Dear Friends,

Happy New Year.

In this tough economic climate, we can be doing more with less.

Yesterday, I was proud to announce a new initiative intended to save money for our cities and towns, address real property tax reform and improve the economic competitiveness of our state.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Municipal Opportunities and Regional Efficiencies (MORE) will seek to identify opportunities for more regional collaborations designed to create efficiencies and save money for municipalities.

State Representative Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden), House Chair of the Planning and Development Committee, was named chair of the MORE Commission.

Our cities and towns have been hurt by the recession, and we’ve got to find new ways to help them. We need to think differently about how we are structured and how we perform certain functions. I am confident we can bring about real property tax reform by regionalizing certain activities that can both save money and improve the economic competitiveness of our state.

Last year, we passed several bills concerning Smart Growth that laid the foundation for increasing the state’s economic competitiveness through regionalism. This commission is an expansion on that effort.

The MORE Commission will be comprised of 45 Democratic members of the House of Representatives and representatives of municipalities, regional organizations, education, business, unions and non-profits. It will look at a wide spectrum of issues and opportunities facing municipalities: multi-town collaboratives, Board of Education functions, regionally-based organizations, collective bargaining, mandates, revenue sources, health care and state grants.

In each of these areas, commission subcommittees will investigate costs, benefits, resources, legal obstacles and opportunities, potential savings, consolidation and results based accountability (RBA) methods for tracking performance.

In future communications, I’ll update you on the exciting and important work of this commission as together we work to make Connecticut strong again.

Sincerely,

Chris Donovan
Speaker of the House