The final recommendations to the New Haven Board of Aldermen from the Blue Ribbon Citizen’s Panel on the Budget is ready. Its a worthwhile read. Thanks to all the panelists and city staff that contributed to its construction.
Archive for the ‘Economic Development’ Category
Blue Ribbon Budget Panel Reports to BOA
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Car Free in America?
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009Read this NYTimes piece about walkable cities. Local efforts include Safe Streets and more safe streets.
Cities such as Portland, OR can serve as a model for attracting young people and new businesses.
Sales Receipt Lotto Ticket To Raise State Revenues?
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009Here’s an idea they use in Taiwan to increase State revenue which should cost relatively little to implement. Make each sales receipt into a lotto ticket. When you buy something from a store or restaurant, that receipt becomes a lotto ticket. Consumers will now demand receipts from every purchase and if that register receipt paper with preprinted lotto numbers was created and sold by the State, the State could increase the number of transactions actually being reported. We have all seen or suspected instances where sales were not being recorded. This proposal would eliminate or significantly reduce the number of unreported transactions. Right now, why would a consumer care if the merchant reports the sale. Now, the consumer has a vested interest in getting a receipt and the State wins too.
This program would also encourage people to come and shop in Connecticut since they have a chance to win big for every purchase they make. This would stimulate the economy in addition to increasing reported transactions. Furthermore, you could make this part of a State sales tax increase in an effort to make a sales tax increase more palatable. Since this program would inconvenience retailers and restaurants, give any store that sells a winning ticket a percentage of the winnings. Given the volume of sales of any store or restaurant, they actually will have better odds than most consumers.
The State could hold a drawing on a quarterly or monthly basis. The State could also mail lotto tickets to people who self-report online purchases, bringing in additional dollars from unreported online transactions. The State is already set up to run lotteries so the only new burden would be to print and sell register tapes and sell them to businesses. The cost of doing this could easily be paid for out of increased revenues. While hopefully unnecessary, consumers could even be fined for leaving a store having made a purchase without a receipt if you wanted to enhance reporting and remove incentives to keep transactions off the books.
If you like this idea, please contact one of your state representatives or the governor’s office.
Please Contact Your Alder About Tweed
Friday, February 13th, 2009There’s been a healthy debate in the city in recent weeks over the funding of the Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport. The Airport Authority recently requested a $160,000 mid-year appropriation that would restore 2/3 of the dollars cut from the subsidy from the current budget. The threat is that, if the Authority fails, the city will have to run the airport itself, possibly at greater expense than the Authority does.
NHCAN recognizes the value of the airport for the region, but we do not feel that it is being run effectively. We have two suggestions:
- All city and state elected officials in New Haven should work together to get true regional or state support for the airport. Currently, New Haven bears the majority of the costs, with help from the state. This should be an urgent priority for everyone who represents the citizens of New Haven.
- The Airport Authority should cut costs and raise its general aviation fees to make up most or all of its operating deficit. There are clear opportunities to do so, but they are not being seized.
If you share our view, we ask that you contact your alderperson about Tweed. The Board will vote on the mid-year appropriation at their February 17, 2009 meeting.
For a concise summary of both sides of the recent debate on Tweed, click here to download a one-page PDF.
LETTER: In city’s fiscal squeeze, subsidies unwarranted
Monday, November 3rd, 2008See this NHR Letter LETTER: In city’s fiscal squeeze, subsidies unwarranted
Monday, November 3, 2008 3:15 AM EST
In her letter objecting to my suggestion that the city should not have given the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament a subsidy, Anne Worcester, the tournament director, notes that it provides significant benefits to the city. Yes, the tournament attracts a large number of visitors — some 81,000 this year. And, the tournament provides affordable tennis lessons to many young people.
But, why should the city’s hard-pressed taxpayers provide a subsidy to a tournament that has many corporate sponsors, receives revenues from television and pays out $1.28 million in prize money?
