GOP encourages rejection of the proposed statewide property tax

Connecticut Republicans have aroused public opposition to the Senate Democrat’s proposed legislation that would create a new statewide tax on commercial and residential real estate.

In the past few days, the state GOP and individual lawmakers have increased their public opposition to the bill by Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney from New Haven. The General Assembly’s Finance Revenue and Bonding Committee is expected to hold a public hearing on this and other tax bills on Monday.

“Democrats call this a ‘villa tax’. But in reality, it’s another tax on middle-class families, “the Connecticut Republican Party said in a mass email sent on Saturday urging supporters to provide testimony against the legislation.

The email warned that “Money would go directly to the state, not your city, and the state would distribute your tax money to places like Hartford and New Haven.”

Looney proposed several local property tax reform bills during this year’s legislature to address what he calls unequal and unequal local taxation across Connecticut. Under the bill under debate on Monday, a new $ 1 million statewide tax would be levied on commercial and residential real estate, with the first $ 300,000 of the estimated value exempt from the additional tax.

Since Connecticut real estate is valued at 70% of market value, Looney’s calculation would apply to real estate valued at approximately $ 430,000 or more. For example, for a home with a market value of $ 500,000, that would add an additional $ 50 valuation, while a homeowner with a $ 1 million home would pay about $ 400, he said.

The estimated $ 73.5 million additional funding raised from the additional appraisal would be returned to cities and towns through programs such as increased government reimbursement for tax-exempt properties such as hospitals, colleges, and government-owned properties.

“We are hindered in many ways by these big differences,” Looney said at a recent news conference. He cited the example of the City of Greenwich with a net grand list – the total value of taxable property in the parish – of $ 734,000 per capita compared to $ 50,000 per capita in New Britain.

“People who visit Connecticut are shocked at the extraordinary contrast in Connecticut that exists at such a very, very short geographic distance,” he said.

Some real estate agents are already rejecting Looney’s proposal.

“While CT real estate has benefited from people who left NY and NJ during COVID, this market will not last. We will soon be returning to families leaving CT to escape the high cost of living, ”wrote JoAnn Lambert Bredenberg, a Southbury agent who provided a written testimony. “The extra tax will simply trigger the exit of our reliable taxpayers and reduce the skills required to attract more businesses to CT.”