The suburbs send Bridgeport their garbage, sewage, sick and homeless. The state’s largest city absorbs all the social service entities, tax-exempt nonprofits and public housing. To paraphrase former City Attorney Larry Merly who spotlighted this issue 25 years ago, large-acre discriminatory zoning in the suburbs forces the heavy concentration of public housing, social institutions and tax-exempt properties into the city. The way to preserve the suburban lifestyle is to wall off the city. Sounds like the perfect argument for municipal regionalization. That’s the case Mayor Bill Finch made the other day to a legislative committee backed up by an editorial by the Connecticut Post. Check it out:
It’s 16 square miles filled with scores of former factory sites that are difficult to develop because it’s easier and cheaper to put up an office building in the suburbs than to take care of the contaminants found where factories used to stand.
It’s 16 square miles in a state with 168 other cities and towns, all of which go about their business as entirely separate entities. As Finch points out, if the Bridgeport region were situated in just about any other state, it would have long since annexed Trumbull, Stratford, Easton, Westport, Fairfield and beyond, creating a much more self-sufficient–and cheaper to manage–local government.
Full editorial here.
Look, this regionalization is not going to happen, no way shape or form. These people who live in the ‘burbs live there with blinders on and fear of Bridgeporters in their hearts.
I have something that relates to another indignity Bridgeport residents face. We have one transfer station in town, it is opened limited hours, these are so-called winter hours. During the week they shut down the station for an hour for lunch, they never used to do that.
This Saturday when the majority of residents can get to the dump Mayoral Aide Ruben Felipe from his comfy home decides to close the transfer station early. There are at least 70 residents who were turned away from the station at noon. I would guess a lot of the junk intended for the transfer station will end up in vacant lots. Hey Ruben, get off your fat ass and go look at the line at the station, with Daylight savings time, line should be there until 4PM.
Never underestimate the motivational power of pain. Not until suburbs feel the discomfort that comes from a declining tax base will they see the benefits of regionalism and the emerging suburban ponderosa.
(wink)
Finch: Stop complaining how the poor suburbians are picking on the Park City and do something about it. No more housing projects, no more methadone clinics, and finally support the possibility of big business in the city. Get some backbone and support the Three Tribes for recognition. This would bring thousands of entry level jobs and millions of dollars. GET A SPINE.
I have a question for the Connecticut Post. Do you really have editors who live in Fairfield County? Do you really think the suburbs want Bridgeport and its low grand list burdening them? Come on, be real. Part of the problem with Bridgeport is the Post. You really don’t tell the people of Bridgeport what is going on in this city. You write bullshit pieces that mean nothing. Your editor writes every Sunday about sweaters, his dog, the local pawn shop owner, Ireland and a bunch of other bullshit no one cares about.
If this paper held Bridgeport politicians’ feet to the fire maybe things would change. Is that going to happen? NO. There are too many liberal crybabies on this paper who like singing “Everything is Wonderful.” Maybe the paper will be the last ones in Bridgeport and they can turn out the lights when they leave.
There are too many liberal beneficiaries on this blog who enjoy singing “Everything is Doomed.” The rugged individuals will make sure to keep the lights on so the remaining complainers can see their way.
Mayor Finch has addressed the fact of the City’s small land footprint, 16 square miles, since his initial election. (Aside from coastal erosion or a land swap with Trumbull, it is not very different today.) It is something he can spend a few minutes talking about, but which accomplishes nothing though it may give some listeners an additional reason to whine or mutter “poor us.”
What other politicians often do is talk about waste and inefficiency in government. Bill Finch would rather talk about “21st Century,” “sustainable,” “clean energy” and environmentally Green projects. Some of this has practical significance immediately in reducing energy expense for the City. But much of it serves to talk about the very relevant fiscal efficiencies that come about when specific and limited objectives are targeted, when the public can see how things are measured and how people are evaluated, and when a bottom-line dollar and cents result can be shown to the taxpayer.
Mayor Finch has taken six years to provide the Charter-required monthly financial report, every month of the year with complete data for the last month. But did the selected Budget and Appropriations Committee of the City Council study it to learn any lessons (and gain some political advantage with their voters)? NO.
And the B&A after making some general comments after last year’s Budget Review towards getting professional assistance, failed to address the matter seriously in their Committee meetings all the while having $90,000 to spend. (Of course they would have had to get “permission” from the City to hire someone, so why don’t they start this year by cutting all but $5,000 from that Legislative line item?)
