CT Democrats “are just heaping another burden” on middle class families

From the Waterbury Republican-American:

Looney proposes statewide tax on properties valued over $430K

Senate President Martin M. Looney’s idea of prudent property tax reform strikes Senate Minority Leader Kevin C. Kelly as an ill-advised plan for redistributing wealth.

Looney is proposing a statewide property tax and reworking state reimbursements for property tax exemptions to direct more funding to towns and cities with more tax-exempt properties. He also seeks to add a 1% surcharge on the capital gains of high earners.

Kelly, R-Stratford, and House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, dismissed Looney’s proposals and his justifications.

“This is a far-left agenda to redistribute wealth at a time when middle-class families are struggling,” Kelly said.

Looney is proposing a statewide property tax of 1 mill on residential and commercial properties that have an assessed value of $430,000. One mill equals $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value, and property assessments are equal to 70% of market price.

He estimated this would raise $73.5 million that could be used to distribute back to towns and cities.

Looney said the statewide tax proposed in Senate Bill 171 would add $50 to the property tax bill for a home valued at $500,000, and the amount would increase to $400 for a home valued at $1 million.

Candelora and Kelly speculated there are homes and commercial properties with tax assessments in excess of $430,000 in almost every one of the state’s 169 cities and towns.

“At a time when we should be trying to give more financial help and relieving stress for middle-class families, here the Democrats are just heaping another burden … making it that much more difficult to live, work and raise a family in our state,” Kelly said.

Looney also is proposing to overhaul how state payments-in-lieu-of taxes are distributed for private schools, hospitals and state properties that are exempted from local property taxes.

“Many communities have a significant part of their properties off the tax rolls, and the compensation is flawed, I think, because it does not take need into account,” he said.

Looney would create a three tier-system to establish a 50% reimbursement rate for municipalities with an equalized net grand list that amounts to less than $100,000 per capita, a 40% rate for those in the range of $100,000 to $200,000 per capita, and a 30% rate for all remaining towns.

A net equalized grand list is an estimate of the market value of a municipality’s taxable property, equalized to reflect each community’s taxable real and personal property at 100% of fair market value. When measured on a per-capita basis, it represents the amount of property wealth available in a municipality to support each resident.

Looney said no community would see its PILOT funding decrease based on the proposed reimbursement scheme in Senate Bill 170.

He also proposes to levy a 1% tax in Senate Bill 173 on capital gains greater than $500,000 for individual tax filers and $1 million for joint filers.
https://www.rep-am.com/local/capitol-report/2021/01/26/looney-proposes-statewide-tax-on-properties-valued-over-430k/