Legislative Update
5/15/2015
At the April board meeting CEDAS Policy Chairman John O’Toole and Commissioner Smith updated the board on legislation out of the Commerce Committee that appears to be gaining steam. It is hoped that CEDAS members will review this legislation and encourage their legislators to support those items that will improve Connecticut’s competitive position.
CEDAS_Policy_Committee_042715.pdf
It is reported that our primary legislative effort, SB 677, AN ACT ESTABLISHING TAX INCREMENT FINANCING DISTRICTS, has passed the Finance Committee and the vote was a unanimous 45-0 and will head back to the Senate for approval. We will keep members updated on developments.
Finally, the Committee notes that the Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee approved bill SB-1 which:
- Increases PILOT grants for certain municipalities, based on the percentage of certain tax-exempt real property on their grand lists;
- Establishes a minimum funding level for all municipalities receiving PILOTs equal to the amount they received in FY 15;
- Allows municipalities to establish a motor vehicle mill rate different than their rate for real and personal property;
- Caps motor vehicle rates at 29.36 mills;
- Establishes a mechanism for sharing sales tax revenues with towns and Councils of Government (COGs) using .5% sales tax revenue deposited in the Municipal Revenue Sharing Account (MRSA) under SB-946;
- Requires OPM to distribute the MRSA funds using a 3 step calculation;
- Requires COGs to use the sales tax distribution to establish a cooperative program among member towns to create efficiencies in delivering services and reducing the costs to the region; and
- Authorizes a COG to establish a property tax base sharing program under which its member municipalities share a portion of property tax revenues generated by the growth in their commercial and industrial property tax bases, subject to the unanimous agreement of the COG members.
For more information: info@cedas.org
INVEST IN OUR DOWNTOWNS’ FUTURE TODAY: Senate Bill 677 “An Act Establishing Tax Incremental Financing Districts”
next »
