A proposal to increase the Connecticut sales tax by .5 percent and send the increased revenue to municipalities received a public hearing on Wednesday before the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, testified in support of his bill proposal saying Connecticut municipalities need ...
Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget chief offered a roadmap for Governor elect Ned Lamont’s new administration, which included eliminating scheduled tax cuts, cutting back Medicaid, reducing state aid to some municipalities, and transferring some teacher pension costs onto towns and cities.
Connecticut would have to pay 35 percent of its tax revenue over 30 years in order to meet all its pension and retiree healthcare liabilities, according to a report by financial powerhouse JP Morgan. In their ARC of the Covenants 2.0 report, which examines credit risk for municipal bond holders, JP Morgan listed Connecticut as one of four states including New Jersey, Illinois and Kentucky, as having the highest retirement liabilities.
Governor Dannel Malloy released his executive order allocating state funds to towns and cities on Friday, zeroing out education funds for 85 towns across Connecticut. The order also eliminated payment-in-lieu-of-taxes for hospitals, colleges and state owned property, and casino revenue grants.
Facing a $3 billion deficit over the next two years, Malloy appears poised to propose a budget that achieves balance without significantly raising state taxes. At the same time, Malloy's changes to education funding could result in property tax increases in some towns. Malloy's proposal has three main components: changing the Education Cost Sharing formula, creating a separate fund for special education and changing the minimum budget requirement for towns.