'An Issue Of Equity:' Elicker Asks Lamont To Back Tiered PILOT

NEW HAVEN, CT —"We've got to get this across the finish line," New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said Friday as he was joined by mayors, first selectmen, chamber of commerce members and economic development leaders to call for Gov. Ned Lamont to get behind passage of tiered Payment in Lieu of Taxes, also known as PILOT, to ensure "equity."

"This is not about us being wasteful with our funding, this is about municipalities being unable to collect revenue because of our tax structure. Plain and simple," Elicker said.

New Haven's mayor was joined at a press conference at City Hall by North Haven First Selectman Mike Freda, New London Mayor Michael Passero, West Haven Mayor Nancy Rossi, Hamden Mayor Curt Leng, Guilford First Selectman Matt Hoey, representatives from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, and the New Haven Economic Development Corporation where they collectively re-iterated their support for tiered PILOT, and urged Lamont to support its passage, underscoring that the measure is "critical to ensuring business and economic growth across the region," a statement from Elicker reads.

Saying he's felt like "Don Quixote fighting this fight," New London's mayor said the tiered PILOT is an "issue of equity."

"Because of our property tax system and the tax exemptions that are placed on our cities, the poorest tax bases in the state have to support the service for our affluent neighbors."

As reported earlier this year by the New Haven Independent, the city's state senator, Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney' bill is a "top priority" this legislative session.

The measure would reshape the state’s current PILOT system into three different tiers based on the relative economic needs of Connecticut’s 169 different towns and cities, the Independent reported.

With a tiered PILOT, less well off cities and towns, ones with more tax-exempt property owners, namely colleges and hospitals, New Haven being among the best examples, would get a greater cut of PILOT reimbursement, and the richest towns and cities would get a smaller slice, the Independent explained.

Read the full Independent story about tiered PILOT here.

Elicker's office noted that, "Passing tiered PILOT will honor the bipartisan commitment made" with the passage of the House bill in March.

In addition, Elicker's news release reads, "ensuring the funding is delivered through a revenue-intercept, as it has been since 2015 with bipartisan support, is crucial to ensuring the long term stability of funding and providing municipalities with consistent and reliable support on which to budget."

He called it "common sense reform" that is an "equity based initiative that benefits towns and cities of all sizes across the state of Connecticut, provides significantly greater investment for communities of color, and is essential to municipalities having consistent, reliable budgets."

Elicker said that while he thinks Lamont is trying to "do the right thing" it should not come "at the expense of municipalities."

“We, as municipal leaders are pushing back against a system that makes it nearly impossible for us to collect the revenue we need to operate," he said. "This is an opportunity for us to work together – the state and local cities and towns – and put all of our communities in position to thrive.”