Mayor Joe Ganim on Monday submitted a $561 million budget proposal to the City Council that calls for no tax increase for a second straight year. When it comes to city budgets, the devil’s in the details. It will be reviewed by the Budget & Appropriations Committee for action over the next six weeks or so before going to the full council for a vote. Most of the action is done at the committee level. Ganim, a candidate for governor, needs a tax message he can tout on the campaign trail. The current mil rate is 54.37.
The budget committee consists of Denese Taylor-Moye, Maria Viggiano, Jeanette Herron, Mary McBride-Lee, Tom McCarthy, Christina Smith and Nessah Smith. Taylor-Moye and Viggiano are the co-chairs.
In a news release Ganim states, “I am also proud to announce that the proposed budget again recommends holding the line on property taxes. I am determined to continue to fight for our residents and not raise Bridgeport taxes. I look forward to working with City Council members to achieve a budget that benefits all of our citizens of Bridgeport.”
City finance officials briefed City Council members on the budget prior to Monday night’s council meeting.
The news release notes some key assumptions.
“The proposed budget assumes a fair share of $4 million in State Supplemental Motor Vehicle reimbursements that our delegation is currently fighting to restore to the City of Bridgeport, plus an additional $5m in state assistance.”
Meanwhile, Monday night at the Madison Avenue restaurant owned by Democratic Town Chair Mario Testa, 90 delegates to the state party convention in May were selected matter-of-factly by the Democratic Town Committee, most of whom will presumably back Ganim for governor. Ganim needs 15 percent delegate support at the convention to qualify for an August primary for governor. Testa will try to leverage the Bridgeport delegation bloc of votes with other statewide candidates to reach the threshold. If that fails to materialize the Ganim forces must forge a labor-intensive signature campaign to make the ballot.
The delegate list includes Testa, Ganim and a number of town committee members and city employees.
Gee, ain’t he a swell guy.
THIS IS A CROCK OF SHIT ELECTION YEAR. Ganim will be back after the primary crying on how he had to raise taxes
Union leadership sold their members and the retirees down the drain by listening to Ganim bullshit during negotiation. Of course Ganim will be back looking to raise taxes.
Ganim has not appropriated one additional dollar for 21,000 BPS students, again.
We have made $40,000,000 in cuts over the last 5 years and are facing another $16,000,000 in cuts for 2018/2019.
Ganim MUST not be elected/ reelected to any office.
Where would the Mayor be without bonded money? He keeps complaining about Hartford’s neglect while feasting/relying/depending on state bond money to substitute for taxes.
Two Governors have been good to him, maybe that’s why he wants their job.
Please take the time to read what Joe Ganim is saying and look at how two faced he is with Bridgeport’s budget. First Ganim states in the article, “Hartford just got $550 million while we got cut $17 million (in current state aid),” Ganim said when Hearst Connecticut Media on Monday asked if he had sought to reduce Bridgeport’s tax rate when preparing his proposed budget.
Bridgeport could apply to participate in the Municipal Accountability Review Board. So why not, rather than complaining about what Bronin got, do so and see what additional state aid is available?
Ganim does not want the state involved in Bridgeport’s finances: “We have, I would argue, the best management team and practices.”
But then Ganim states “I was not an advocate for Bridgeport going bankrupt. I’m not an advocate for Hartford going bankrupt,” Ganim said. “If we were offered a $550 million bailout to take over our debt, I’d encourage our council to support that (applying for the state oversight).” As you can see this is all about Joe Ganim and not the residents in Black Rock, the North End and other areas in the city that have very high tax bill every year, it’s has nothing to do with the black community and those who Joe Ganim spoke to with his come to Jesus speech. Remember over 90% of the city school children are students of color and Joe Ganim doesn’t give a dam about their education and their future. Who in their right mind could for vote for Joe Ganim to be mayor again never mind governor. It’s nothing but politicial spin and being two faced.
It hasn’t happened yet but Lowering spending while raising taxes is a toxic mix that would disqualify a gubernatorial candidate despite delegates, funding or charm.
The biggest losers in the Mayors budget are the children of Bridgeport when the BBOE has been essentially flat funded for three years in a row and forced to make millions in cuts to accommodate rising costs. When this happens we set around wondering why does the children continue to have such low test scores. The resource gap is the reason for the achievement gap.
Pardon me for saying so, Ganim is blaming many others for the Bridgepory’s financial woes. If his and previous administrations had managed the budget the schools would be adequately funded, the harbor would have been dredged, the abandoned factories wouldn’t be cluttering the skyline, Job creation would be a priority and there wouldn’t be so many dumb asses on the municipal payroll.
But noooooooo, the best interests of the people of the city of Bridgeport are secondary to the greasing of outstretched palms and photo ops for a megalomaniacal felon. A small circle of politically connected developers and business suits have benefitted at the expense of the rest of us. Property taxes are still the highest east of the Mississippi, beyond comprehension, punitive even.
Joe Ganim is a crook, a liar, a thief. He promised governmental transparency yet still runs City Hall under the code of omerta.
It is almost 1:00 PM on April 5, 2018 and I just went to the OPM Department on the City web site looking for the proposed budget. I was told that it will be posted later this afternoon. The Mayor held a MEETING on Monday, at 5:00PM special for the City Council with food in his Conference Room, but the meeting did not start until closer to 6:00 PM. No budget. Deferred until Wednesday because of Printing Office? Well I hope the Council got their bound copies and I wish we in the public could also subscribe to a copy but they are not made available for sale, so I await the posting in a form I can copy using my toner, paper and time. Can’t study until after the download. Efficient. No. Let’s look for the details of this year. Time will tell.