Legislators are weighing in on a proposal by Governor Dannel Malloy to cut funding from the Community Investment Act -- a program established years ago to fund open space and land preservation in the state.
The Community Investment Act is funded through a $40 document recording fee collected when you carry out a real estate transaction at town hall. "The funds are deposited into a statewide fund for four programs: open space, farmland preservation and dairy support, affordable housing, and historic preservation," said Amy Paterson, with the Connecticut Land Conservation Council.
Paterson said that money is a major source of funding for land acquisition projects around the state, estimated to bring in more than $20 million annually.
In his budget recommendations, Malloy proposed taking that cash and tossing it into the state's general fund from January 2016 through June of the following year. The legislature's finance committee then amended that, calling for a 50 percent diversion.
"That amount is still an unprecedented amount of money. We've never had a sweep of that magnitude proposed before," Paterson said.
"I don't think it's a direction that Connecticut should go," said Vincent Candelora, deputy minority leader in the state House of Representatives. He said the $40 fee on real estate transactions is justified now because it's going toward open space and agricultural projects. "To things that are tied to the transaction," he said. "To then take that money and try to balance Connecticut's budget is really disingenuous. I think it violates a sacred promise to people that if you're going to pay a fee for something -- the money should go toward that fee, otherwise you need to eliminate the program altogether."
Candelora said he doesn't think the governor's proposal, as it stands, will pass and Ted Kennedy, Jr., co-chair of the state's environment committee, has a similar hope.
"If it were up to me, I would restore every single penny into the Community Investment Act," Kennedy said, adding the act has funded more than 30 projects in his district and generated more than $150 million statewide for things like farmland and historic preservation.