Budget review with clear objectives in mind is what individuals and businesses of all sizes have to do. Yes, fixed costs are just that, but seeing how full-time employment Line Item 51000 can vary from budget time to cutting time, it is clear to me the City is top heavy with folks who have no clear measure of success or failure and who do not receive a management evaluation either, even when requested. And there are other folks, perhaps at lower pay levels, who can not make a reliable statement as to their real duties and are not observed full time at any duties anyway. Shameful! Efficiencies, start there and take a look at each non-core activity, and the added maintenance cost when new equipment is secured through a grant but the City is later responsible, and the same goes for the Mayoral “parks fetish.”
Taxpayers are looking for real effort and some straight talk at holding the line on taxes. It can be done though it is not easy. And what keeps it from being “easy” are the many past years of deferral to the future. We are in that future today. It is fiscally ugly. Property owners failing to pay bills get liened. Bridgeport taxpayers are leaned on. Time will tell.
This has gone too far. Bridgeport made choices. Now that those choices are not working out they want to find a way to make someone else responsible for those choices. Why did BPT let in all the low income housing and nonprofits? To bring in voters and supporters who are friendly to the current (and future) administration, the PILOT was the best economic option open to them at the time or one politico was doing a favor for some other politico. Why don’t the burbs follow suit? Because, they do not want to use more than a responsible amount of their tax base for these purposes. Remember, if nonprofits in your town cause a 10% increase in property taxes than $0.10 of every dollar you pay in property tax is a donation to those charities, if you like it or not. The people of BPT vote for their leadership. That leadership chooses to do these things. How can you expect to hold the people of Fairfield responsible for this? Look, a mayor of Fairfield gets elected on the premise that not one more square foot of land will go tax free in an attempt to control property taxes. Then BPT CHOOSES to build a huge housing project and Fairfield ends up paying for it. How is that fair? Did they ever find all the money that disappeared from the BPT housing authority? Now you want someone else to pay for it. Will the people paying for it have a say in what happens there? You act like these things have no benefit to BPT. Add up the value of all those jobs, federal and state money and the support of satellite business. A lot of people eat in a hospital. Steel Point is about the size of PT Barnum. Who pays the property tax on Steel Point? It won’t be Bass Pro. I will bet you that they will not have to pay any property taxes for 10 years. Never mind the $22 MILLION that we are paying them to move in. The nonprofits don’t pay taxes. The for-profits don’t pay taxes. Only the home owners pay taxes.
Another question. Greenwich has a Boy’s club, a housing project, The Bruce museum, Greenwich Hospital, Churches, Parks, ETC. What is the tax value all these tax exempt activities compare with the tax value of the same in BPT? If the value that Greenwich is losing is greater than the value that BPT is losing, BPT could end up paying Greenwich. What would the value of Tod’s Point be in comparison to Seaside Park and what would the economic benefit be to their respective cities? If Greenwich only uses Tod’s point as a beach (nothing but an expense) and BPT has the Vibes Festival at Seaside, should BPT pay Greenwich? If St. Mary’s causes an increase in the value of the nearby houses and the traffic around Compo beach causes a decrease in the value of nearby houses, should BPT pay Westport?
There is this halfway home in Westport:
www .thewatershed.com/lp/halfway-house-4-a/
BOE SPY,
May I ask you why? The Watershed seems to have nothing to do with ‘half-way house facilities’ that are located in Westport. Perhaps you can connect the info for me. Usually I find your postings as relevant, helpful and straightforward. Using those criteria I am confused on this one, your help please … of course you could be making an incongruous observation on regionalization, or you could be in error. Time will tell.
You are right. I posted the wrong link. There are many houses between BPT and NY.
Fairfield Counseling Services Inc
125 Penfield Road
Fairfield CT 06824
Sober Living Home, Sober living Environment, Halfway House, SLR, Sober Roommates
My point is: you can buy one three-bedroom) house in Westport for $300K or 3 three-bedroom houses in BPT for $100K each. Either way each city committed the same asset value. It would be up to the counseling program to determine what is the best way to commit resources. How can they help the most people (three bedrooms or nine)? There is no clandestine group of robe-clad white men flying in from the grassy knoll and Area 51 to plot the demise of BPT and the subjectification of minorities. The city has little or nothing to do with it and really can’t do anything about it.
Bridgeport did use public money to build affordable housing and housing projects but that was BPT’s choice. BTW–those affordable houses were $160K each and you got a $160K house that was worth $160K.
First off let’s get a few things historically correct. Much of the multiple-family housing in Bridgeport was built during the early and middle part of the last century to accommodate an ever-expanding workforce. The town you mention was a cow town back then. Let’s move on a little, when the state built Beardsley Terrace and the Pequonnock apartments they were touted as the modern-day living style. These units were largely occupied by cops, firefighters and young professionals. These people then moved out and what was a modern-day living style became a ghetto.
