The NYC Citizens Budget Commission provides an interesting website reviewing NYC finances. Their mission: “The Citizens Budget Commission is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civic organization devoted to influencing constructive change in the finances and services of New York City and New York State government.” Check out their Myth of Uncontrollables, which directly confronts the notion of “its all fixed costs,” the mantra of the New Haven BOA and Administration.
Archive for the ‘Accountability’ Category
Citizens Budget Commission – NYC
Saturday, May 16th, 2009ConnCAN Rally & Legislative Initiatives
Thursday, March 26th, 2009See letter below from ConnCAN on their efforts with the State.
Dear Friend,
I’ve been asking a lot of you these past weeks. Since launching our ‘Mind the Gaps’ campaign almost two months ago, I’ve been asking you to write your legislators, attend legislative hearings, visit our campaign website and spread the word among friends and family.
You responded – and because of that, we’ve made real progress. As we head into the latter part of the legislative session, I wanted to take a moment to update you on the state of our campaign and thank you for your work.
Over 1,000 Connecticut citizens have written their elected officials to ask them to ‘Mind the Gaps’ in student achievement by enacting three fiscally responsible, commonsense, results-oriented education reforms in the 2009 legislative session.
In late February, over 400 advocates attended the appropriations hearing in Hartford, wearing bright blue Mind the Gaps t-shirts and asking our legislators to avoid the tragedy of half-completed, high-performing public charter schools.
In March, advocates from across the state testified at two hearings on three important bills that were raised by the General Assembly’s Education Committee for data transparency in schools and teacher quality.
1) An Act Concerning Longitudinal Studies Of Student Achievement (H.B. 6491) would require that the Connecticut State Department of Education allow nonprofits and universities to use education data the state collects to improve instruction and help parents make smart choices.
2) An Act Concerning Teacher Certification (H.B. 6666) would remove the roadblocks keeping excellent teachers out of Connecticut classrooms by changing the law that prevents great candidates from teaching without a specific college major. Instead, this bill would give them the option to prove their subject knowledge by passing a rigorous exam.
3) An Act Establishing A Resident Teacher Certificate (H.B. 6654) would establish a one-year resident teacher certificate so that Teach for America can continue to provide its teachers the long-term professional development and support that has proven so effective in helping raise student achievement.
Next week, on April 2, charter school advocates will converge on the steps of the State Capitol for one last push to ensure our voices are heard as legislators make their final funding choices. And on April 6th, the Education Committee will reach its final deadline to pass these three bills on to the General Assembly as a whole.
If you haven’t done so yet, please take two minutes right now to send a letter to your legislator about these critical issues so that we can ensure that every child in Connecticut has access to a great public school.
Thank you for being an advocate for Connecticut kids.
My Best,
Alex Johnston
Chief Executive Officer
ConnCAN
P.S. Don’t forget to visit our campaign website – www.pleasemindthegaps.org – for more information, videos, and to keep track of our progress.
About ConnCAN — The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) is an advocacy organization building a new movement of concerned Connecticut citizens working to create fundamental change in our education system. To learn more visit: www.conncan.org.
Why the City Can’t Hope For Its Own Bailout…
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008Check out this Government Accountability Office (GAO) video summary of the economy. This is before the latest meltdown and bailouts. Did you know you owe the US Govt $350,000?
Mayor On Financial Problems
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008Although this letter from the Mayor focuses on the national financial mess, New Haven’s financial problems have been years in the making. This was coming to a head without the latest national pressures. What is happening, is now, these issues can no longer be managed with one time revenue infusions from selling City assets, or other financial engineering. We have written elsewhere, and provided testimony, that the budget is mostly personnel related. That is why the Mayor’s letter focuses on union renegotiations. Tweed, Shubert, the trolley to nowhere, and other major ticket items still pale in comparison to the major driver – personnel cost. This is simply a fact of the city budget. The fact that the city employees and the citizens still do not understand this is a failure of leadership on this issue. We need transparent government, multi-year financial projections to make sound decisions, and accountability at all levels of city government and city spending if we want to start digging our way slowly out of this hole. I am hopeful that the current administration will take the necessary steps to greater transparency, community involvement, and encourage honest and rigorous discourse on the financial state of this City so we can begin coming together to right this ship. Have some ideas? Send them our way.
Transparency International
Sunday, October 19th, 2008Transparency International seems like a good organization investigating corruption and working on transparency. Here are their definitions:
How do you define corruption?
Transparency International (TI) has chosen a clear and focused definition of the term: Corruption is operationally defined as the misuse of entrusted power for private gain. TI further differentiates between “according to rule” corruption and “against the rule” corruption. Facilitation payments, where a bribe is paid to receive preferential treatment for something that the bribe receiver is required to do by law, constitute the former. The latter, on the other hand, is a bribe paid to obtain services the bribe receiver is prohibited from providing.
What is “transparency”?
“Transparency” can be defined as a principle that allows those affected by administrative decisions, business transactions or charitable work to know not only the basic facts and figures but also the mechanisms and processes. It is the duty of civil servants, managers and trustees to act visibly, predictably and understandably.
Know about local corruption or have ideas for increasing local transparency? Contact us!
Two More In . . .
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008Shah and DePino disclosure forms now in. Thanks! Two more to go:
W A N T E D
Your Disclosure Forms!
Ward 2 – Calder
Ward 12 – Antunes
Wallpaper for your computer?
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
