Are Taxpayers in East Lyme, Old Lyme, and Lyme Being Asked to Pay for Too Much?

Connecticut’s towns have seen little increase in financial assistance from the state in the last five years and remain overly dependent on property taxes, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) says.

CCM, the main lobbying group for the state's 169 municipalities, released a bulletin Monday to candidates for the state’s General Assembly urging them to make education funding a priority in the coming year, according to the Connecticut Mirror.

In East Lyme, Old Lyme, and Lyme, the bulk of the budget each year is paid for by property taxes and the lion's share of the budget goes to cover the cost of education. In towns throughout Connecticut, the story is the same.  

State aid for towns overall stands at about $3 billion per year, while Connecticut’s 169 towns collectively raise about $9 billion annually from local property taxes, James Finley, CCM’s executive director, told the Mirror.

But while property owners have seen local mill rates go up, state aid to towns has remained relatively flat over the last five years. When you factor in the rate of inflation, that means towns have actually lost financial ground during that five-year period, Finley added. At the same time, the state continues to burden towns with unfunded or underfunded mandates, particularly in the realm of education, and tax payers are being forced to foot the bill. 

The state aid figures represent an over-dependence by towns on local property taxes, something the General Assembly should address by closing shortfalls in education funding to towns, Finley said.

"The key to property tax relief is education finance reform," Finley told the Mirror. "The overdependence on the property tax is unsustainable, and hometown Connecticut is in desperate need of revenue assistance."