Where Have All the Horses Gone? the Personal Property Tax and Connecticut's Underground Horse Industry

• Publication year: 2021
• Pages: 396

Connecticut Bar Journal Volume 81.

81 CBJ 396. WHERE HAVE ALL THE HORSES GONE? THE PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX AND CONNECTICUT'S UNDERGROUND HORSE INDUSTRY

Connecticut Bar Journal
Volume 81, No. 4, Pg. 396
December 2007

WHERE HAVE ALL THE HORSES GONE? THE PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX AND CONNECTICUT'S UNDERGROUND HORSE INDUSTRY

By Donna Sims (fn*)

I. Introduction

Connecticut has a long and powerful relationship with agriculture and its implements. Quinnehtukqut or "beside the long tidal river"(fn1) is the state's Native American name and has been in use since the 1600s for both the region and the river to which it is associated. The Connecticut River, like the Nile, regularly floods the river valley, making the area one of the most fertile and rich agricultural regions in New England.

Today the state struggles with its almost suburban status as a desirable residential locale: conveniently located between the busy metropolitan areas of Boston and New York City, and its rural and agricultural past. The horse as a tool of agriculture in the state has its own intertwining history, yet today the horse industry in Connecticut remains vibrant, despite the inevitable decline of agriculture in the state. The difficulty for the horse industry lies in its relatively secretive status as a result of local and state taxation and public policy issues concerning zoning and nuisance in an urban/suburban environment.

II. Background

Connecticut horse owners have been known frequently to assert that "there are more horses today in Connecticut than there were in Colonial times." This declaration, while intriguing, does not lend itself to support from any data provided by historic record. Indeed, comparative details and statistics of colonial life are difficult to discover, in great part because of the national view that has taken precedence. "The period of our history before 1783 has been construed as merely the ante-chamber to the great hall of our national development. In so doing writers have concerned themselves not with colonial history as such, but rather with the colonial antecedents of our national history."(fn2)

We can, however, make an attempt at interpolating an estimate of colonial horse ownership in Connecticut by looking at approximations of populations at points close in time. Historian, Jackson Turner Main estimates that in the year 1730 the colony of Connecticut had a population of about 38,000.(fn3) Since it is hardly likely that each person owned a horse, but also possible that some part of the population owned multiple horses for agricultural and transportation purposes, an estimate of 38,000 colonial horses is not beyond reason. Therefore based on estimates discussed later in this analysis of current horse populations, we most probably do have more horses in Connecticut today than in colonial times.

That horses played an important role in the commerce between the colonies and the development of transportation systems is relatively well documented through the evolution of our public modern highways. This may have been the basis for the later establishment of the personal property tax on motor vehicles which residents of Connecticut still enjoy. Municipalities assess and collect the tax today on motor vehicles owned and maintained in their jurisdiction.

Interestingly, responsibility for the highways gave rise to control over the methods of their use. Horse railroads, sometimes called tramways or horse cars, were trolleys operating on rail lines and pulled by horses. Many nineteenth century cities and towns had a horse railroad company operating within their limits providing transportation. The first statutory regulation giving towns the authority over railroad companies was "An Act Relating to Horse Railroads" adopted in 1864 and was later revised in 1866.(fn4)

III. The Relevant History of Horse Taxation

The adoption of the "Fundamental Orders of 1639"(fn5 )allowed the colony some degree of independent governance: establishing democratic principles based on popular approval of "admitted freemen,"(fn6) establishing the first local authority to fine, make or repeal laws, and grant levies. The Fundamental Orders are considered by many to represent the first written constitution of a democratic government in our nation's history. The document, however, fails to establish any attempt to regulate business, agriculture or commerce as do later iterations of constitutional documents.

One of the earliest indications that horses enjoyed a favored status in the Connecticut economy was the enactment in 1672 by the General Court of Assemblies of the Connecticut Colony of a statute requiring towns to construct and maintain roads and bridges. It additionally imposed liability on towns for injuries to people and injuries to horses, if the injuries were from the failure to sufficiently maintain the roads and bridges.(fn7)

The property tax, as a tool for government generation of revenue has been used for thousands of years. As imposed by the British it was originally contemplated as a tax that used "ownership or occupancy of a property to estimate a taxpayer's ability to pay."(fn8) Over time the tax came to be regarded as in rem or a tax on the property itself.(fn9) "In the strict sense of the term, a...