Lawmakers return to capitol to fix vehicle tax legislation

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) - State lawmakers planned to return to Hartford on Wednesday for a special session.

They planned to consider legislation that would fix what taxes businesses pay on their cars.

Lawmakers said it’s something they believed needed action sooner rather than later.

The legislation was passed in 2022.

The change 2 years ago required commercial businesses to pay based on the real estate tax. Lawmakers want to bring it back to personal property taxes.

As a result, it would save businesses money.

Lawmakers said they will also consider legislation that would promote transparency on state-funded local school construction projects.

Gov. Ned Lamont, along with Democratic leaders of the state House and Senate, made the decision on Wednesday’s agenda.

Here’s the complete agenda:

• Preventing a tax increase that would otherwise take effect this fall by continuing to classify commercial vehicles as motor vehicles, and clarifying that current law allows municipalities to establish mill rates on motor vehicles that are lower than mill rates on real property and personal property other than motor vehicles.
• Promoting transparency and competition in municipally-administered school construction projects by restoring a ban on construction managers self-performing subcontracting work.
• Making Connecticut a more attractive place for innovative financial services companies to establish a significant presence by expressly allowing banks holding a certain charter to accept and hold non-retail deposits and secure deposit insurance from the FDIC and by updating the name of that charter.
• Reducing the administrative costs of the state’s publicly available retirement savings program by authorizing the State Comptroller to enter into cooperative agreements with other states that have similar programs.
• Providing more certainty to the state’s vibrant insurance industry by establishing that the annual assessment on domestic insurance companies to fund certain insurance-related state offices and programs should be calculated based on those companies’ total taxes, prior to any adjustment for tax credits, from the year immediately preceding the prior calendar year instead of the prior calendar year itself.
• Relieving employers, including tax-exempt organizations, that kept employees on payroll throughout the pandemic and received the federal Employee Retention Credit from the burden of interest payments attributable to the timing and complexities of a new federal program rather than any willful underpayment by the taxpayer.
• Supporting the preservation and redevelopment of historic properties by streamlining the process by which the State Historic Preservation Office reviews those properties.
• Amending the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority to permit the Authority to acquire water companies outside its current service area.

The special session was slated to continue on Thursday.