Something to watch, especially with the DeCaro Democrats poised to take power
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The bill would repeal the existing provisions of the law that now requires the mutual consent of two or more municipalities before one town can build slums in the other, and instead grant a single town — Bridgeport, for instance, or Stamford, to power to unilaterally stick it to another — Greenwich, for instance.
There are pages and pages here, filled with cross-references to other laws, and I’ve almost an hour on it and still don’t fully grasp all of it. But here, literally, is the bottom line, found on the very last page:
Statement of Purpose:
To allow a housing authority to expand its jurisdiction to include other municipalities.
Those who are skilled in understanding our state’s constitution and its limits, if any, on interference with individual towns’ governance and powers can have a go at this, but I do know that “these people” never quit; this bill is obviously the product of weeks, even months of effort, and whatever they aren’t getting here, they’ll come back for more in the future.
Here are some relevant portions of the bill. (The bracketed section marks what would be repealed in the existing law, the underlined denotes what would replace it.)
[(a)] (1) "Area of operation" [includes the municipality in which a housing authority is created under the provisions of this chapter and may include a neighboring municipality, provided the governing body of such neighboring municipality agrees by proper resolution to the extension of the area of operation to include such neighboring municipality] means a municipal area of operation and, if adopted by a housing authority, includes an expanded area of operation.
We begin with the law’s definition of “housing authority” :
"Authority" or "housing authority" means any of the public corporations created by section 8-40, as amended by this act, and the Connecticut Housing Authority when exercising the rights, powers, duties or privileges of, or subject to the immunities or limitations of housing authorities pursuant to section 8-121.
(16) "Municipal area of operation" includes the municipality in which
105 a housing authority is created under the provisions of this chapter and
106 may include any other municipality, as provided in section 8-40, as
107 amended by this act.
108 (17) "Municipal developer" means a municipality that has not
109 declared by resolution a need for a housing authority pursuant to
110 section 8-40, as amended by this act, acting by and through its legislative
111 body ….
39 (6) "Expanded area of operation" means an area in a municipality
40 adopted by a housing authority under section 8-40, as amended by this
41 act, other than the municipality in which the housing authority is
42 located. [emphasis added]
(c) Any housing authority or regional housing authority established
222 pursuant to this section may adopt an expanded area of operation.
And here’s the key: the bill would still recognize regional housing authorities — two or more towns —, but remember the new definition of a single “housing authority”? It, too, would have the power to build slums cross border.
(b) The governing bodies of two or more municipalities may create a
221 (c) Any housing authority or regional housing authority established
222 pursuant to this section may adopt an expanded area of operation.
And so on. Call your representative.
