July 9, 2011
BUDGET PROBLEMS SINK TRY TO HELP LEDYARD, MONTVILLE, PRESTON
by James Mosher, The Bulletin
Although relations between the tribes and surrounding towns are cordial and cooperative, the towns still feel the financial pinch from tribes taking land into trust and off local tax rolls.
In the legislative session just ended, state Rep. Tom Reynolds, D-Ledyard, introduced House Bill 5784, which would have boosted compensation for Ledyard, Montville and Preston for land lost to trust.
The bill, which was tabled, would gradually have increased payment in lieu of taxes to the three towns. State Rep. Kevin Ryan, D-Montville, said the bill was put on hold for at least a year because of the state budget crisis.
“We’re going to keep working on it,” Ryan said. “But the budget was too much of an obstacle this year.”
Reynolds was the chief sponsor of the bill. He represents the three communities that would get increased state aid. He did not return calls to The Bulletin for comment.
Other backers included state Reps. Melissa Olson, D-Norwich, and Betsy Ritter, D-Waterford, and state Sens. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, and Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford.
The bill favors Eastern Connecticut, something which is a difficult sell to lawmakers from other parts of the state, especially amid large budget deficits. The fact that the state is being called upon to correct issues caused by the U.S. government also limits its appeal.
“That’s certainly an element of it,” Ryan said, referring to the federal role. He has followed the issue from a national perspective while serving as president of the National Gaming States Council.
Double by 2016
The bill would have increased payment to the three towns by 10 percent in 2012 and eventually reaching 100 percent in 2016. The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities endorsed the bill. The Office of Policy and Management, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget department, opposed it on the grounds that so-called PILOT funds to the state’s other 166 towns would be diminished.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, has looked into the matter with an eye toward helping the towns from Washington. But budget issues there are blocking that route as well, said Alex Armentano, a Courtney aide.
The U.S. Department of the Interior administers a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program, but it doesn’t apply to Indian-owned lands, Armentano said. The program handled $350 million in 2010, but including tribal lands would require much more money, he said.
Ledyard got $97,967 in so-called PILOT funds from the state last year, not nearly enough to compensate for a loss of $2.2 million in taxable land, Mayor Fred Allyn Jr. said. More than $126 million in taxable land has come off the books in Ledyard since 1956, when the Mashantucket Pequot tribe annexed its first piece of land. Montville has lost $40 million since 1995 to the Mohegan tribe’s land trust.
“The loss of tax revenue to the town of Ledyard in the loss of that property is huge,” Allyn said. “Rep. Reynolds has tried to get equity for our town.”
North Stonington First Selectman Nicholas Mullane II is not asking for his town to be included in Reynolds’ bill because North Stonington hasn’t had any land taken into trust. But he supports the legislation, in part, he said, because the Mashantucket Pequot tribe is North Stonington’s second-largest landowner behind the state of Connecticut with about 3,200 acres, and U.S. Department of the Interior trust policies are subject to change.
“I’m sympathetic to Ledyard, Montville and Preston,” Mullane said. “I totally agree with what Tom (Reynolds) is doing. I’m continually concerned.”