CT lawmakers to study property tax proposal

HARTFORD — An effort to raise the rate at which Connecticut property values are assessed for tax purposes fell into the legislative dustbin on Tuesday, as lawmakers settled on establishing a task force to study the idea for the future.

Senate President ProTempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, proposed raising the statewide uniform assessment ratio from 70% to 75% — a move that would increase the value of taxable property in the state by $26.7 billion.

In order to avoid the tax hike on residents, many analyses of the bill assumed that municipalities would immediately reduce their property tax rates by an equal percentage to offset the cost.

While legislation to increase the uniform assessment rate passed the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee on a mostly party-line vote earlier this month, the bill was brought to the Senate floor on Tuesday with an amendment stripping out the proposal entirely and replacing it with a task force to study the economic impact of adjusting the ratio in the future.

A vocal proponent of raising revenues from Connecticut’s wealthiest residents through policies such as a mansion tax, Looney argued that by taxing properties below their market values, municipalities essentially forgo levying taxes on a large chunk of the most valuable homes.

Looney gave the example

of a $1 million home that is assessed at $700,000 under the current scheme, leaving $300,000 in property value untaxed. A more modest home valued at $200,000, meanwhile,

would have just $60,000 in untaxed value.

“There’s real issues of equity here,” Looney said Tuesday.

The proposal had drawn opposition from municipal leaders and Republicans,

who raised fears that the sudden shift would lead to confusion among taxpayers while overwhelming assessors, tax collectors and other municipal officials.

State Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, argued that making a sudden shift to the assessment ratio would “present an obvious political opportunity” for local officials to reduce tax rates in less-thanequal proportion to the higher assessments — essentially allowing them to raise new revenues while arguing that they had cut taxes.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Fazio and other Republicans unsuccessfully sought to broaden the scope of the task force to include an examination of the impact of unfunded state mandates on municipal budgets and taxes, which have long been a political target of the GOP.

After that amendment was defeated by the majority Democrats, the Senate voted 22 to 12 to send the study bill to the House for consideration.

When asked about the proposal on Wednesday morning, House Speaker Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, said it had the potential to reduce the “sticker shock” of high millage rates in many of Connecticut’s cities. (The speaker’s hometown, Hartford, is the only municipality in Connecticut not subject to the state’s uniform assessment ratio. Residential property in the capital city is currently assessed at 36.75% of market value).

“I think it’s worthy of a conversation,” Ritter said. “It’s an interesting idea.”

Ken Dixon/Hearst Connecticut Media Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, left, a New Haven Democrat, has argued that assessing Connecticut properties below their market value disproportionately benefits wealthy homeowners.