House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, and a group of fellow legislators has renewed the call for the state to repeal its local motor vehicle property tax.
The More Commission, a group of legislators organized in February with a stated goal of helping cities and towns reduce costs, said in a statement that it will push for the repeal in next year’s legislative session.
A similar effort this year failed after a bill made it through the House but was not voted on by the Senate before the session adjourned. It faced heavy opposition from cities and towns, who get millions of dollars each year from the taxes.
The commission also plans to push for several provisions that would save municipalities money, including a previously attempted repeal of the mandate that they advertise public notices in area newspapers, as well as consolidation of health departments.
One provision that did pass in this year’s legislative session was the creation of a reimbursement special account for cities and towns in anticipation of the eventual elimination of the tax law.
The account was seeded with $4.9 million from the current state budget.
The commission said Connecticut is the only state in the country in which every town has a different mill rate for motor vehicle taxes, which it described as regressive and onerous.
The rates vary significantly. Hartford’s fiscal 2014 rate is $74.29 per $1,000 of value, West Hartford’s is $36.30 and Salisbury’s is $10.40.
Virginia has a similar tax law, in which the mill rate is set by county.
