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Healthy Towns, Cities & Regions Are Key to

Connecticut’s Recovery

The depth of the gubernatorial and legislative commitment to towns, cities and regions is key to Connecticut’s successful economic recovery. Healthy towns, cities and regions are where job creation and economic development occur.

A strengthened state-local partnership is essential in ensuring that: • an equitable and adequate public education is within the grasp of every student no matter where they live; • poorer towns and cities have the resources to meet the public service needs of their residents and businesses

without overly burdensome property tax rates; • municipalities are not hobbled by unfunded and underfunded state mandates; and• towns, cities and regions are provided with the financial, technical and statutory tools necessary to forge new

service delivery and other cooperative ventures.

The future of Connecticut’s citizens, from our newborns to our seniors, depends on a reinvigorated state-local partnership.

CCM urges the Governor and the General Assembly to stay the right course and continue to avoid balancing the state budget on the backs of municipalities and their property taxpayers.

Now is the time for the State to strengthen its commitment to residential and business property taxpayers by maintaining and expanding critical state aid and revenue sharing, laying the foundation for a world-class PreK-12 public education system and enacting meaningful mandates reform.

We’re all in this together. The long-term well being of our citizens, our businesses and our quality-of-life depends on the ability of towns, cities, regions and the State to work as one. Municipal officials stand ready to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our state partners to ensure a better place for the people and businesses who call Connecticut home.

CCM’s 2014State

Legislative Priorities

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H Enact legislation early in the legislative session to send at least $12.7 million to municipalities to hold them harmless for the last quarter payments of the Municipal Revenue Sharing Account (MRSA). The current adopted state budget inadvertently limited the state revenue due to be paid to MRSA thereby short-changing towns and cities

H Restore the groundbreaking shared-tax allocations (state sales tax and state real

estate conveyance tax) to towns and cities from the Municipal Revenue Sharing Account in order to provide local property tax relief.

H Postpone any action that would significantly alter Connecticut’s state-local tax structure (e.g., elimination of the motor vehicle property tax, etc.) until the state Department of Revenue Services completes its tax incidence study (due by December 2014 at the latest).

H Correct state underfunding of education programs by ensuring that all PreK-12 stu-dents, no matter where they live, have ac-cess to an equitable and adequate public education. Modify the Education Cost Shar-ing (ECS) formula by:

l Increasing the ECS foundation level to reflect the actual cost educating students. The ECS formula should reflect not only an equitable funding mechanism, but an adequate one as identified in the CCJEF v. Rell lawsuit;l Increasing both the income and property wealth adjustment factors, from 1.5 to 2.0, and weighing the factors equally;l Accounting for the wide disparities in municipal service demand

(munici pal overburden) by adding a component to the ECS formula to equalize for municipal service demand and corresponding impacts on municipal budgets; and

l Phasing in full funding of the ECS increase over a reasonable period of time.

H Correct state underfunding of school districts with significant student-performance challenges by:

l Increasing funding for categorical grants;

l Expanding school district and school eligibility for these programs to ensure that all performance gaps are addressed; andl Expanding state technical assistance to such districts.

H Provide substantive early childhood educa-tion investments to help close the Achieve-ment Gap.

H Provide for eventual state take-over of special education assessments and services. Special education costs now exceed $1.7 billion a year and unfairly burden host communities. Special education students should be a responsibility of the state as a whole not just the host community.

H Provide state financial and technical assistance to combat recidivism.

H Modify certification requirements for school superintendents to permit school districts to choose qualified superintendents from non-traditional but relevant management and other backgrounds.

H Cooperate with municipalities to credit in-kind services (e.g., building maintenance, snow removal, administrative services, etc.) when calculating the Minimum Budget Requirement (MBR).

Support StateAid to

Hometowns

AssistStruggling

CoreCommunities

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H Maintain and expand state financial and other incentives for cost-effective intermunicipal and regional cooperation. Empower Councils of Government (COGs) or two or more municipalities to:

l deliver services on a regional basis;l negotiate multi-municipal master contracts with municipal employee and teacher unions; and l make land use decisions on regionally- significant projects.

H Increase state investments in the Regional Performance Incentive Program (RPIP) Grant – and ensure that the grant application and deadline process coincide with the connectivity priorities and objectives of the Nutmeg Network.

H Reinvest in planning and technical assistance capacity at OPM to assist COGs and municipalities in collaborative efforts.

H Enact a Constitutional amendment or statutory prohibition to prohibit the passage of new or expanded unfunded or underfunded state mandates without a 2/3 vote of both chambers of the General Assembly.

H Modify the requirements for posting legal notices in newspapers to allow municipalities the ability to publish notice of the availability of a particular document on their website, instead of having to publish the entire document.

