Can Connecticut be both more affordable and still provide the services we all need?
We did get a big tax cut that we're realizing now. But what does all that mean for cities and towns, depending on revenue, for things like roads and schools?
NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Joe DeLong, CEO of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
Mike Hydeck: The lobbying group, you guys give a voice to small cities and towns in the state capitol. First up, this is a short session. It's expected to be action-packed. What do your members want to see?
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Joe DeLong: Well, I think there's really two pressing issues that our members, of course, we're involved in everything. There's two really big issues. Number one for residents, once a week, you go out, you put your trash by the curb, it disappears, you don't really think about it until one day comes and you put it out by the curb, and there's nobody there to get it. We have a real trash crisis in Connecticut right now. About 40% of our trash is actually being shipped out of state, which is remarkable when you think about it, when we used to do that all within state. And at some point, other states are going to stop taking it. We don't really have a good long-term plan in place yet. So one of the things that we'll be doing a lot this session is talking to lawmakers, but also talking to Governor Lamont's administration through DEEP and trying to come up with a plan to really address this crisis before it becomes a full blown crisis that we start experiencing in our homes.
Mike Hydeck: Are cities and towns thinking about a different kind of recycling program or just looking for another state to take this? Like how do we, you know, he tried to convince manufacturers of plastics to go use something that's more biodegradable, but it didn't quite work.
Joe DeLong: Well, I think there's a lot of different components to it. One of the things we need to look at is the trash to energy plants that we currently have. Siting a new plant may become very difficult. And even if we are able to do that, it's going to take a long time for that to get up and running. But we need to look at the capacity of the plants that we currently have and see if there's a way to expand that capacity. That's an important component of this. And then there's some other areas around the margins we think we might be able to make a difference as well.
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Mike Hydeck: It's something that we are all struggling to come up with a solution for. So many different factions have tried to do it. So now that we're in a new year, we're starting to notice some of the effects of the sweeping tax cuts that the legislature passed, and we're starting to see things change in our paychecks and things like that. How does that make an impact on local cities and towns who want to build schools, want to build roads? And there's a revenue loss there that they have to try to come up with an answer for.
Joe DeLong: Well, you know, those tax cuts are on the state revenue side. You know, that's the income tax. So the only thing that they necessarily would impact is that state-local relationship, you know, municipal aid coming from the state to the local level, that type of thing. So but what's more disconcerting is, while we do the tax cuts that are very, you know, high priority and talked about, what people don't realize, at the same time, a lot of times, the General Assembly passes more mandates on towns and cities, which forced the property tax to go up. So what you see a lot that happens here is while people get a little bit of an income tax break, their property taxes go up and essentially cannibalize that.
Mike Hydeck: And car taxes, there was a cap on those as well, right? So is that revenue for cities and towns as well?
Joe DeLong: It is and it's part of the little bit of revenue diversification that we have. We all would like to see something done with the car tax. The car tax is very unfair the way that it's appropriated and applied, but you can't just outright eliminate it. Because what you do is you create a tremendous strain on homeowners and other areas within the property tax system without having a way to have actual broader tax reform than just the elimination of that tax.
Mike Hydeck: One of always the biggest budget items, the most contentious things, is when a city or town needs to build a new school, it's expensive. Bidding process is very extensive. There are concerns, environmental concerns, so on and so forth. Now, as we know, the school construction program system in Connecticut has changed dramatically in the last couple of years or so. How are your members viewing the way it is now as opposed to the way it was before?
Joe DeLong: Well, first off, let me say this. You know, if you have people who are the fan club of Taylor Swift, I would be the fan club of Michelle Gilman, the commissioner that oversees this. I think she has been great. She has been incredibly transparent to work with which is helpful. You know, there are still, you know, some challenges around the margins. And we still try to work on some areas, the reimbursement, but it is so much better than what it used to be. And one of the big, you know, obviously leaps that we made a couple of years ago was actually getting air quality eligible under that reimbursement program. Before, you know, the program in the past was was kind of bizarre. If your roof leaked, you could get a new roof. If your windows went bad, you could get new windows. If your HVAC system went bad, you had to build a whole new school to get state support. That just didn't make any sense. Commissioner Gilman has been great in working with us as well as the General Assembly and rectifying that issue.
Mike Hydeck: Now, you and I had talked once before and I think back then it was Kosta Diamantis, who was in some legal trouble for the way he handled the department. But one of the things that he said that 'look, there needs to be a general lifespan on an HVAC system that's agreed upon between the industry and schools and the state.' So if you have an HVAC system in a school where the school is fine, but the HVAC system is 50 years old, it should be reimbursed. Is that something you think should be in the offing? Or is that where it is now?
Joe DeLong: That's where we are now. You know, we've made that progress. Like I said before, the state wouldn't take that position. It was if the HVAC system goes bad, well, you just have to build a whole new school to get it. It made no sense at all, where now HVAC systems are treated much the same way as a roof is or is a window, you know, where we recognize that they do have an end of life. Now that doesn't wipe out the municipal responsibility for doing appropriate maintenance and repairs and all of those types of things. But we all, at least we now do recognize that these things don't last forever.
Mike Hydeck: Now, some of the critics and Diamantis had said this before, it's like some people, they take regular maintenance things and they push them aside and use that money for other things. That can still be a gray area that needs to maybe be addressed.
Joe DeLong: Well, yeah, I mean, deferred maintenance is something that we can't allow or tolerate, you know, and make you eligible for grants if you're not doing you're supposed to do. But now, the legislation requires like five-year inspections and those types of things on these systems. So there have been a lot of strides made in that area to make sure that that doesn't happen.
