The new speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives sees lower property taxes as a key to businesses’ competitiveness in a global marketplace.
To get those property taxes more in line with other states and nations, Brendan Sharkey says Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns must lower their expenses through regionalizing services.
“There are simple things towns can do on a collaborative basis,” Sharkey said. “Municipal governments have to do much more with less.”
Sharkey (D-Hamden) was first elected to the Connecticut House in 2000 and was named House majority leader for 2011-2012. With Christopher Donovan stepping down as speaker for the 2013 legislative session, which starts Jan. 8, Sharkey was elected by his fellow Democrats to the highest position in the House.
Sharkey says he is the first small business owner to hold the Connecticut speaker position in the past 20 years. He owns Hamden permitting consultant firm AmeriZone LLC.
“As a speaker, you can have more of an impact in making stuff happen,” Sharkey said.
For Sharkey, his new leadership position gives him the opportunity to address his pet project of smart growth in Connecticut. By coordinating services such as education, transportation, housing, and tax policy, the state’s municipalities can permanently lower their costs and property tax rates, Sharkey said.
“The notion of regionalism is a big part of that,” Sharkey said.
Schools can do simple things to cut costs, such as developing a uniform school calendar for a region, which increases purchasing power for bus contracts, Sharkey said. They can hire one firm to develop the curriculum for an entire region, rather than individual school districts all hiring individual firms.
“There are things that can drastically reduce the cost of local education,” Sharkey said.
With the state facing a projected $2.1 billion budget deficit over the next two years, cities and town might not have much choice. The legislature has avoided making cuts to municipal aid since the economic downturn began in 2008, but those cuts definitely will be on the table in the upcoming budget discussions, Sharkey said, especially since the state would be unwise to raise taxes or cut programs for businesses.
Out of the crisis for municipalities comes opportunity. By regionalizing out of necessity because of municipal aid cuts now, cities and towns can form partnerships in perpetuity, Sharkey said.
“Looking forward, this will be an ongoing thing,” Sharkey said.
The state government will work with local government to help the process along, such as eliminating unfunded mandates upon municipalities, he said.
Connecticut also can provide startup money to help defray some of the costs of regionalization, such as the $300,000 grant given to Greater Hartford municipalities to develop a regional online building permit system.
“The obstacle for a municipality is ‘where can I find an extra $50,000 to collaborate with my neighbors?’,” Sharkey said. “We can provide that.”
Connecticut cities and towns have faced rising costs for the past several years, so the decision to cut those expenses through regionalization should be an easy one, Sharkey said.
“They already have the incentive,” Sharkey said. “Now we just need to do it.”