H Allow municipalities to defer revaluations to (a) provide savings from the cost of conducting them, and (b) provide a measure of relief to hard-pressed residential property taxpayers.

H Modify state-mandated compulsory binding arbitration laws to establish that grievance arbitration and unfair labor practice awards be issued no later than 60 days following the date post-hearing briefs are filed, in order to ensure statutorily-set timelines for the issuance of decisions in cases before the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration and the State Board of Labor Relations.

H Amend the State’s prevailing wage rate mandate: (a) adjust the thresholds for renovation construction projects from $100,000 to $400,000; (b) adjust the thresholds for new construction projects from $400,000 to $1 million; and (c) index both thresholds for inflation thereafter.

H Create a new retirement plan within MERS: a “MERS C” option – that offers a more limited, defined-contribution plan. Allow municipalities to enroll new employees in the new plan, regardless of retirement or pension provisions affecting current employees. Exclude such new employees from collectively bargaining pension benefits beyond those provided by MERS C, and allow existing employees to be enrolled in the MERS C system by mutual agreement through collective bargaining.

H Phase-out the burdensome tax on health insurance premiums by (a) cutting the tax rate by 50% beginning 2015, and by another 25% for 2016, and (b) eliminating the premium tax on municipalities altogether for 2017. The health insurance premium tax on municipalities is 1.75% tax on fully insured municipal premiums.

FosterRegional

Collaboration

ReformState

Mandates

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H Establish a new funding stream for a grant program to cover the costs associated with the placement and training of School Resource Officers. As an alternative option to SROs, provide that the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection develop statewide standards and training for new School Security Advocates (SSAs) or other such officials. The Advocates’ duties and activities would be similar to those of SROs, except for any sworn law enforcement duties.

H Assist municipalities in implementing additional school safety measures by significantly increasing funding for the school security grant program.

H Allow municipalities to create a policing district for any area that contains a high concentration of permitted liquor establishments. Amending CGS Sec.

7-339r would ensure that the cost of such necessary additional police services can be assessed to those establishments that are serving liquor and attracting crowds.

H Provide that the Chief of Police of a municipality be notified of any liquor permit renewals. In addition, require that any comments provided by the Chief on such renewal shall be considered by the Department of Consumer Protection prior to a decision on the issuance of such renewal.

H Grant municipalities the authority to seek an injunction to close down any establishment, once there is substantial evidence of a serious threat to public health, safety and/or welfare, as determined by the Police, Fire, Public Health, Building Inspector and/or Public Works Departments.

Enhance Safety Within

Communities

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ADDITIONAL 2014 STATE LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM ITEMS(Listed by likely General Assembly committee of cognizance.)

APPROPRIATIONS

1. Fund critical state aid to towns and cities at statutorily-set levels. State aid to municipalities continues to deteriorate, this is particularly true for state payments-in-lieu-of-tax (PILOT) programs. Any additional cuts to our hometowns would exacerbate the burden of the property tax and force local service cuts.

CHILDREN

1. Protect needed services for the vulnerable, at-risk and/or underprivileged by:

(a) Increasing funding for school readiness slots so more children are afforded the proven benefits of early education; and

(b) Supporting funding for programs and services

that reduce youth violence, such as evening and weekend teen programs, family resource centers, youth service initiatives, afterschool and summer programs, and Youth Service Bureaus.

EDUCATION

1. Provide needed relief from special education mandates and dependability of state funding of local special education services by:

(a) The State adopting the federal standards pertaining to the “burden of proof” for special education services, as is current procedure in

almost all other states; and

(b) The State assumes 100 percent of special education costs. In lieu of taking on 100 percent of costs, providing, at a minimum, special education funding to municipalities as follows: (i) a guaranteed level of funding that does not change during the course of the fiscal year; (ii) decreasing the Excess Cost reimbursement threshold to at

most 2.0 times the district’s average per pupil ex- penditure or $25,000, whichever is less; and (iii) fully funding the state’s portion.

2. Alleviate the burden of the Minimum Budget Requirement (MBR) by:

(a) The State increasing the amount a district can reduce its expenditures due to lower student

enrollments to $5,000 per pupil, from the current $3,000; and

(b) The State increasing the total allowable reduction in expenditures due to documented cost savings from regional efficiencies, to 1.0 percent from the current 0.5 percent. 3. Require the State to undertake a needs-capacity gap

analysis of preK-12 education in each district. The analysis would identify cost drivers in each school district and the capacity of each town to generate own-source revenue to fund preK-12 education.

ENVIRONMENT

1. Increase incentives for the State brownfield program, including:

(a) Providing additional consideration for using brownfield sites for proposed Virtual Net Metering projects; and

(b) Increase funding for the remediation and redevelopment of brownfields.

