Big-city mayors ask state lawmakers to authorize sales tax rise
Raising the 6 percent sales tax to 7 percent would yield $21.2 million a year for New Haven, $20.8 million for Stamford, $8.6 million for Bridgeport and $3 million for New London, the mayors of the cities said, citing 2006 data from the state Department of Revenue Services.
"This is an easy way for you to help without having to create new state revenues," Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch told lawmakers. "We don't have good choices. We need the revenues, and we need them now -- not in three or four years."
Some lawmakers, including Democrats who control the legislature, expressed skepticism, saying that a higher sales tax would depress retail business in Connecticut's cities.
"If your residents can't afford the property tax, how can they afford the increased sales tax?" asked Sen. Eileen Daily, a Westbrook Democrat who co-chairs the tax-writing finance committee.
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. disputed the idea that cities would lose retail sales to the suburbs.
But Sen. William Nickerson, R-Greenwich, said higher sales taxes would particularly hurt the automobile dealerships that collect large amounts of the tax.
Rep. Cameron Staples, D-New Haven, co-chairman of the Finance Committee, said he is open to the idea of raising the sales tax, though he prefers increasing state aid to cities and towns.
"I think the time has come for us to give municipalities more options than the property tax," he said. "It allows them to diversify the way they raise revenue. Today was an important first step."
Local officials have for years urged the legislature to give municipalities more authority to generate money locally without raising property taxes. However, the mayors told lawmakers that they need more money now and cannot wait for the General Assembly to enact tax reform.
"Our cities are not sustainable," Finch said.
Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy, referring to the costs of public education, police and fire departments that municipal officials say are driving up the cost of local government, said the traditional source of revenue -- property tax -- is inadequate.
"We can't keep spending at the level that we simply have to if we are always going to rely on property taxes," he said.
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