| Governor Rell just doesn't get it. In yesterday's state of the state address she once again trotted out her property tax cap plan. At the risk of repeating myself ad naseum, the property tax structure in this state is a major catalyst for sprawl. Rell's plan to cap property tax increases does nothing to eliminate the incentives to sprawl that our current tax system encourages.
Currently, towns compete with each other for new tax revenues, often in the form of commercial growth. This leads to inefficient and short-sighted land use decisions. Faced with a cap on property tax increases, towns will only be further encourged to expand their tax base through commercial development and discouraged to provide affordable housing, which is often seen as a strain on municipal services.
Read this excellent op/ed in the Courant about why the tax cap is a "Band-aid over a wound that is badly infected."
|
| As for the Governor's plan to split the DOT into two stand-alone agencies focused on highways and mass transit, I am skeptical. In addition to adding another layer of bureaucracy, it fails to acknowledge the holistic dimensions of transportation. The way we travel has a profound impact on land use decisions, economic viability, and, of course, the environment. In other words, the decisions made by the DOT do not exist in a vacuum. Therefore, its functions should at least be coordinated with other applicable state agencies, and ideally, should be folded into a single state agency that oversees transportation and land use.
For example, the state of Massachusetts created the Office for Commonwealth Development (OCD) in 2003. The OCD brings offices responsible for the state's environmental, transportation, and housing under one manager to better coordinate investment and capital spending on Transit-Oriented Development, brownfield development, and various other Smart Growth projects. To date, these policies are having large-scale results. Production of multi-family housing units, crucial in a state with the nation's third least affordable housing market, has grown from 3,800 to more than 7,000 units annually. State support for TOD will result in 37 million square feet of new development near transit stations, relieving growth pressure in greenfields. OCD has also helped protect approximately 35,000 acres of land.
As I wrote yesterday, Governor Rell talks the talk of Smart Growth, but simply refuses to walk the walk. |