BOE, your favorite towns that are mentioned here knew how to keep Bridgeport and its denizens out. They went to exclusionary zoning. What do you think, the places you mention in Greenwich are worth more because they are there? Elitist bullshit. How much help have we paid Swiss Bank to move to Stamford, how much for other companies to move there also? Please get a valid argument.
Andy–we are not talking about multi-family housing, just low-income housing. Those places in Greenwich are worth so much because that is what people are willing to pay for them. Years ago, shorefront property was the slums. Property that was reserved for seamen and other ne’er-do-wells that smelled at low tide and was subject to flooding. Now, the shorefront is the cat’s meow. Now, 51% of BPT is tax exempt. Let us ignore the amount of land that is tax exempt because it is owned by the city of BPT e.g. City buildings, tax-foreclosed land, Steel Point. Not all the land is prisons, hospitals and churches. On average, the tax-exempt land would be worth $7.28 billion.
The grand list in Greenwich would be worth $31 billion. I could not find out how much land in Greenwich is tax exempt. But to equal the value of land that is tax-free in BPT, Greenwich would have to have 22.5% of tax-exempt property. With all the large churches et al., that would not be unreasonable. If 23% of Greenwich is tax exempt then Greenwich has a larger tax-exempt asset value than BPT and, under the mayor’s plan, BPT would have to pay Greenwich.
Other interesting Greenwich stats: town’s average property assessment: $1,244,445, Average yearly property tax: $14,067, Top employer: Town of Greenwich @2,366.
Bridgeport top employer: People’s Bank @3443, City of BPT #4 @1493 employees, average property assessment: $149,100, Average yearly property ta: $6,128.
BOE SPY,
Is it possible the Greenwich employee listing includes those working for the Board of Education? If that is the case then to be fair you must increase Bridgeport’s number by more than 2,000 in education employees.
It will be wonderful when the City side of the budget reports how grants are spent, as well as how many are employed in each department from local funding and from grant funding. Couldn’t be too hard, could it? Time will tell.
I really do not know. There was no footnote on the source of the info in the stats I read. Both sets of stats were from the same city stat website so I would assume each stat used the same criteria for every city. If that is not true, I assure you there was no intent to deceive on my part.
The thing I found interesting about those stats was a small city has a big workforce and a big city has a small one. And, even though BPT has a high mil rate the actual cash you pay is small. Although the investment value of your property in BPT has not been as good as Greenwich but having a million dollar house does not help you pay a $14K/year bill and the amount we pay for those workers might not be in line with what Greenwich pays for its workforce. That I do not know. I did find teachers in both towns are paid about the same. It seemed to me the beliefs BPT has too many city workers and pays too much in taxes are not that true.
Greenwich has exclusionary zoning which keeps the riff-raff like me out. It is built and run to attract the RICH, not the near-Rich but the F’N RICH. Just look, average assessment $1.2 million average tax $14k My tax on my cape is $6,000 with two exemptions. The question is do Greenwich and towns like it need Pilot? No they don’t. Do they care for the people society forgot? No they don’t. Look, the city takes on the ‘burb’s problems and we should not be punished for it. Do you think if the nonprofits paid their share it would be a little easier to live here?
Need is irrelevant. You don’t NEED the Internet or a cell phone but you probably have both. Do you NEED the nickels from your soda bottles? Do you trade them in anyway? You should, you are entitled to those nickels and they are entitled to PILOT.
Greenwich is expensive because it is close to NY. I am sorry you can’t afford to live there but you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. At worst you are only riff. If you wanted to live in Greenwich you should have become an investment banker instead of a fireman. Luckily you live in BPT where your taxes are low. $6k is a lot lower than $14K but I guess that is relative.
I think everyone should pay their taxes. I do not believe in nonprofit. They all make profit. It is just a big scam. Why do you think some of the wealthiest organizations in the world are religious organization? Some of the highest paid CEOs run charities. All tax-free and nonprofit. What do they have to do, spend $0.06 of every dollar on their cause? That is a lot lower than the 30% corporate tax. Bridgeport doesn’t have a higher tax-exempt liability, BPT just chose to dedicate a larger percentage of its tax base to tax exempt. I believe much of the tax-exempt property in BPT is property owned by BPT. For one reason or another BPT refuses to sell defunct buildings or seized properties.
There is a lot of truth in what you say. No, I don’t save the nickles on soda bottles. No cell phone, can’t hear it ring or forget to bring it with me. Internet, yes. I, like you, believe everyone and every entity should pay their fair share. Why are churches tax free, what happened to the seperation of church and state? Bridgeport has a scam going within the administration, many of the city-owned buildings are being sold at a slow pace and a great price to ONE individual. If I know this, why don’t the FEDS?