Connecticut’s big cities need new sources of revenue to cope with soaring expenses.
It’s encouraging that they are trying to look beyond property tax hikes to solve their problem. City property owners already carry more than their share of the burden for funding cities that support major institutions — mainly colleges and hospitals — that are largely tax-exempt.
But the alternatives they’ve offered so far aren’t workable either.
Last month, the mayors of New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford and New London floated the idea of adding a penny to the 6 cent state sales tax on goods and services in their cities. That plan sank after lawmakers saw that it would drive businesses out of the higher-tax towns.
Now the mayors, backed by Rep. Cameron Staples of New Haven, are pushing for a 6 percent sales tax on delivery charges for packages shipped in Connecticut. It passed the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee on a party line vote without a public hearing.
Because the tax would be very complicated to administer, the state has only a murky idea of how much it would raise. It’s never a good idea to enact a tax without a firm understanding of who it helps and hurts. According to Kevin Maloney, president of Northeast Express Transportation, an opponent of the bill, only two other states have experimented with delivery taxes, and both have repealed it.
If the delivery tax fails, the mayors are left in a bind. But the answer is not another rash, last-minute surprise that dumps the tax burden on the unsuspecting at a high cost to the state economy.
The mayors would like a special tax. We’d like a public hearing.
