Is Manchester Too Dependent on Property Taxes?

Connecticut’s 169 municipalities have gotten little increased financial help from the state in the last five years and remain overly dependent on state aid, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities says.

CCM, the main lobbying group for local communities, released a bulletin Monday to candidates for the state’s General Assemblyurging them to make education funding a priority in the coming year, according to the Connecticut Mirror.

In Manchester, for the 2012-13 fiscal year, a 2.2 percent increase in spending over the previous year. State funding to Manchester has been relatively flat over the past several years, also the Manchester Board of Education is able to apply for a $1.34 million "Alliance Grant" as an underperforming school district; the BOE is still waiting to hear the results of its grant application from the state, but those funds were not factored into the town's current budget. 

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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. 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.

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."