Connecticut's citizens' assembly of 100 randomly selected residents ended with a 1% tax on earners above $1m a year, a school services consolidation plan, and interstate tolls to reduce car taxes.
Sean Scanlon, the state comptroller, withheld the proposals before the election until an emergency meeting forced him to back down and release them.
Riley Jano says the last-minute switch from 4% to 1% undermined the whole process, while Helene Landimore admits the assembly lost citizen goodwill.
Connecticut Hands Its Property Tax Mess to 100 Random Citizens
Connecticut tried to break a seventy-year deadlock on property taxes by handing the problem to 100 randomly chosen residents. They learned the system, debated across party lines and produced about ten proposals. The real test came when politics met the result, as the comptroller sought to hold the proposals until after an election and the tax figure shifted at the last minute.
Takeaways
Connecticut's property tax problem is structural. The state sends towns less money than other states do, so 169 independent towns lean on property taxes. Some middle-class owners pay $20,000 to $30,000 a year, and separate school districts run their own services, which raises costs.
Reform has stalled for about seventy years. Comptroller Sean Scanlon says the system has long been seen as broken. A House speaker once called it the third rail of politics, and past reports got a few days of press before gathering dust.
Random selection is meant to fix politicians' narrowness. Yale's Helene Landimore argues elected officials share traits like extreme confidence and attraction to power. She says lotteries, used in ancient Greece and in assemblies in the Netherlands and Ireland, produce better deliberation and cross-party friendships.
A Powerball machine picked the 100 members. Organizers mailed over 200,000 letters and got about 1,500 replies. The lottery machine then drew 100 members, who each get $1,200, with a mix of homeowners and renters and of parents and non-parents.
Deliberation was rocky, and a millionaire tax divided members. Rule fights became shouting, so members adopted kindergarten rules like raising hands. Ideas included tolls, out-of-state park fees, taxing nonprofit hospitals and school consolidation. Some feared a millionaire tax would drive people away or invite loopholes.
Assemblies rarely have power to make laws. Landimore notes most citizens' assemblies worldwide cannot legislate, so their ideas must pass through normal politics. Scanlon, who skipped the report's release, said he would support the proposal in the legislature.
The final week
Members had agreed on a 4 percent tax on high earners. At the final vote it was cut to 1 percent without enough discussion, which upset some citizens.
A press conference at the State Capitol was planned to reveal the proposals.
The night before, Scanlon canceled it. He feared releasing proposals weeks before an election would cause chaos and become a political football.
Landimore and other organizers objected that citizens had been promised publication after their vote.
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On this episode 10
Show 1
After an emergency meeting Scanlon backed down, and spokesperson Doris Gomez announced the report before the election. It proposed a 1 percent tax on earners above $1m and interstate tolls to reduce or eliminate car taxes. It also called for consolidating school services in some districts.
Riley said the last-minute change undermined the premise of the process. Landimore admitted the assembly lost goodwill but defended citizens' right to know what an informed sample of them thinks.