Dear Mayor:

We again welcome the opportunity to offer our comments to you, this time on Speaker Roberts’ CORE reform package. At the outset, let me say that we believe that Speaker’s package, in particular A-51, offers the best opportunity for significant property tax savings since it will empower local governments and the citizens to enact change. This has the potential to be significant, landmark legislation and we believe that this should be the front and center of your recommendations.

We say this because the CORE Reform package is the type out-of-the-box thinking that we have asked of the Legislature. We note that the CORE Reform package is not the League’s proposal. In all honesty, it would read differently if we crafted it. The Speaker, however, and his staff should be commended for bringing their ideas and thoughts to us for comment and review. Over the past months, there has been a healthy of exchange of ideas, agreement and disagreements between all involved parties, and our staffs, working together, have made tremendous progress in resolving many of our concerns about the bill, as introduced.

The CORE package and A-51 in particular, is radical. And I mean radical in a good way; it’s not the typical legislative solution. The League has been a long-time champion of the citizens’ convention. But, the constitutional convention process is a long one and it would be best for everyone if a solution could be achieved more expeditiously. While some other proposals, such as a BRAC-type commission, delay recommendations for further study and review, A-51 empowers local officials and, and this is the important part, our citizens to enact changes right away. These changes can be put into effect the moment the Governor signs this legislation. 

There is so much more in A-51 to support. I will leave further details to Gregory Fehrenbach. But I will leave with this: of all the ideas in front of this Committee, the CORE reform package, in our humble opinion, offers the best opportunity for savings for our taxpayers. We do not want to oversell anything. The evidence presented to you demonstrated that the savings that can be accomplished through shared services and consolidation is modest in the big picture. However, there are savings and economies of scale that can be achieved, and no one is in a better position to know where these can be accomplished that the local and appointed officials we represent.

We do not need further study. We do not need to wait for more recommendations. 

We need tools to enact changes. And the CORE reform package offers the best menu of tools for local officials and our citizens to enact changes immediately and significantly. The CORE reform package deserves the support of this Committee.