2. Ensure that municipalities do not incur increased costs related to any proposed changes to the organizational or operating structure of in state trash-to-energy facilities and support the classification of trash-to-energy facilities as Class I Renewable Energy Sources, or the increased value of Class II Renewable Energy Credits.

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3. Provide de facto mandate relief to towns and cities by eliminating the provision that “enables” municipal offi-cials to enforce and issue state fines in order to enforce the ban on bamboo plants, per PA 13-82. The issuance of state fines is a function that should be carried out by state DEEP enforcement officers.

FINANCE, REVENUE AND BONDING

1. Postpone any recommendation that would alter Con-necticut’s state-local tax structure (motor vehicle or otherwise) until the State Department of Revenue Ser-vices completes its tax incidence study, required to be completed by December 2014 (pursuant to Section 330 of Public Act 13-247). Any proposal to eliminate, or amend, critical local tax revenues should first be thoroughly exam-ined via comprehensive data analyses.

2. Full funding the last quarter payments of the Municipal Revenue Sharing Account (MRSA) earmarked for towns and cities. Tax receipts derived from the statutorily-set por-tions of the sales, use, and real estate conveyance taxes – collected on or prior to June 30, 2013 – should have been deposited into MRSA and dispersed to municipalities. Use all of the tax revenues collected prior to June 30, 2013 to at least hold municipalities harmless to the amount dispersed to municipalities in 2012.

3. Amend CGS Section 12-494 to clarify that conveyance taxes are due on both land and improvements to that land when such properties are conveyed.

GOVERNMENT, ADMINISTRATION AND ELECTIONS

1. Add more reason and clarity to the Freedom of Information Act by:

(a) Providing municipal CEOs with executive privilege

status similar to that granted to the Governor; and

(b) Clarifying the scope of the pending litigation exemption in the Act. Plaintiffs often use the FOIA to circumvent limitations on discovery in civil cases which apply to all other litigants or to increase municipal defense costs as a bargaining chip.

HOUSING

1. Modify the Land Use Affordable Housing Appeals Process by encouraging the development of housing in areas consistent with Smart Growth principles. This would enable municipalities to prevent developers from using this process to circumvent zoning laws, and build affordable housing according to the state’s smart growth strategy.

JUDICIARY

1. Assist municipal officials in ensuring the public safety and welfare in communities by:

(a) Requiring the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) and the State Judicial Department to notify upon the release from custody, the chief executive officer, in addition to the local police department notification that a registered sex offender resides or plans to reside in their municipality;

(b) Allowing municipalities to adopt local ordinances to restrict the placement of registered sex offenders within a designated distance of an elementary or secondary school or a licensed center or home-based child day care facility, or other potentially vulnerable population facilities, such as nursing homes, senior centers or public libraries; and

(c) Developing a comprehensive inventory of half- way houses, supervised living facilities, and

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community residences that provide rehabilitation services that receive state or federal funding. Domestic violence shelters would be excluded from this inventory.

LABOR AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

1. Amend CGS 31-53(g) to adjust the thresholds that trigger the prevailing wage mandate for public construction projects for (i) renovation construction projects, from $100,000 to $400,000; and (ii) new construction projects, from $400,000 to $1 million. Both thresholds should then be indexed for inflation thereafter. State prevailing wage mandate thresholds have not been amended since 1991. A modest adjustment would free-up scarce state and local dollars and jumpstart and expand projects.

2. Modify state-mandated compulsory binding arbitration laws to amend CGS 31-98(a) and 31-107 to require that grievance arbitration and unfair labor practice awards be issued no later than 60 days following the date post-hearing briefs are filed. This would establish timelines for the issuance of decisions in cases before both the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration, and the State Board of Labor Relations.

3. Amend the Municipal Employee Retirement System (MERS) to:

(a) Adjust the statutorily set MERS employee contribution rates by 1% annually over the next three years (but, not to exceed 15% of a pension per year) to a total employee contribution to MERS of 5.25%. Municipal contribution rates have risen each year – approximately 444% (for public safety employees), and 392% for all others employees over the last decade. Employee contribution rates are statutorily set and have never been adjusted; and

(b) Create a new retirement plan within MERS: a “MERS C” option – that offers a more limited, defined-contribution plan. Allow municipalities to enroll new employees in the new plan, regardless of retirement or pension provisions affecting current employees. Exclude such new employees from collectively bargaining pension benefits beyond those provided by MERS C, and allow existing employees to be enrolled in the MERS C system by mutual agreement through collective bargaining.

