As many of you know, Gov. Dannel Malloy, in last year's budget, proposed eliminating the motor vehicle tax. I have previously written about that proposal in this column and I, at the time, stated my disagreement with that proposal based on loss of revenue to the Town. But it was not just I who voiced concern. Nearly every town leader in the state opposed it for the same reason. The Town of Old Saybrook would lose approximately six percent of its projected annual revenue, a rather large hole to fill.

Yet I agree in principle with the governor. The car tax is unequally applied throughout the state because it is based on a town's mill rate, and this raises a fairness issue. It is regressive, and I believe we are one of the few states in the country that has a car tax. We should work towards its elimination.

If the governor again proposes this legislation, the governor and legislature must either substitute these revenues with other payments to the Town (i.e., make the towns whole), and/or pass enabling legislation to assist the towns in lowering operating costs.

One of the ways I believe costs can be lowered would be to give municipal governments better options with their employees' benefits and working conditions. In times past, public sector employees received better benefits, worked fewer hours, and had better job security than private sector employees because the public sector employee earned less money than a comparable worker in the private sector. That is no longer true. Recent studies have demonstrated that public sector compensation is equal to or better than that in the private sector and with much better benefits (particularly in health and pension, which, in many communities and states, are unfunded liabilites). Now, as a result, the overall cost per employee in government is higher, in some cases significantly so.

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (Employer Costs for Employee Compensation survey) is an excellent source of information. Without getting too far into the details, after factoring in benefits, the private sector (the taxpayer) is paying for benefits that are too rich per government employee. The State of Connecticut, for one, has unfunded liabilities in health and pension that far exceed our ability to pay. While Old Saybrook is in much better financial position than the State of Connecticut with our unfunded liabilities, and probably better than many towns in our State, changes need to be made in our communities before it is too late. Some of the changes should seek to equalize benefits in the public sector to those in the private sector, including paid leave, overtime, life insurance, health benefits, and retirement benefits, to name a few.

Old Saybrook has a defined benefit pension plan. While it is well-funded, at 82 percent or so, we require our employees to contribute only five percent of their pay to our plan. The Town contributes 6.5 percent. Our actuary informs us that to fully fund the plan would require a massive infusion of money. We, the Town's employees, need to contribute more. However, as I enter into negotiations with two more unions, I also need agreement on minimal wage increases and a health insurance plan that does not increase by double digits (which is the current carrier quote). Negotiating these items with our unions, in addition to seeking concessions on other pro-management operational issues, is a Herculean task. And not only that; negotiations can take well over a year, with a new contract going into effect as much as a year into that new term. For example, one of our union contracts expired June 30, 2013. We are nowhere close to resolving that contract.

With our system of collective bargaining, unions seem all too happy to wait it out. By the time the contract is settled or arbitrated, the cycle begins again with the same expensive and time-consuming process. Of course, the easy way out is to simply renew the old contract and save the time and money. But reforms are needed, both statewide and locally. Collectively Broken? I think so.