State mulls cost of America’s 250th birthday
Many states, particularly the original 13 colonies, will celebrate America’s 250th birthday in 2026.
Connecticut is brainstorming not only what that celebration will look like, but also how to pay for it — including a proposed tax increase on hotels and rental cars.
That’s one of two proposals being considered by the state legislature to pay for the semiquincentennial celebration, beginning in 2026, 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
The other option, according to state Rep. Maria Horn, D-Salisbury, is to bond for the $30 million. The bonding legislation would authorize the state to borrow money that would be paid back with tax dollars at a later date.
Under the first proposal, the hotel tax would be temporarily increased from 15 percent to 15.615 percent, and the sales and use taxes on rental cars would go from 9.35 percent to 9.965 percent, with the additional funds from those increases to be used for the America 250 semiquincentennial initiative.
The goal, Horn said, is to talk about both proposals
to determine the right way to pay for the celebration. If the plan is to build infrastructure that would be around to aid in the state’s tourism efforts for years to come, then maybe bonding is appropriate, she said, “but I think this bill provided us the opportunity to have that conversation.”
Horn explained that the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, of which she is co-chair, can learn more when a bill to raise taxes is being considered — even if those taxes are, as in this case, for a specific and limited amount of time.
“Bonding proposals have a different process. They don’t get heard separately
in the finance committee,” she said. “But revenue proposals do, and so this gives us the opportunity to have the commission members testify about what exactly they plan to do.”
Horn said the tax increase was proposed as a “conversation piece,” but Ginny Kozlowski, executive director of the Connecticut Lodging Association, said she and her organization would oppose any bill to raise taxes on hotels and rental cars.
“We don’t think it should come out of a hotel occupancy tax or an increase in the food beverage tax or any increase in the tax if bonding is an option,” she said.
As of now, there is no time frame for when a decision will be made.
The semiquincentennial would theoretically be a way to bring tourists and tourism dollars to the state, and Kozlowski sees an increase in the cost of staying in the state as a barrier to that.
“We are still in recovery mode as a sector. Our numbers look okay, but our business patterns have shifted,” she said.
The governor established a commission to determine the plans for the America 250 celebration. Those plans have not yet been determined, though themes have been established: “Tell inclusive stories,” “Power of place,” “Doing history” and “For the common good.” Members of the commission include tribal leaders, former officials and representatives from cultural and historical organizations.
Jason Mancini, executive director of Connecticut Humanities and vice chairman of the America 250 Commission, said conversations on how to best celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary began “very early March of 2020.”
“It was like the following week [that] COVID struck. So that all sort of came to a crashing halt,” he said.
The commission’s hope, Mancini said, is “to get into every community across Connecticut.”
“Some of the low-hanging fruit is working with the commissioners and our cultural leaders to create content that might emerge as a banner-type exhibit,” he said. “The content can be really rich, and we can create 169 versions of these, get them into town halls or public libraries as a starting point for towns to really think about how to commemorate — what does it mean to us, what does it mean to them, what does it mean to Connecticut.”
As Horn suggested, Mancini said the commission’s hope is for the investment to go beyond a single day.
“July 4, 2026 is a date on the calendar,” he said. “It’s really the next eight years or so that we’re thinking about and how to tell Connecticut’s story and put Connecticut back on the map with respect to its role in the constitution of this nation.”
Plans aren’t solid yet, Mancini said, because the commission does not know how much money they will have.
“We’re also scenario planning,” he said. “We’re planning if we get $30 million, we’re planning if we get $0. The impact is going to be vastly different, depending on where we stand.”
The national America 250 commission has been mired in controversy and lawsuits over alleged mismanagement and discrimination, according to multiple reports. CEO Joe Daniels resigned after a single year in the position.
Mancini said the national commission has “dangled $10,000 to be an affiliate and to use their logo” but the state group has “kept the whole thing at an arm’s length.”
“They haven’t earned a lot of trust from the state commissions,” he said. “There’s been a lot of money put in their hands.”
Mancini, though, said it’s an opportunity to reflect on the nation’s founding principles, and to have the entire anniversary be more meaningful.
“We can talk about history, but I think in this civic moment, we feel very frail,” he said. “We want to create an environment where we’re recommitting to democracy and I think if we’re not talking about that, if we’re not making a meaningful investment in that, then we’re missing the whole point of 250 years, if we can’t even imagine the next 250.”