Politicians are afraid to fix taxes. So 100 citizens tried. | Planet Money

About 100 randomly selected Connecticut residents spent months trying to solve the state’s broken property tax system, a problem that has persisted for decades and helped make local taxes among the highest in the country. The assembly was meant to work like jury duty for tax policy: ordinary people would learn the basics, debate options, and produce recommendations for the legislature.

The host describes how the group was chosen by lottery, trained by experts, and pushed to weigh difficult tradeoffs such as raising taxes, cutting spending, consolidating school districts, or shifting more costs to the state. Along the way, participants moved from skepticism and conflict to friendship and a more shared understanding of the problem. Some of the most discussed ideas included tolls, nonprofit taxes, school-service consolidation, and a millionaire tax.

The episode argues that citizen assemblies can create serious, informed proposals and change participants, but they still run into the same political bottleneck as traditional reform. The final report included 10 recommendations, including a 1% tax on earners making more than $1 million a year, but release of the proposal became entangled in election timing and political caution. The host says that trying to reinvent democracy still means confronting the realities of politics.