Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

Gov. Dannel Malloy spends a good part of each of his days �chasing jobs.�

Malloy personally calls CEOs and pursues new businesses for the state.

That�s a great thing, and all credit to Malloy for doing it.

But the major reason businesses don�t want to come here � and the reason many are leaving, along with skilled young and old workers � is, as Malloy knows as well as anyone, cost. The costs of doing business here and the costs of living are exorbitant � by some measures the highest in the nation.

Three major things go into these costs � the price of real estate, energy costs, and taxes. (Some would argue that the cost of labor is a fourth factor, but costly labor is usually skilled labor, which, along with locale, climate, and heritage is actually a draw for Connecticut.)

Malloy can�t do anything about real estate. He is doing what little he can about energy.

That leaves taxes.

But Malloy just raised state income and sales taxes to balance the state�s books.

Does that leave anything?

Yes. Property taxes.

Again, Connecticut has one of the highest property tax burdens in the nation.

And there are more property tax hikes ahead. Nothing but. Because for every municipality every year brings rising costs. Primarily these costs are salary increases for teachers and other municipal employees, and the rising costs of health benefits for town employees.

The governor, a former mayor, has said this cannot be sustained. And he also says most mayors know this. More property tax hikes will simply mean more people moving out of the state. Businesses will continue to move and to close faster than Malloy can attract them.

What can be done?

And who will lead the way?

Malloy says he is finished with major initiatives for now. But if he wants to keep chasing jobs, eventually he will have to chase tax relief.

What might bring relief?

Malloy has suggested that more regional government could save municipalities money. Indeed it could. Every town does not necessarily need its own police force or trash collection unit or even schools superintendent.

There is no reason to wait. The General Assembly could move to incentivize, even mandate, regional services in the next session. And it might if Malloy made it an issue.

But that won�t be enough.

Eventually the state will have to take larger steps to stop population and brain drain.

Here are three big steps that should be considered and that most people will find scary and �impossible�:

1) Abolish binding arbitration and grant teachers the right to strike.

The right to strike is more honest than binding arb.

But it also provides political and fiscal accountability. Town leaders would have some leverage in negotiating salaries and benefits. Unions would have ultimate leverage, of course, but they�d have to negotiate with another force, another party. There is no balance in the system now. Labor faces no countervailing power.

2) Pass Proposition 13-type legislation simply mandating by law that property taxes cannot exceed a certain percentage or mill rate. Straightjackets don�t make good government, but it�s an option.

3) To ease the burden on families, begin to tax the ancillary property of churches, colleges, and universities. That is, the church itself would remain tax-exempt, but not the freestanding church hall, school building, parsonage, or rental or commercial property. If a congregation owns a church and five other buildings, it can afford to pay on those other buildings.

Same for the university. If Yale owns a block of commercial real estate or an I-park in New Haven, or parking lots, or apartment buildings, it would pay taxes on those.

Some churches will, no doubt, call this an attack on religious freedom. Rubbish. You don�t need to own Boardwalk and Park Place to pray. At least Jesus didn�t.

Maybe these are impossible ideas. But we either take bold action or wait for someone to turn out the lights on Connecticut.

Meanwhile the governor could take a small step forward on property tax relief by persuading the General Assembly to abolish the car tax. Gov. Jodi Rell was right about this tax � it�s regressive. It hits the working class like a right cross to the solar plexus and touches the Linda McMahons of the state not at all. The working man and woman depends on a motor vehicle, And not many of these folks have a few extra hundred dollars lying around when the bill comes due. (For that is what we pay, even for older cars.) Abolishing this odious tax would also help car sales in the state, which would be a good thing.

The governor can chase jobs 24/7, but until we have some tax relief in this state, there is going to be far more out-migration than in-migration. Maybe Malloy has time for one more initiative before the next election. Getting rid of the car tax wouldn�t hurt his popularity a bit.