An expert panel created under a new state law this year to study Connecticut’s state and local tax structure will hold its first meeting on Monday in Hartford, officials said.
The panel has 25 members and alternates appointed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and ranking members of the General Assembly’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee.
Sen. John Fonfara, the Hartford Democrat who co-chairs the panel with his house counterpart, said he hopes the group can help lawmakers better understand how taxes affect business owners’ siting and expansion decisions, as well as how they affect residents’ decisions to settle or retire in the state.
Republican Sen. L. Scott Frantz, a ranking committee member, said he hopes the panel can pinpoint taxes that are placing unnecessary burdens on families and employers.
The meeting will be held at 3 p.m. in the Legislative Office Building.
Panel members include: Anika Singh Lemar, clinical associate professor at Yale University; Lou Schatz, partner at Shipman and Goodwin; Tiana Gianopulos, senior counsel, at Day Pitney; Don Marchand, partner at Ivy, Barnum & O’Mara; John Soto, president and owner of Space-Craft Manufacturing; Yolanda Kodrzycki, director of the New England Public Policy Center; Alan Clavette, certified public accountant at Clavette & Co.; Robert Testo, principal of R.J. Testo & Associates; John Elsesser, town manager of Coventry; Bill Dyson, who was a state rep for 32 years; Bill Nickerson, CEO of Hoffman Management; Howard K. Hill, founder Howard K. Hill Funeral Services; Al Casella, partner at Murtha Cullina; Groton Mayor Marian Galbraith; William R. Breetz, counsel at Connecticut Urban League Initiative; Melinda Agsten (alternate), partner at Wiggin & Dana; and David Nee (alternate), board member at CT Voices.
Besides Frantz and Fonfara, ex-officio members include : Rep. Pat Widlitz, D-Guilford; Rep. Sean Williams, R-Watertown; House Speaker Brendan Sharkey; Sen. Don Williams, Senate president pro tempore; Ben Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management; and Kevin Sullivan, commissioner of the Department of Revenue Services.
