Fasano says Gov. Lamont’s criticism of towns is off base [WTNH]

Report via WTNH News 8

The mid summer pilgrimage to your city or town hall to pay the first installment of your local Property Taxes has been in the rear view mirror now for nearly a month but the sting of a tax hike may still be hurting for many.

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities says that Property Taxes went up in almost 80% of Connecticut’s communities that did not go through re-evaluation this year.

During last year’s debates, then candidate Ned Lamont, repeatedly said that Property Tax relief was a top priority, but when his first state budget was signed, there was none.

When asked about those local Property Tax hikes this week, the Governor turned it around, again plugging his proposal to regionalize services, especially in education. Lamont said, “They’ve got to do a better job of managing. You could get extraordinary savings if they could just regionalize delivery of some of these services.”

The Republican leader in the State Senate, Sen. Len Fasano (R-North Haven) says that criticism is way off base adding, “Our small towns do a great job in managing their funds…and they’re already shared services. Many towns will partner with the town next door on either machinery or snow plowing or what have you.”

The Governor says he wanted to do Property Tax relief but couldn’t get it included in the budget, but says it did achieve a major goal; “We provided funding under the E.C.S. (Education Cost Sharing) formula on time. We did not cut back on municipal aid, and again, I emphasize on time so people had a chance of plan accordingly.”

Fasano retorting, “Getting something on time and getting it wrong is not a very good process. So to argue; ‘well it was on time be happy,’ that’s like finishing a house but you can’t get a certificate of occupancy because it’s poorly constructed, but he did it on time.”

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities says that per-capita property tax burden in Connecticut is about $2,800 which is about twice the national average.