Connecticut Municipal Consortium for Fiscal Responsibility

The 2009 Middlesex Chamber Car Cruise on Main was truly a great success.  We had 450 vintage and muscle cars lining Main Street in Middletown. The overcast conditions clearly did not deter spectators from making their way to Main Street as we welcomed a crowd of 3,500 people.  With the rain holding off throughout the event, I can once again say that the sun always shines in Middlesex County! The local sponsors and supporting businesses are truly doing the right thing since all of the proceeds of the event go to support the youth programs of Middletown.  It is great to see the local community come together to orchestrate such a beneficial event.  This type of community action is a case in point of how effective we can be at the local level.  At the local governmental level, there is no question that our municipalities are capable of great things, in particular, combating tough budget situations. An organization that continues to work to bring the importance of municipalities to light is the Connecticut Municipal Consortium for Fiscal Responsibility.  For those that may be unaware, the Consortium is a broad alliance of duly elected town boards from a host of municipalities throughout the state.  It is a response to the growing wave of taxpayer discontent and local budget defeats that we continue to witness.  While the rate of rejections remains high, local property taxes increase at around 5 percent each year. Despite this increase, overall municipal employment declines and existing programs are squeezed out of budgets in town after town.  These programs suffer the consequences of unbridled compensation and other state interventions into local budgetary affairs.   The focus of the Consortium is mostly on the cost-management side of things.  The mission is to press for return to the local level of a greater ability to manage key elements in our own municipal budgets.  The platform planks are all common threads of the legislative agendas of the three major municipal advocacy organizations:  CCM, COST, and CABE. Each position calls for a level playing field under binding arbitration, raising the cost thresholds on capital projects under prevailing wage laws, and prohibiting new mandates placed on towns until state government meets its own existing funding commitments to the towns under current law. Basically, the joint message to the Capitol is to untie our hands so that we can better and more efficiently manage our own local affairs.  These themes all reinforce the Consortium’s stance of being pro-local government, pro-education, and pro-taxpayer.  The ever-growing group of town boards—209 at present time—seeks to deliver a common message with a unified voice to legislators and the legislature.  The message is not only across the state, but also, across the parties. We must continue to press our state lawmakers with this initiative because we need change.   We are in need of change because Connecticut is a prime example of mandates gone mad, which makes it one of the most expensive and least competitive states in the nation. As we continue to move forward in the Chamber with our own activities, next week is shaping up to be another one packed with events.  Of these events, on Tuesday, June 23, we will hold our annual Travelers Championship Chamber breakfast meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cromwell.  Like every year, we expect a huge turnout for this breakfast, which will feature PGA Tour professional and Connecticut native J.J. Henry. For all that I have just said about the importance of working together as a community, the Travelers Championship held in Cromwell really facilitates our ability to pump revenue into the region.  This year, the tournament will be bigger than ever and offer an even wider array of activities for the entire family. Not only will spectators have the chance to watch golf played by some of the greatest players in the world—Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh to name a few—but there will also be some fun-filled interactive vendor displays and even concerts in the evening hours.  The tournament runs from June 22 to June 28, and I strongly encourage everyone to get out and get the Travelers Championship experience, if you have not already done so. For more information on Chamber activities, please contact Matt Fraulino at (860) 347-6924 or email him at

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