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.
Posts Tagged ‘Mayor’
Ask your budget questions at City Website
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010You can ask you budget related questions at the city website and I was told they will work hard to get you an answer within 24-36 hours. Here are the questions I submitted. What are the questions you submitted?
Dear Jessica:
I am submitting my budget questions at the suggestion of Sean Matteson and as offered on the City of New Haven Website. I am cc:ing my fellow FRAC commissioners although these questions are coming from me and not the commission.
I would like to first say thank you for adding this feature to the city website and for the modifications to the City budget document (it still needs formatting improvements), which whether or not done for this reason, feels like it speaks to some of the changes I have been asking for and I appreciate that. Same thing for the voluminous Forms 106, which are a major improvement over recent years. I think it would be great for you to annually add the availability of Forms 106 and the excel version of the budget onto the city website for those of us interested in reading it.
Here are a few of my budget questions:
#1: I am interested to know why the Gateway Terminal only pays a few hundred dollars a year on taxes instead of $235,000? see attached advocate article. If we plan on raising taxes, shouldn’t we be collecting it from all entities? Are there other similar/related instances in the city?
#2: What is the city’s plan to deal with the dramatically increasing costs associated with pensions, healthcare, retiree healthcare, and workers compensation? They are rising much faster then we can keep up particularly given the deficits with the State Budget.
#3: Why are we giving Chris DePino $50,000 a year as a state lobbyist when we have 8 Representative (2 senators and 6 reps) at the capitol? What have been the total payments to him for lobbying over all the years and what was the first year he was paid? What has his total ROI been from his specific efforts? Same thing with the about $100,000 we spend with William & Jennings our “Washington Communicator”?
#4 Under current contracts, does the City have the power to unilaterally change the work requirements such that we move City Hall to a four day work week and cut all related expenses including a proportional amount of salaries and benefits? You might not be able to change the contract on the days they actually work, but can you indirectly deal with this by decreasing the number of days?
#5 Why not freeze all travel expenses? The Mayor’s budget proposes $724,333 to spend on travel expenses.
#6 The citizens of New Haven were promised by many Alders and the Mayor that the Municipal ID program would only be paid for by grant funding yet we see $53,833 for a staff member (does not include pension and benefits, or unassigned managers who oversee this project) and $190,372 (in the general fund Form 106 for the CSA) in operating expenses totaling about $1/4 Million dollars. I have no philosophical problems with this program. I did state before it was approved that I didn’t think we could afford to add a new program into the budget. I still feel that way. Why is this in the general fund budget?
#7 Why haven’t we raised the landing fees at Tweed to be at minimum close to what Waterbury charges? Why not a small increase in the fuel flowage fee?
#8 Why do we pay the City Clerk $46,597 a year, when we only pay aldermen/women $2000 a year and they clearly work harder and vastly more hours? They are both elected positions. Can we cut City Clerk to $2000?
#9: Do you have an official legal opinion from our Corporation Counsel and from the FAA that specifically and unequivocally states we are responsible to pay them back if we close Tweed? If so, can you please send a copy? How much would we exactly owe them? How long must we keep the airport open until that debt is forgiven(if it is forgiven), and under what terms is that debt forgiven? If we closed the airport, on what schedule of repayments would we have to pay the FAA back? What happens if we don’t pay it back (refuse to pay it back)? Why does this liability not show up in any Budget or related documents such as the bond offering statement? If we owe something, even a huge number, we should have it spelled out in detail so as to make informed decisions and if we owe them something, this is a liability that must be reported, no?
2010 City Budget in Excel Format
Monday, March 8th, 2010For anyone interested in taking a look at the budget in a spreadsheet format, click here for the 1.4 MB file.
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.
