act to create more revenue.
Goldson said Joseph is a good spokesman for the city in Hartford, “but I hope that you fail.” Goldson said he can’t stand behind “more taxes out of people’s pockets. I just can’t support this kind of stuff.”
Joseph moved on to a proposal that would establish a statewide property tax. One half of a mill could be enough to fully fund Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) to New Haven. PILOT refers to the money promised by the state to towns like New Haven, where large amounts of tax-exempt property means less tax revenue for the city. PILOT is not fully funded by the state and has been decreasing in recent years.
Fair Haven Alderwoman Stephanie Bauer had a question about property tax: “How many more people are going to be foreclosed on if that happens?”
Joseph didn’t have a precise answer. If a half-mill of state property taxes is returned to the city, maybe the city could reduce its own property taxes, he said.
Goldson voiced skepticism that the state would put property tax money towards PILOT.
Westville Aldermen Greg Dildine (at right in photo below) sought to clarify: All of the agenda’s listed taxes are being endorsed?
Joseph said the agenda is a menu of options. If one bill were to gain traction, the city would “take the foot off the accelerator” on the others.
“We’re trying to cast a wide net,” he said.
Edgewood Alderman Marcus Paca wanted to know about the strategy for getting legislators on board with the mayor’s agenda. “A lot of these things are kind of controversial,” he said. With upcoming elections, it might be hard to get lawmakers to support them, he added.
Joseph said the mayor is working on the New Haven delegation, and so is he.
“I hope you got a big raise,” Goldson said. “This agenda is tough.”
East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker (second from right in photo) suggested the mayor’s office should have come to aldermen earlier to talk over the agenda.
“It makes sense for the administration to reach out to aldermen,” he said, since the mayor will be asking for lobbying support from the Board of Aldermen.
After the meeting, Joseph said that although aldermen do give suggestions, “It’s the mayor’s legislative agenda.”
“If you need backing, you want to inspire people,” Elicker said after the meeting. He said it would have been good to have a “collaborative conversation” further in advance of the agenda’s unveiling.
East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar offered some words of support for the agenda. It is “a great overview for right now,” but it will need to be fleshed out in the near future, he said.
“If we can use hotel fees and some of these other financing tools to offset our over-reliance on property taxes, this could be good progressive tax policy that actually benefits almost everyone in the region, so I think we might see state legislators jump on board with some of this,” Lemar said later.
Public Safety Pitches
Joseph outlined three proposed bills designed to increase public safety in New Haven.
The first would require people convicted of gun arrests to register their addresses with police for a period of time after their release from prison. Failure to do so would qualify as a misdemeanor.
The law would allow cities to direct social services towards a population at risk of repeat offenses, Joseph said.
“Law enforcement can also use the registry as a deterrent and accountability measure, as they have done with sex offender registries around the country,” reads a memo describing the bill.
A second proposed bill would prohibit online purchases of ammunition by Connecticut residents. It’s very easy to buy bullets over the internet, Joseph said. “All you need is a credit card.”
A third bill would require a city’s chief of police to be the final signatory on liquor licenses.
Goldson wanted to know if there would be an appeal process for potential liquor permittees who were turned down by the chief.
“I assume so,” Joseph said.
Also included on the agenda are two car-related bills. One is designed to eliminate higher auto insurance rates for city-dwellers. The other would increase municipalities’ share of speeding tickets. Currently 90 percent of speeding fines go to the state.