AFFORDABLE HOUSING DRAFT - Salisbury, CT

I. GENERAL MUNICIPAL POWERSA. Connecticut Statutory ProvisionsCGS Section 7-34aCGS Section 7-148CGS Section 7-536CGS Section 8-306CGS Chapter 203CGS Section 12-494.CGS Section 12-504e.B. IntroductionSection 7-148 endows Connecticut municipalities with the power to “provide for the financing, construction,rehabilitation, repair, improvement or subsidization of housing for low and moderate income persons andfamilies.” While this expansive language seemingly provides towns with an unlimited range of options to financelocal affordable housing initiatives, in practice the courts have tended to limit towns to using only those methodsexplicitly provided for in the statutes. 1 The statutory provisions that authorize the general sources of municipalfinance, taxation, fees and borrowing, are described below.C. TaxationUnder Section 7-148(c)(2)(B) municipalities have the power to “assess, levy and collect taxes for general orspecial purposes on all property, subjects or objects which may be lawfully taxed” Courts have held thatConnecticut municipalities have no powers of taxation except those expressly given to them by the legislature, 2and that strict compliance with statutory provisions is a condition precedent to the imposition of a valid tax. 3Accordingly towns in Connecticut generally can assess, levy and collect only a handful of different taxes, the twomost significant in terms of revenue generation being: 1) property tax on real and certain personal property asprovided in Chapter 203 of the General Statutes, and 2) conveyance tax, which pursuant to Chapter 223 of the1 Capalbo v. Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals, 208 Conn. 480, 490, 547 A.2d 528 (1988); Blue Sky Bar, Inc. v.Stratford, 203 Conn. 14, 19, 523 A.2d 467 (1987); (“A municipality can exercise only such powers as are granted it or suchpowers as are necessary to enable it to discharge the duties and carry into effect the objects and purpose of its creation.”);New Haven Water Co. v. New Haven, 152 Conn. 563, 566, 210 A.2d 449 (1965). There may be exceptions to this rule, See,e.g., Gagne v. City of Hartford, 1994 Conn. Super. LEXIS 6 (upholding, as a valid exercise of the power to provide foraffordable housing under CGS Section 7-148, an ordinance requiring owners who converted residential units into nonresidentialuses, or who demolished residential housing, to either replace the converted or demolished housing stock withsimilar units or to make a contribution to the city's low income housing fund, despite), however a full analysis is beyond thescope of this report.2 Security Mills, Inc. v. Norwich, 145 Conn. 375, 377, 143 A.2d 451 (1958).3 Empire Estates, Inc. v. Stamford, 147 Conn. 262, 264-. 65, 159 A.2d 812 (1960).3