“Simplistic and ultimately damaging” is how Connecticut’s largest teachers’ organization describes two key proposals offered today by Governor M. Jodi Rell in her State of the State address.  The Connecticut Education Association (CEA) represents 41,000 educators.

The two proposals focus on restricting the amount of revenue that local towns and cities can collect, and advancing a hodgepodge of revisions to the Teacher Negotiation Act.  “These are unwarranted intrusions into the affairs of local governments, and restrict the capacity of local residents to make decisions about their own communities,” said CEA President Phil Apruzzese.

He continued, “Legislating a cap on municipal property tax revenues is an idea that lacks merit.  Policymakers need to develop measures that will help state residents, not harm the public schools and local services that are vital to them and their families.”

A limit on local property taxes combined with fluctuations in state aid would ultimately leave municipal officials with little choice but to pare back or eliminate altogether the types of services that contribute to Connecticut’s quality of life and quality of public education.  Increases in class size, program elimination, and service cuts would result.

While the cap would negatively impact all residents across Connecticut, research shows that property tax caps are most harmful to less affluent communities and our most fragile citizens.  Relatively wealthy communities both attempt more overrides of local tax caps and are more successful in adopting them.  That is why a tax cap would promote disparities across Connecticut in education and other important services, leaving lower-income communities even worse off relative to their higher-income counterparts.

CEA Executive Director John Yrchik said, “Disparities in educational achievement are a major concern.  But caps fly in the face of efforts to reduce those disparities.  This is dangerous territory the governor is treading on with her proposal.  And it’s at odds with the priorities of her own State Board of Education.”

The second proposal that concerns CEA is the governor’s proposal to tinker with the Teacher Negotiation Act (TNA).  Yrchik said, “Taken together, Governor Rell’s changes add up to a proposal that will promote instability in Connecticut’s negotiations process for teacher contracts.  The TNA, including the binding arbitration law, works well, and the act is of paramount importance to teachers.  We now have finality and fairness in the process of teacher negotiations as well as stability in public schools.  There is no reason to change it, and no evidence to support any overhaul.”