Read this letter from Professor David Cameron about the budget drivers and forces effecting our 2010-2011 Budget in New Haven. It is a great summary of where we are and what we need to be concerned about.
Archive for the ‘Financial Sustainability’ Category
Budget Panel Gets WTNH Coverage
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009Check out this Channel 8 piece. Nice work on the interview Tim!
Urgent Action
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Contact the Police and Fire Pension Fund Commissioners to let them know you are outraged by people trying to game the system. Tell them they cannot afford to squander the pension fund when it is underfunded by 100s of Millions of dollars!
Read this article from the New Haven Register.
Background about the story from the New Haven Independent here, here, and here.
If someone is innocent, then they should continue in their job. The possibility of false accusations is a terrible reality for any police officer. That is why we have a judicial system, of which the police are an integral part. If this person is guilty, he should be fired and not given special treatment — which is all too common in New Haven (CJ Cuticello and Billy White). Check out this outrageous practice in Long Isand.
Contact the Board and tell them we want this to stop!
RETIREMENT BOARD – POLICE AND FIRE FUND
| Name | Address | Phone |
|---|
- Bishop Theodore L. Brooks, 271 Stevenson Road, New Haven, CT 06515 203-387-3899
- Wendy Mongillo, 12 Oliver Road, New Haven, CT 06515 (203) 387-7948
- Richard Epstein, 59 McKinley Avenue, New Haven, CT 06515 Home Phone: 203-397-2299, Cell Phone: 203-982-4838, email
- John DeStefano, Jr., Ex-Officio Representative, 150 Judwin Ave, New Haven, CT 06515 203-946-7660, email
Freedom of Information Commission Hearing – Part 1
Friday, May 1st, 2009There was a hearing at the State Freedom of Information Commission today. You can read the background in the New Haven Independent and The New Haven Advocate. Here is the sanitized version of the city’s projections. The attached version is different then the one Jeffrey saw in July 2008 and the one he requested under the FOIA. Notice that the City’s projections keeps taxes completely unchanged for five years. I don’t think anyone believes that taxes will remain completely flat for five years. Things inherently cost more each year. More updates forthcoming.
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.
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.
A Little More Transparency. Thanks to the Register.
Friday, August 8th, 2008Tax on residences actually rises 14.5%, not the often repeated 9.8% line repeated ad nauseum by City Officials. Mine increased 22% this year, and 72% since I moved here 5 years ago. What was your increase?
Read the New Haven Register Article: Tax on residences actually rises 14.5%.
We should have the percent increase/decrease printed on our tax bills just like the cell phone and other bills show what our bill was last time and that it was paid. We need increased transparency on our tax bills.
You might want to take another look at our projections of where taxes are headed. See the spreadsheet or PDF version.
Property Tax Post-Mortem
Sunday, July 13th, 2008Taxes are due, even if you didn’t get the notice. And if you don’t take a minute to dig out your tax bill from last year, you might not realize the increase. The City of course doesn’t show you this automatically on your tax bill. Most bills show your last payment, but not the property tax bill. I guess they hope you don’t notice. I just calculated the increases since moving here in 2003.
2003 -> 2004 = 2.59571% Increase
2004 -> 2005 = 7.58882% Increase
2005 -> 2006 = 5.45478% Increase
2006 -> 2007 = 21.03510% Increase
2007 -> 2008 = 22.24233% Increase
That’s a 72.22474% Increase in 5 years. Guess where taxes are headed? See the spreadsheet or PDF version.
