Malloy's budget slashes local Conn. car taxes

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Eliminating the motor vehicle tax could be a lot more complicated than it sounds and local officials are saying it won't really help taxpayers.

News 8 met Oliver Holmes holding 500 dollar car tax bill for three vehicles but then we told him the Governor wants to get rid of it.

"Couldnt be more welcome right now, absolutely. Between that and the property taxes which are going up, we are getting sqeezed on all sides," said Oliver Holmes of New Haven.

The idea is to get rid of the car tax on vehicles valued under $28,000, meaning hundreds in savings.

"Times are tight so anything I can do to pay less money I'm behind," said Joseph Rossi of New Haven.

If your car tax money is no longer going to your local community how will it make up that lost money? New Haven relies on nearly 15 million dollars every year in car taxes but it is also small towns that rely on that revenue.

"Right now madison is getting in almost three and half million dollars in property taxes on cars. Show me the money. Where am I going to get that kind of money," said Madison's First Selectman Fillmore McPherson.

In fact Madison's First Selectman predicts he and other town leaders will just end up raising real estate taxes.

"So it's not going to save anybody any money. All it does is just re-shuffles the deck. We're going to have raise the mill rate to make up for that," said McPherson.

When Democratic  Governor Dannel Malloy said, "Today I am proposing the we exempt the vast majority of Connecticut motor vehicles from the property tax," he wasn't the first. Republican Governor Jodi Rell in 2006 said, "Today I am calling for the complete elimination of property taxes, paid by individuals, on their cars."

Back then the proposal died without ever coming up for a vote.