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Connecticut Towns Push Back Against Unfunded Mandates

Johnathon Henninger

Cities and towns across Connecticut want to make it more difficult for the General Assembly to impose unfunded mandates on them.

Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary says there are more than 1,200 unfunded state mandates, and lawmakers are considering 30 more.

“While some are worthy proposals, we encourage the General Assembly to either: one, not enact these new mandates or two, provide appropriate funding for them to be implemented.”

Coventry Town Manager John Elsesser says the requirements that come from the state without any funding are hurting his budget.

“We didn’t create this problem. We weren’t invited to sit at the table. We don’t believe that it’s fair that we were asked to pay for something that wasn’t structurally set up right.”

Elsesser and O’Leary spoke at a committee hearing this week in favor of a bill that would require a two-thirds vote of the legislature to impose any new unfunded mandates on cities and towns.

This report contains information from CRN.

Copyright 2017 WSHU

Dan is a former News Director at WSHU

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