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PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

1. Provide relief to municipalities from unfunded state mandates by:

(a) Modifying the requirements for posting legal notices in newspapers to allow municipalities the ability to publish notice of the availability of a particular document on their website, instead of having to publish the entire document;

(b) Enacting a Constitutional amendment or statutory

prohibition to prohibit the passage of unfunded or underfunded state mandates without a 2/3 vote of both chambers of the General Assembly;

(c) Phasing-out taxes on local health insurance

premiums;

(d) Eliminating the requirement that municipalities store the possessions of evicted tenants;

(e) Allowing operating costs, including rent and

office supplies, of Probate Courts to come out of State Probate fees; and

(f) Eliminating the requirement that a standard environmental fee be collected by municipalities for building permits, and remitted to the

Department of Environmental Protection and Energy. Instead, create a tiered fee system based on the scope of each project.

2. Encourage regional cooperation by: (a) Providing flexibility to towns and cities applying for

regional performance incentive grants, including waivers from certain strident and unnecessarily complicated requirements; and

(b) Allowing municipalities to establish regional storm water authorities.

3. Create a state agency management council, overseen by OPM, that will meet on a scheduled basis to facilitate municipal development projects that involve coordination between multiple state agencies.

4. Promote livable communities by: (a) Amending CGS Section 19a-342 to authorize

towns and cities to adopt no smoking zones for parks and town buildings; and

(b) Allowing for a local option to prohibit recreational shooting within 500 feet of residential buildings. Current statute only prohibits hunting within 500 feet of residential buildings.

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PUBLIC HEALTH

1. Allow local officials the option to decide their EMS pro-vider and the terms of contracts, particularly to change EMS providers that fail to provide adequate services. Spe-cifically, amend CGS 19a-177 by which the Department of Public Health (DPH) designates the ambulance service provider for each primary service area (PSA).

PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY

1. Amend CGS Section 29-5 by: (a) Providing towns and cities with advanced notice

from the State of potential fringe benefit rate increases for the Resident State Trooper program;

(b) Capping the towns’ responsibility for fringe benefit costs associated with the Resident State Troopers regular salary costs at 70%;

(c) Reducing the municipal contribution rate for Resident State Trooper overtime costs from 100% to 70%; and

(d) Eliminating the requirement that the host municipality pay for the fringe benefit costs directly associated with the Resident State Troopers overtime costs.

2. Allow municipal chief executive officers (CEOs) of municipalities that do not have organized police departments to designate a State Troop as the issuing authority for firearm permits. Current state law specifically tasks the chief of police, or, where there is no chief of police, the warden of the borough or the first selectman of the town, as the issuing authority for pistol permits.

TRANSPORTATION

1. Enact legislation that improves the development of sidewalks in our communities and empowers municipalities to collect fees-in-lieu-of-sidewalk (FILOS) installation (similar to provisions allowing payments in lieu of open space) that would:

(a) Impose no new costs on developers; (b) Require FILOS to be deposited into an account to be

used for sidewalk installation; (c) Limit FILOS to be no more than the costs of

installation that would have been incurred; and (d) Allow municipalities to provide incentives to

developers opting to pay the FILOS.

2. Improve the State’s commitment to the safety and integrity of local infrastructure by investing additional funding for the Local Bridge Program (CGS 13a-175q).

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If you have any questions, please contact Ron Thomas (rthomas@ccm-ct.org), Bob Labanara (rlabanara@ccm-ct.org), Randy Collins (rcollins@ccm-ct.org), Chelsey Worth (cworth@ccm-ct.org),

or Mike Muszynski (mmuszynski@ccm-ct.org), at 203-498-3000.

ccm-ct.org

T he Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) is Connecticut’s statewideassociation of towns and cities. CCM is an inclusionary organization that celebratesthe commonalities between, and champions the interests of, urban, suburban andrural communities. CCM represents municipalities at the General Assembly, before thestate executive branch and regulatory agencies, and in the courts. CCM providesmember towns and cities with a wide array of other services, including managementassistance, individualized inquiry service, assistance in municipal labor relations,technical assistance and training, policy development, research and analysis,publications, information programs, and service programs such as workers’compensation and liability-automobile-property insurance, risk management, andenergy cost-containment. Federal representation is provided by CCM in conjunctionwith the National League of Cities. CCM was founded in 1966.

CCM is governed by a Board of Directors, elected by the member municipalities, with dueconsideration given to geographical representation, municipalities of different sizes, anda balance of political parties. Numerous committees of municipal officials participatein the development of CCM policy and programs. CCM has offices in New Haven(headquarters) and in Hartford.

900 Chapel Street, 9th Floor

New Haven, Connecticut 06510-2807

Tel: (203) 498-3000

Fax: (203) 562-6314

E-mail: ccm@ccm-ct.org

Web Site: www.ccm-ct.org

™

CONNECTICUTCONFERENCE OFMUNICIPALITIES

CCM: THE STATEWIDE ASSOCIATION OF TOWNS AND CITIES