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 ‘Inefficiencies’ Category
Blue Ribbon Budget Panel Reports to BOA
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
One Thing You Can Do Right Now To Improve Education
Saturday, April 25th, 2009Write an email to our state delegation. With one click, you can email them all. The link is just on our right hand side of this page. Here is the letter Jeffrey sent:
Help make Education actually educate our children!
Dear New Haven Delegation:
I am writing you from New Haven. As a progressive democrat, I am outraged by a system that continues to provide barriers to reforming education. For too long, we have accepted failing schools over special interests and have made excuses for non-performance. For instance, why on earth would we turn away some of the most talented young people in the world from teaching in our classrooms? Although not the first source for progressives, read this maddening WSJ article that is spot on: Teach for (Some of) America, Too talented for public schools: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124061253951954349.html#articleTabs=article.
Right now, you are in a position to start eliminating some of these barriers through your powers on the CGA. You can promote data transparency (S.B. 1014) which would allow a better understanding of which schools work and which fail. For too long, we allow people to manipulate fungible numbers. The second opportunity to be a true progressive for transformative education lies in letting smart people teach, no matter what undergraduate education they have pursued. S.B. 939 allows a friend of mine, someone who got a full scholarship to Yale Business School (SOM) due to academic achievement, and who has worked as some of the top companies in the world, to work in the classroom. He loves math and would enjoy teaching in New Haven schools but has not been able to do so despite several unsuccessful attempts to navigate the process. This is shear madness!
Here is a summary of each bill:
The first bill (S.B. 1014) promotes data transparency in schools by requiring that the Connecticut State Department of Education allow nonprofits and universities to use education data the state already collects to improve instruction and help parents make smart choices.
The second bill (S.B. 939) helps improve teacher quality. It removes roadblocks keeping excellent math and science candidates from teaching without a specific college major, instead giving them the option to prove their subject knowledge through a rigorous exam. This bill also establishes a teacher certification pathway so that Teach for America can continue to provide its teachers the long-term professional development and support that has proven so effective. The bill also aids interstate reciprocity for experienced teachers.
Thanks,
Jeffrey Kerekes
With A Shortage of Quality Teachers, Why?
Saturday, April 25th, 2009Read this interesting article from the WSJ, Teach for (Some of) America, which describes the barriers keeping out high energy, smart college students, from teaching in the poorest schools. Does this make sense to you? Is our school system itself the barrier to a quality education? Are these sorts of barriers happening here in New Haven? Believe it.
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.
Bankruptcy In Our Future?
Thursday, May 8th, 2008See below for a NYTimes article and Harry David’s contextualization.
Note the size of Vallejo — 115,000 compared to New Haven/s 120,000. Vallejo’s payroll costs were 80% of the General Fund compared to New Haven’s 65%. New Haven’s Mayor will be proposing some modest payroll trimming that may not be sufficient. We have the experience of Waterbury to look to and to try to avoid going down the path of profligate spending in a constrained tax climate. Harry
US | May 8, 2008
City Council in Bay Area Declares Bankruptcy
By JESSE McKINLEY
The unanimous vote was cast after efforts to squeeze concessions out of Vallejo City employees failed and with the city facing a $16 million shortfall for the fiscal year.
Time to Unload Subsidies
Sunday, February 24th, 2008We have a $17 Million shortfall this current fiscal year alone.
The below subsidies are rather small and dropping them should have minimal impact as the table clearly illustrates. Why do we need to subsidize the airport for $12.58 per flight? We can keep the airport, end the controversy among residents for $12.58 per flight. Compare $12.58 per flight with $6.03/rider of the trolley. From a subsidy standpoint, we would be better off flying people around then sending them by trolley. More seriously, the trolley is “free” to riders and only 9 people per hour? It looks like even when you give this service away, people are not interested. If it provides a service for those who are unable to walk, we could give them cab vouchers at a considerable cost savings.
| Subsidy | Amount | Tickets/Passengers/Flights | Cost Per unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tweed New Haven | $800,000 | 176 Flights/day | $12.58/flight |
| Shubert Theater | $410,000 | 93,000 Patrons | $4.10/person |
| Pilot Pen | $135,000 | 94,639 in 2007 | $1.43/Person |
| Downtown Trolley | $350,000 | 58,000 (9 People per hour) | $6.03/person |
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
