Hamden

In an email to his constituents on Wednesday, Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, wrote “there will necessarily be a combination of property tax increases or loss of services,” in Hamden, which has been struggling under crushing debt and unfunded pension liabilities for well over a decade. Elliott’s email includes a lengthy ...

The Land of the Sleeping Giant has a giant sized debt problem.

Welcome to the Connecticut Municipal Employee Retirement System (CMERS), a state-run pension plan for local public employees that’s a little like the Hotel California: Once you’re in, good luck getting out. This state restriction on towns in CMERS stands in the way of reforms that would make retirement benefits for municipal employees safer and more sustainable – and it should be repealed.