We had a very successful turn out last evening and even won over the people turned out by the Mayor. Lets keep up the pressure to have the Board of Aldermen send the budget back to the Mayor.

Saturday, 4/24 at 7:07 am (Early Bird Special)
John Deandre’s Newsmakers program
Tune in on 1220 am on your radio or click here for live streaming.

Learn more about Performance Based Budgeting from Susan Campion.

We are asking everyone to do these three things:

#1 —- Sign the Petition to Cut the Budget by 10%
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The Mayor is proposing a 2% cut through Innovation Based Budgeting (IBB), we are asking that number to be 10% to be no new (net) taxes. Please call Jeffrey at 203-676-0880 or email jeffrey.kerekes@gmail.com if you have petitions ready to be picked up. While our Citywide Brainstorm has generated over 315 revenue/expense ideas, we believe city managers are best poised to implement cost savings measures to achieve a 10% reduction in the budget.

http://www.petitiononline.com/NewHaven/petition.html

#2 —- Come to the Final Public Hearing On The Budget —- **** PLEASE COME TO THIS EVENT!!!!! **** —-
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Final public hearing on the budget. We need people to turn out on this night. Bring your neighbors!!!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 @ 6:30 pm
Board of Alders Chambers, City Hall, 165 Church Street, New Haven, CT 06511

#3 —- Contact these Board of Alders, Finance Committee Members —- They will be making a recommendation to the Full BOA on the Budget —-
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Ward#
4 Andrea Jackson-Brooks Ward4@newhavenct.net 102 DeWitt Street New Haven, CT 06519-2131 203-776-0502

5 Jorge Perez Ward5@newhavenct.net 24 Cassius Street New Haven, CT 06519-2313 203-562-4373

7 Bitsy Clark clarkfrances@sbcglobal.net 320 Audobon Court New Haven, CT 06511-1203 203-772-4455

9 Roland Lemar Ward9@newhavenct.net 549 Orange Street New Haven, CT 06511- 203-240-6135

10 Justin Elicker Ward10@newhavenct.net 192 Willow Street New Haven, CT 06511-2501 203-500-2969

11 Maureen O’Sullivan-Best Ward11@newhavenct.net 54 Foxon Street New Haven, CT 06513-3404 203-467-9783

14 Stephanie Bauer Ward14@newhavenct.net 55 East Pearl Street New Haven, CT 06513-3206 203-785-0065

16 Migdalia Castro Ward16@newhavenct.net 139 Lloyd Street,Unit 3, New Haven, CT 06513-3811 777-6835

22 Greg Morehead Ward22@newhavenct.net 13 Frances Hunter Drive, New Haven, CT 06511-3533 203-507-7766

23 Yusuf I. Shah Ward23@newhavenct.net 730 George Street #309, New Haven, CT 06511-5217 843-4450

29 Carl Goldfield Ward29@newhavenct.net 25 Roydon Road New Haven, CT 06511-2806 782-2064 w:787-9222

The undersigned residents and taxpayers of New Haven wish to register our opposition to Mayor DeStefano’s proposed 2010-2011 budget. The $670,448,590 proposal is a large one and calls for a city-wide 9–11% tax increase, regardless of taxpayers’ ability to carry this burden. This is unacceptable.

We agree with the Mayor that these times are not normal. We disagree emphatically, however, with the Mayor’s proposed responses to these events. The Mayor’s proposal does little to attack the real problem, which is rapidly escalating costs, well beyond the rate of inflation. We refuse to be deflected from this focus.

In normal times, those who want work can generally find it. In normal times, wages and salaries increase, real estate values rise, the stock market expands – and we can support tax increases. But these are not normal times. In households throughout New Haven, families are re-learning how to “do without”. In New Haven’s businesses, and in our churches, colleges, and universities, responsible officials are finding ways to cut costs – not to control their growth, but to cut them. We affirm that, in these decidedly not normal times, New Haven’s city government must do the same. As City Alders, you have the authority to demand changes in the proposed budget and not simply accept it with minor changes As those who voted you into office, we deserve your protection and support.

We urge you to request that every department head identify ways to cut their actual expenses– not their proposals, but their current budgets – by 10% and to submit such reductions in a revised budget proposal. These are competent professionals who know how best to do this. They alone know how the dollar is spent and which activities provide the least value.

As an outside group we cannot presume to dictate where those cuts must be. We are confident, however, that competent professionals in every department know best how to cut 10% from their expenses with the least pain to New Haven’s quality of life and critical City services. Let them use furloughs, freeze hiring, wages and salaries, health care benefits, or simply turn the lights off earlier. Let them identify the ways to achieve the 10% reduction. We expect that some services will be sacrificed, and we are reluctantly ready to deal with that. We are not ready for yet another tax increase.

We know that what we propose is difficult. But these are not normal times. We urge you to send the Mayor’s proposal back and demand accountability from each and every department throughout this city. We love this city. We want this city to remain a great place to live for all.

To sign our petition to cut 10% of the budget: http://www.petitiononline.com/NewHaven/petition.html

Or if you want to print out the petition and help gather signatures. Return it to Jeffrey Kerekes, 43 Lyon Street, New Haven, CT 06511 203-676-0880

Here is one of the remaining two unanswered questions. One more to go:

(3/19/2010) Q: 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?

A: The current bargaining agreements between the City and our Unions all contain language that prevent us from unilaterally making any of the changes suggested.

Remaining Question:

Question #3 — Not Answered Yet
#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”?

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?