The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Crunching the numbers
Officials look at how the state budget will affect their towns
GOSHEN — Fresh from a deadline-beating vote Wednesday night in Hartford, three legislators visited the Northwest Hills Council of Governments on Thursday to reveal how the 21-town region fared financially for the upcoming 2019 fiscal year.
State Rep. Brian Ohler, R-North Canaan, shared a comprehensive document with the council members that detailed how the budget would affect each municipality.
“It’s not the financial situation we had in the last three years,” said state Sen. Craig Miner, RLitchfield. That was good news for council members who were gathered for their monthly meeting. “It’s level funding, we inherently increased the funding level.”
Torrington Mayor Elinor Carbone did not see it that way.
“We’re being punished for being a distressed city,” she told the group. “This budget doesn’t do me any favors.”
Based on information provided by the legislators, Torrington would receive additional state funds of $182,406 for the 2019 fiscal year, which begins in July. But, the city saw a budget decrease of $603,276 from the state in fiscal year 2018 in what is called “hold backs.”
“I have a $5 million hole,” Carbone said.
Litchfield lost $15,085 in its education cost-sharing grant for the 2019 fiscal year. The grant for the upcoming fiscal year is $1,330,818, down from an appropriated amount of $1,345,903, which was never voted on by the Legislature.
Included in the state budget is the municipal transition grant, also called the car tax grant. The law would allow municipalities to increase the motor vehicle tax rate cap from 39 mills to 43 mills. The increase, according to the document,
“We’re being punished for being a distressed city. This budget doesn’t do me any favors.”
Torrington Mayor Elinor Carbone
would allow municipalities to offset their losses in grant funding. The special transportation fund and the gas tax could bring in more money, as well, Miner said.
“This is a veto-proof document,” said state Rep. Jay Case, R-Winsted. “This year the document was 100 pages compared to 800 pages in past years.”