Kaitlyn Higgins, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities
Connecticut’s property tax system has been broken for decades, and politicians have failed to fix the problem. So now they’re trying something new: a citizens’ assembly. (Citizens’ assemblies are also ancient. They date back to ancient Greece, when legislators were chosen not through elections, but through random lotteries.)
Today on the show is the Connecticut Citizens’ Assembly. It’s like jury duty, but for taxes. About 100 people from across Connecticut come together to try to solve the state’s property tax problem. They are wondering whether to raise taxes, cut spending, find efficiencies, or some combination of all of these. Will this alternative attempt to resolve the intractable succeed, or will it be politics as usual?
This is a modern case study of what happens when politicians step aside to let citizens decide what is best. Come talk with the professor who helped organize this assembly, hear from the citizens involved how this experience changed them, and meet the politician who agreed to present his proposals to the state legislature.
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This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Erika Beras and Jeff Guo. It was produced by James Sneed with assistance from Aine Pennello. It was edited by Jess Jiang, Sierra Juarez is our fact-checker, and Jimmy Keeley and Travis Hagen designed the show. Alex Goldmark is the executive producer of Planet Money.
Music: Audio source – “Mudita 2”, “Heaven Is A Lonely Road” and “Training Data”.
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