The city is confronted with a very difficult fiscal situation. Despite an 11 percent increase in property tax revenues, the city entered the current fiscal year with a $6 million deficit. Thirty-four long-time employees were laid off in September. Many other positions have been eliminated through attrition. Funding for the police was cut by $227,000. Funding for homeless shelters was cut by $384,000.
Nevertheless, the city gave Pilot Pen $135,000. It also gave the Shubert theater $260,000, the Grove Street garage $290,000 and Tweed New Haven Regional Airport $550,000. How many people could have kept their jobs if the city hadn’t given those subsidies? How many homeless people could have been provided shelter this winter?
David R. Cameron
New Haven
Editor’s note: David R. Cameron is a professor of political science at Yale University and a member of the city’s Blue Ribbon Budget Review Panel.
2008-9 Budget Recommendations
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008(NHCAN) is pleased to announce the budget recommendations for the 2008-2009 Fiscal Year. We have prepared a list of recommendations including the ending of unsustainable subsidies, to the reorganization of departments, to the transformation of the budget document itself. Below you will find the link to the full document (2.3 MB), as well as, shorter versions of the document. We recognize that some of these recommendations may be impractical or even naïve. We invite you to consider these in the spirit in which it is offered and to offer superior alternatives for the general good. We look forward to continuing this discussion.
2008-2009 Budget Public Comments(2.3 MB)
Executive Summary Only (414 KB)
Full Document Without the Appendices (1.4 MB)
Appendices Only (2.0 MB)
New Economic Development Commission
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008I come late to this discussion. Yale is funding this new EDC to the tune of $320K a year — which will probably cover staff salaries and travel budgets. M. Whelley must be coming to this new position with definite ideas as to what it will take to stem the outflow of business and to attract newcomers to New Haven since she has done this previously in Baltimore.
So the question becomes — ” What did M. Whelley accomplish in Baltimore during her tenure there and what support and how effective were the City and STate entities she had to deal with and through? Since Yale is behind this initiative one might conclude that they are comfortable with her thinking on this score and that they like what was accomplished in Baltimore. WE should look to Baltimore to get an insight as to what is in store.
I am not a development expert so can only speculate as to what attracts business to one locale versus another. Quality of life is an obvious factor in determining whether people move to the suburbs or come to the City. If we asked businesses that have left the City or those that considered coming, what factors drove their decision?
Perhaps Yale’s investments in the City will be used to leverage other business investment? In which case the degree to which this new EDC can operate independently of the City may be key to it’s success. The constitution of the rest of the Board may be quite important.
I have no supporting evidence, yet I suspect that the City’s attractiveness to business as well as to new residents is a function of it’s effectiveness in delivering City services. Again without supporting evidence, I would posit that the City’s educational system is also a major factor in determining whether people want to locate here and helps determine whether business expansion is supported by the educational skills of the labor force.
So I raise the question — how effective can this new EDC be if related steps are not taken to improve the cost effectiveness of City service delivery and if radical improvements are not made in the performance of the Education system of the City?
It is also logical to think that the attractiveness of the City for businesses and residents depends on how taxpayers feel about the value they receive for the tax dollars they are required to pay. If City taxes are high, are projected to increase significantly over the next 5 years and if improvements are not made to the cost effectiveness of City services, then any business thinking of coming here or expanding here must factor in these much higher taxes and uneven service delivery.
Does the new EDC have any capacity to influence these factors? Will it be allowed to?
Finally, I note that the new EDC will include the City’s top two officers who influence the City’s development — City Plans and Economic Development. The new EDC is an indirect reflection on the effectiveness of our economic development efforts. Would economic development have a better chance of being effective if these two departments — and perhaps others — were brought together under an effective leader?
The spectacle of the Building Department trying to become a profit center by charging permit fees unrelated to operating costs from the same investors that the City wishes to attract suggests these departments may be working at cross purposes.
My bottom line is that this new Corporation is necessary given the realities and effectiveness of the Administration’s efforts in this area. If Yale can leverage it’s presence, jobs, investments and brainpower to help the City meet these goals then we must all wish them well in this enterprise.
I am encouraged by this development.
-Harry David, Member, NHCAN Steering Committee
