In New Canaan, a rule going back more than 90 years, requires Board of Finance members to own real estate in the town. That rule is coming into question and will appear on the general election ballot in November.
Residents will have a chance to vote for or against keeping the requirement in the town charter.
The rule was first implemented in New Canaan back in 1935.
However, it didn’t formally become part of the town’s charter until 1965, according to Kathleen Corbet, who chairs New Canaan’s Charter Revision Commission.
The reasoning behind the rule was that since the board sets New Canaan’s mill rate, property owners had a vested interest in participating in that process, according to Corbet.
Residents were first asked to decide whether to eliminate the taxpayer requirement from the charter a decade ago, after a longtime resident, who sat on the Board of Finance, became ineligible to keep the role, Corbet said.
“He and his wife decided to rent, to downsize to a smaller house or home, and so [he] became a renter,” Corbet said. “Because of the charter provision that he needed to be a property taxpayer, that person needed to step down.”
Corbet said the incident sparked a unanimous decision to bring the rule up for a public vote.
“Gee, is that really the intention? Someone who's lived here many, many years, has been a property taxpayer for many years,” Corbet said. “In effect, when you do pay rent, many would argue that you're still paying taxes through your monthly rental payments to the property owner who passes it on as property tax payments.”
However, a decade ago, residents voted against removing the taxpayer requirement from the charter. Corbet supports eliminating the rule, which some say is outdated, because a number of changes in the homeownership and rental landscape have transpired since the rule last went up for a vote several years ago.
“More homeowners might own their property under different legal arrangements, for instance an LLC, which doesn't necessarily have to show that the homeowner is the taxpayer,” Corbet said.
About 20 years ago, New Canaan’s Zoning Board of Appeals had the same property owner stipulation, but it was removed from the charter in a similar vote, Corbet said.
The Board of Finance is the last legislative body in town to have such a requirement.
Once the Charter Revision Commission shared its final recommended changes to the charter, the Town Council voted in late July in favor of making the property owner rule a ballot question in November’s general election.
The Town Council vote to bring the question to the public wasn’t unanimous.
But, a question remains about whether the rule violates the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, by creating specific qualifications to hold office.
There have been similar cases in other parts of the country where the rule was found to be illegal under federal law, Nick Bamonte, an attorney with Berchem Moses, which represents the town of New Canaan, said.
“There are U.S. cases that address this situation factually and they found that that is not allowed under the U.S. Constitution,” Bamonte said at a recent meeting of the Charter Revision Commission.
“There’s a memo out there now that confirms there are some constitutional concerns if challenged,” Bamonte said. “I don’t have an answer where ultimately a court would come out on this because we don't have that history, but we believe that there is a fair concern there.”
