Real Estate Conveyence Tax Update
This tucked into a longish inside baseball article about last night’s CT Senate vote on the budget.
In another tax hike, some real estate agents are upset that the Democratic majority is supporting a permanent increase in the real estate conveyance tax, which had been increased during a budget crisis in 2003 and then extended since then.
“It is disappointing and frustrating that at the same time legislative leaders are touting a plan to enact a middle-class tax break, they are approving a hidden, regressive tax on home sales that hurts the elderly and growing numbers of people selling homes at a loss,” said Robert Fiorito, former president of the Connecticut Association of Realtors.
“In this year when proposals for aid to municipalities are at an all-time high, it is difficult to understand why lawmakers cannot allow these temporary increases in the conveyance tax that were meant to make up for lack of state aid to towns and cities, end as planned.”
The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, led by lobbyists James Finley and Gian-Carl Casa, have been pushing consistently for the conveyance tax for years as an important source of revenue for municipalities.
source: Courant, A Tax Uprising Falls Short: Democrats Can’t Reach Veto-Proof Majority, By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, And MARK PAZNIOKAS, May 30, 2007
