In order to understand local government, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist, but a masters or a doctorate in public administration might help.
Roger Kemp knows about that.
Kemp, a longtime city manager, joined the WNHH FM’s “Municipal Voice,” hosted by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, to talk about local government and property taxes.
For Kemp, the decision to get the MPA was a simple one: “I was working on my bachelor’s degree, and I thought it might be nice to serve the public.”
After serving in local governments in California, Kemp moved east, settling in Meriden, and teaching at the university level along the way.
“I’m a real practicioner,” he said, “I normally specialized in finance and budgeting, and I teach those classes. I know a lot about preparing a budget, the politics of what works.”
He suggests that at times he was approached to handle budgets on his own, to make cuts in programs or choose who to lay off. But that’s not how towns or cities should be run.
“It’s important that the public know the elected officials and how this all works.”
In many of the places that he’s worked or taught, budgets were itemized, letting citizens know exactly where their taxes are going.
But it’s also important to know that not every service is going to be utilized by every citizen in that area.
For example, in 20 years of living in Meriden, he has never once had to call 911, but he still pays for that service as part of his taxes. It’s hard to argue against the utility of a service like 911.
The issue comes when taxes become a burden, and Connecticut has one of the highest burdens in the country when it comes to property taxes.
“I’ve had senior citizens come to me virtually crying,” he said.
Currently Connecticut’s property tax burden is somewhere in the top five worst in the country. Kemp said he believes it’s because legislators at the state more often than not keep it for themselves.
He said that legislators are not willing to risk the political heat on raising the taxes without seeing the benefit of that money.
The solution might be revenue diversification – giving municipalities more options to raise funds – or to simply have the state share more revenues from the sales tax or sin taxes.
Roger Kemp’s decades of experience make speaking about local government seem easy. Not only did he talk the talk, but he walked the walk, and taught the next generation while he was at it.
But that shouldn’t mean that you don’t need to get involved to help make government happen.
“It’s a nice thing to get citizens involved in the budget process – it’s their money.”
