When Gov. Jodi Rell set up a commission of municipal officials, she gave them two subjects to focus on: to recommend how the state government should make an $84 million cut in state aid; and how the state could reform mandates, the requirements the state imposes on cities and towns.
The task force has no tolerance for the cut in aid, but plenty of suggestions for easing the mandates. One mayor even brought a list, starting with school days.
Jason McCoy, the mayor of Vernon and member of the Governor's same party, read: "180 days and 900 hours." He continued, "If it said 180 days OR 900 hours, we could lengthen the day." Fewer school days would save millions of dollars in building costs, he said.
"We went to a four-day work week and saved a ton of money in building costs," said Mayor Mark Boughton, another Republican from Danbury.
McCoy said his department heads came up with mandate reforms ranging from pennies to real dollars. They include: letting police off some of the training requirements, charging more for police reports, letting the water company eat some of the million dollars it costs for fire hydrant inspections, allowing real estate conveyance taxes on foreclosures, allowing cities and towns to collect bed taxes from motels, and giving town councils authority over how public schools transfer money between line items.
First Selectman Susan Bransfield, a Democrat from Portland, said the state's comments required for a 700-long streetscape improvement project have actually cost her town government jobs because compliance is so expensive.
Mayor Bill Finch, of Bridgeport, said he'd have his department heads come up with reforms of their own. "You know, the silver lining to all of this is it's gonna force us to be more efficient," Finch said, "It's gonna force us to work more cooperatively and less partisan."
Local
Mayor John DeStefano, of New Haven, has been calling for local option taxes and broad reforms for years. When the task force chair, OPM Secretary Robert Genuario, said there's no real need for municipal layoffs when so many workers leave on their own in attrition, DeStefano said, "I can't attrit everything. I can't make a librarian into a cop."
It's all new to First Selectman Lisa Pellegrini, of Somers. Elected just last month, she said, "Maybe it just gets back to don't spend the money if you don't have it. A lot of people understand that."
She said she did not know whether the legislature, due to meet in special session Dec. 15, understands that. None of the people who make the decisions on state spending, the Democratic leaders who dominate the legislature, attended the meeting.
