Session next week with state leaders: Small-town leaders gird for bad news on aid

Officials from small towns around the state will head to Hartford next week for a briefing on legislative issues that are impacting their communities.

The Connecticut Council of Small Towns (COST) will host  Town Leaders Day at the Capitol on April 28. COST is a 35-year-old group that advocates for the state’s 120 towns with 30,000 or fewer residents. There are 169 total towns in the state

From the Northwest Corner, Cornwall First Selectman Gordon Ridgway is among those planning to attend.

The news, as this legislative session nears an end, is not good.

Three key issues lobbied for by COST — changes that would save municipalities from some of the burden of unfunded mandates — have already failed.

An unfunded mandate is a situation where the state requires towns to offer a service or program, for example, but does not offer any financial support to implement that service or program.

Making matters potentially more dire is Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s plan to cut $45 million in grants to towns. The legislature’s Appropriations Committee has made a request that state aid to towns  remain at the same level; that request will be undermined if the governor’s plan succeeds.

It is anticipated Rell will also divert Pequot and PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) grants (which are normally sent to towns) to help offset the state budget deficit.

‘We’re not being heard’

COST Executive Director Bart Russell told The Lakeville  Journal in an interview this week that it is not too late to fight for some concessions in this legislative session.

Constituents should contact their representatives with concerns, he advised.

But he believes that meaningful change won’t come about until the state government acknowledges that the majority of its municipalities are small towns. Legislation, therefore, needs to be designed so it applies to more than just the big cities. This is an oft-repeated criticism voiced by Northwest Corner town officials, who feel that the state tries too often to create “one-size-fits-all� legislation — often creating costs that towns have trouble finding the money to pay for.

“The state may look at it from a bigger perspective, but we’re talking real money for small towns already running on a shoestring,� Russell said. “There doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency on the part of legislators to put through any solutions, and there is increasing frustration among local leaders who feel they are not being heard.�

Russell said it is not the fault of those representing districts with small towns; they’re simply dominated by urban policymakers who are better able to push through legislation that is not appropriate in scale to small towns.

“Every unfunded mandate has an interest group behind it,� Russell said. “There is no equity in power at the capitol because large population centers have more representation.�

COST will continue to push, as it has for years now, for change to unfunded mandates.

One of the top three issues it hoped would make it through in this tough economic time: a proposal requiring two-third majority votes in both the House and Senate when considering any new unfunded mandates.

Also on the wish list: a repeal of requirements for prevailing wage and collective bargaining requirements.

Both are very costly to small towns trying to conduct the normal business of completing capital projects and negotiating union contracts, Russell said.

And there is a proposal to delay for two years the implementation of a statute eliminating out-of-school suspensions for students.

The cost of supervising students serving in-school suspensions includes hiring substitute teachers, and is expected to have a big impact on some district budgets.

“It is frustrating because these are things that don’t cost the state anything,� Russell said. “They just add to the burdens on small towns.�

In North Canaan, First Selectman Douglas Humes echoed those thoughts. He said he has had little luck in getting through a plan to allow towns to give tax breaks to new businesses.

“It would help them get started by giving them a break on personal property taxes, which is taxes on their business equipment, for the first couple of years,� Humes said. “They would still pay real estate taxes and state sales tax. It wouldn’t cost the state anything, and it might actually make money if new businesses could get up and running.�

On the opposite side of the coin, though, Russell agrees with proposals by legislators to penalize towns that resist regionalization efforts.

Bills have been passed that allow, for example, municipalities to join together to gain bargaining strength to buy health insurance.

The Northwest Corner has already established much in the way of regionalization, much of it coming through the Region One school district and through land planning efforts.

The 2010 regular legislative session ends May 5.