[BPt111]

HARTFORD -- Connecticut's towns and cities want the General Assembly to enact property-tax relief, reform education financing and invest more money into infrastructure. That's the agenda of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities as the Legislature readies for the 21-week budget-setting session that starts Wednesday.
But Ron Thomas, director of public policy and advocacy for the CCM, conceded during a news conference this morning that with a projected multi-billion-dollar deficit confronting lawmakers, the main struggle could center on retaining current levels of state aid.
The CCM agenda, developed among town and city leaders during the fall and early winter, stresses that municipalities are forced into an over-reliance on local property taxes. Thomas said that so-called payments in lieu of taxes -- aid to communities that support tax-exempt colleges and hospitals -- is only about half of what state statutes require.
The CCM also wants state government to take over the entire cost of local special education programs.
"We're asking that the Legislature hold harmless municipalities and that there are no cuts in aid to their level of funding for FY '15," Thomas said, noting that the organization wants a $600 million hole in public-education funding to be remedied.
Thomas said that transportation infrastructure investment is a new area of lobbying for the group, but stressed the importance of protecting such funding from being taken to balance other areas of the two-year budget that takes effect July 1. Deficit projects range from $2.4 billion to $3.2 billion for the biennium.
Thomas was noncommittal on possible new funding sources, including the possibility of new highway tolls, noting that the session is only just beginning and that the CCM hopes to have a big role in shaping legislative priorities.

[BPt111]

Connecticut facing $3 billion deficit over next 2 years - WFSB 3 Connecticut

[BPt111]

Are u shock by this ? Fairfield County dropped alot of spots in 2014 rankings.

The 2014 Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities Index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. The components include job, wage and salary, and technology growth. In most years, these give a good indication of the underlying structural performance of regional economics.



New Haven metro rank higher than Stamford-Norwalk-Bridgeport area in 2014


New Haven metro rank 148 out of 200
Stamford-Norwalk-Bridgeport metro rank 153 out of 200
Hartford metro rank 161 out of 200
Norwich-New London metro rank 172 out of 200


2014 Best-Performing Cities » large-cities-rankings

[ColdAilment]

Those are all still pretty low on the national level.

[Mr_250]

I'm not a fan of these Yahoo! list, but I did find it interesting that 2 out of the 4 MSA in CT were in the top 25 delcine list for 2014. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/these-...192027488.html

Hartford Area fell 76 spots from 85 (2013) to 161 (2014) &
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk fell from 106 (2013) to 153 (2014).

While these list are, for the most part dumb, it does not give a person who wants to move a warm fuzzy feeling to see CT on the list of "most declined." Seeing things like this might have an impact on migration to the State.

[Mr_250]

Originally Posted by ColdAilment

Those are all still pretty low on the national level.

Yea I just commented on this in the "Economic Thread."

Hartford was the 5th worst preforming metro in the US in 2014. Not very good.

[JayCT]

This should have been posted in the Connecticut Economic Climate thread. I am going to merge this into that thread. JayCT, Moderator

[BPt111]

Fairfield and Hartford metro declines in 2014

[Beeker2211]

It looks like that this ranking is weighed heavily on Tech, which is a serious sector that lacks in CT as we've known for years. If you look at the other factors it actually weighs Hartford and B-S-N fairly highly. How does CT get more tech jobs? I'm not too sure honestly.

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by Beeker2211

It looks like that this ranking is weighed heavily on Tech, which is a serious sector that lacks in CT as we've known for years. If you look at the other factors it actually weighs Hartford and B-S-N fairly highly. How does CT get more tech jobs? I'm not too sure honestly.

A weakness in tech jobs is a very serious weakness now.