Combatting the Unfunded State Mandates: Officials Reviewing CCM Proposal

Unfunded state mandates continue to be a concern, especially as the debt continue to pile up at the state level, but the town could soon join a list of communities in reaching out with efforts to put a curb on legislation that is crippling local budgets.

Members of the Southington Town Council are mulling a list of ten “detrimental mandates” that are a cause of rising operations costs for municipalities as part of an effort by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, but some of the suggestions are also causing concerns.

Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback said many of the items on the list are continuing to force rising costs on Southington while some just don’t apply to the community.

“The mandates were compiled last week during a CCM legislative meeting and many of these aren’t just problems facing the biggest communities in the state, but are problematic right here in Southington,” said Brumback. “This effort is designed to provide legislators with concerns and address issues that are causing local taxes to rise dramatically.”

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The list includes a wide variety of proposals ranging from eliminating the need to post all meetings in local newspapers provided there is an active town website for meeting notices to changes in the state required MERS contribution rate and adjusting state funding to municipalities to rid towns of dependence on property taxes.

Brumback said in cases such as the MERS contribution rate, changes over the past decade have shifted the burden for contributions heavily on towns while requiring less each year from employees.

In Southington, for example, the town was responsible for a 62 percent contribution for public safety employees and a 55 percent contribution for non-public safety employees in 2002. But as the rates have gone up yearly for municipalities, Brumback said, only legislative action can change the employee rates.

As a result, Brumback said the town is now responsible for an 88 percent contribution for public safety employees and 84 percent contribution for non-public safety employees.

“It has become a significant portion of what is causing the budget go up year after year,” Brumback said.

But not all of the proposed changes could be beneficial, members of the council said this week. Dawn Miceli, Stephanie Urillo and John Barry each expressed concerns including problems with transparency that could be caused by eliminating the requirement to advertise meetings in local publications.

Although the town could realize an instant savings of $3,000 by eliminating the need to advertise meeting notices, instead including them online only, it could adversely effect transparency as many residents may not regularly use the Internet, both Urillo and Miceli said.

“I’m not for eliminating legal noticing, but would rather see it amended to allow posting online as well,” Urillo said. “For some, the only way to get notices is in the newspaper.”

Council Chairman John Dobbins requested the item be tabled until April, a motion that passed unanimously, at which time the council will review the items one by one in deciding what to support.

Editors Note: Suggestion number six does not apply to Southington. To see the complete list of suggested changes, take a look at the PDF above.

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