Tweed Plane $$ Headed To East Haven Only

Thomas MacMillan and Sharon Bass contributed to this story

The governor wants to fly $200,000 back to local coffers from money collected on planes kept at Tweed — East Haven coffers, that is. New Haven’s mayor said he’s fine with that.

At his state budget address last week, Gov. Dannel Malloy proposed two new taxes on boats and planes. The money collected for those taxes will go back to the cities where the watercraft and aircraft are stored.

New Haven cheered that and other revenue-sharing ideas contained in Malloy’s budget.

The fine print ends up not helping New Haven at all in this one instance. Despite the fact that New Haven subsidizes the operation of Tweed airport, the tax money from planes stored there would return exclusively to East Haven. The airport straddles the two towns—causing much tension over the past decades. East Haveners have fought expansion of the airport and complained of its existence. New Haven officials, especially business officials, have pushed to expand, claiming that would promote economic expansion.

This latest development gives East Haven news to cheer, not jeer. A state government document outlining new municipal aid has East Haven down to receive $198,900 from the aircraft tax in Fiscal Year 2012-13. New Haven, meanwhile, gets a goose egg. Click here to see the numbers, on pages E-38 and E-40.

Mayor April Capone is cheering.

"The people of East Haven have been working with and living with Tweed-New Haven Airport in our back yards and it's nice to see the town have some substantial benefit from the airport," she said. "We've had a great working relationship with New Haven and Tweed over the last two years. This is merely an issue of geography."

Capone said the $198,900 will likely go into the general fund in FY 2012-13. East Haven is also due $1.5 million from the airport for the sale of wetlands. The money was not released while Gov. Jodi Rell was in office, but Capone said she's more optimistic with the new governor.

"I've been having favorable talks with Gov. Malloy and secretary of OPM Ben Barnes," she said. "This is why I supported a mayor for governor. Gov. Malloy knows what it's like to be a mayor and he stepped up. This has got to be the first time in my lifetime that a governor hasn't passed the buck down to the cities and towns."

Mayor John DeStefano said he doesn’t have a problem with the fact that East Haven gets all the money. He noted that the tax covers private planes, not commercial planes.

“I think it’s fair,” he said. “All the fueling, all the noise from those planes, occurs on the East Haven side. That’s where they’re parked.”

“I agree with him 100 percent,” chimed in Gerald Weiner, who heads the Tweed authority. The two were asked about the issue after a Chamber of Commerce exchange Wednesday between Gov. Malloy and local business leaders.

At that forum Weiner pushed Malloy to support Tweed more. Malloy made no commitments. DeStefano said he “heard” a commitment to take the issue seriously.

Hill Alderman Jorge Perez said he hadn’t previously heard about the aircraft tax payments. He questioned the equitableness.

“Hopefully our state delegation would look into that and make it more fair,” Perez said. “In general, I’ll be interested to know the logic behind it.”

This story first appeared on New Haven Independent.org.