Have bean counters pulled a rabbit out of their accounting hat?
The Easter egg hunt for extra moolah for Mayor Bill Finch’s budget winds down today, sorta, when the mayor’s spending plan is officially submitted to the City Council. Municipal budgets, especially for cities, can be a leap of faith. We are submitting this on the expectation the Connecticut Legislature doesn’t screw us. We are submitting this based on an expected tax collection rate of 96 percent. We’re submitting this based on all revenue sources we expect to come in, will come in. The new budget year starts July 1.
Imagination and prognostication influence city budgets.
From what I hear bean counters were still working on the budget into the Easter weekend and probably plugging in last-minute numbers today. Budget Director Tom Sherwood is a veteran of Bridgeport spending documents. I spoke to Councilman Robert Curwen co-chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee over the weekend. He says he doesn’t know what to expect from the spending plan that will be referred to his committee followed by a boatload of meetings to review department expenditures. The first one is Tuesday night.
The budget committee will spend four weeks reviewing the dollars and cents before voting it through to the full City Council. Once the full council votes it goes back to the mayor who has strong veto power over council action. Once the mayor is done addressing council changes, if any, it goes back to the legislative body for setting of the mil rate. Mayors generally live and die by their budgets and this budget cycle is mighty important for Finch as he eyes reelection next year.
Meanwhile, as the council budget takes shape, lots of maneuvering in the Board of Education, the biggest chunk of the city budget, will dictate school spending. The mayor has told the BOE what it spends this current year will be the same starting July 1. Getting there will include lots of teeth-gnashing as insurance and salaries alone drive up spending each year. BOE budget chair Pat Crossin is looking for union concessions from teachers and administrators. If they don’t play look for layoffs and school closings and new school openings delayed. And maybe the entire school system shut down for a day or two to save money. Yowser.
*** The BOE better start making plans early on who & when certain schools get closed and staff layoffs ’cause the school unions are not going to give back anything, especially after seeing the results from those employees that did on the city side of Gov. Maybe the school admin. will lead by example in giving back their last raises to get the ball rolling? (Hah!) *** And wasn’t it Finch, in criticizing Fabrizi’s last budget that said his admin. would “never” pass a city budget that relies on “$” (expectations) from the state, feds or future revenues in general? My how things change in time once you’ve been in the driver’s seat a while! Every city dept. including the Mayor’s needs to cut at least 5% across the board “without” more spending afterward. Every city job that’s “not” essential, & that was vacated by either layoffs, retirements, fired, resignations or political releases should “not” be filled & a real job “freeze” imposed. Then hopefully things might become better towards a safe balanced budget in election year “2011” without a tax raise! *** Big ups “ahead” of the actual NCAA Basketball Championship this week to this years M/M winners, DUKE & UCONN. ***
It’s budget time, a time when Sherwood and his magic pencil go to work. I have one question for the powers in place.
My question involves school remodeling. Can anyone tell me why we are spending a few million dollars to remodel Dunbar School? This is a school that was built to house 800 students and the present enrollment is around 300.
Why not combine the Dunbar students with the student body at the new McKinley School? Let’s expand Dunbar and move the Harding students into this school. Is this possible? If not why not?
Put the damn horses out to pasture.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT AT THIS TIME TO CONDUCT THE ALREADY PAID-FOR BOE AUDIT.
WHAT IS TIMPANELLI TRYING TO HIDE?
Someone this weekend told me Ramos is trying to say Vamos to Bridgeport. He’s looking to get canned with buyout and go back to Norwalk where he was once principal of Norwalk High. Super!!!
He’s Banned?
I had said we should use “steal” point in jest, but as I think more and more about it, it actually makes sense. What better “ANCHOR” than a state-of-the-art public high school. What better way to show the existing community they will not be forgotten or excluded and what better tool to jump-start interest by developers than to show the City/State have faith in the future of this site. I’m sure the State would welcome this sort of thinking for the site.
Hector, I’ll see your idea and raise you one. In addition to the High School we will have multi-use athletic facilities that could be rented out for private use so you would have an immediate entertainment venue for sports-related activities.
Then let’s figure out a way for multi-use training facilities for the school during school hours and then run privately open to membership to the public after hours as a fitness center. Discounted memberships for Bridgeport residents, of course.
Now I will double-down with this suggestion. Workforce housing with priority given to teachers and staff at Harding and then to other BOE employees.
Now we are building a community. Maybe we can get the library system to agree to rent the school library and run it as a branch of the Bridgeport Public Library for evenings and weekends.
What do you think Hector??? Are we in business here or what?
We have put together a better development proposal than any of those out-of-towners could ever come up with.
Anybody else want to join in on the planning stage?