My friends at the Connecticut Post let Mayor Bill Finch off the hook when they wrote this:
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch is quietly working behind the scenes in the General Assembly to extend a moratorium and postpone paying as much as $20 million in city contributions for police and firefighter pensions.
The issue has been lingering a dozen years, back to when Mayor Joseph P. Ganim gambled on selling bonds and making profits in the stock market, which fell a couple times before finally tanking precipitously in 2008, costing the city half of a $350 million investment.
In 2009, legislation that would allow the city to delay further contributions for two years failed in the last days of the General Assembly, but it was added to the state budget approved in early September after a summer of partisan wrangling.
This year, Finch hopes to have the measure included in language tacked on to the state’s two-year budget, which starts July 1. Such a step would avoid an up-or-down vote on the pension issue alone during the legislative session, which runs through June 8.
The mayor has put off city contributions to pension payments in the past because he didn’t want to raise taxes beyond what he had already raised. And now, in an election year, he especially doesn’t want to raise them.
Sad state of affairs:
Sums up the last three years, do nothing but the wrong and then do all to be able to nothing again, but the wrong while the only rag in town closes its eyes.
Can’t close your eyes/keyboards CT rag when Gomes/Foster are lurking. 9-13.
WHAT is Mr. Grimaldi complaining about?
He’s criticizing the CT Post for coddling Mayor Finch when in actuality they’re leaving the door open for OIB to pry open the juicy stuff, allowing Lennie to continue dissing his former boss.
Does he want the CT Post to do his dirty work for him? Has he become too lazy/overconfident? Has Only in Bridgeport morphed into Never in Redding? Have gas prices become too high to justify visits to the Park City? Is he upset his friends at the CT Post no longer subsidize his efforts?
What is it?
In order to preserve his journalistic integrity, Lennie should be far-removed from his employer of 30 years ago.
Instead he mentions them repeatedly and even has a second, same-themed blog on their website.
When opportunity knocks, don’t criticize it, exploit it–especially if it’s in your area of expertise.
Hey Eyes!
He can’t help it, It’s an Italian thing.
???
The CT Post is definitely in Finch’s corner even though their efforts are ramshackle at best.
It’s time for Mike Daly to ride off into the sunset, he has lost the fire.
The new boss is from New York and really does not know the history of Finch and his administration. This paper is staffed by people who are not doing their jobs and giving Bridgeport residents the facts on what is going on in this city. They have taken Mike Mayko who used to be pretty good at investigative reporting and have him writing fluff pieces. Keila Torres who has the ability to do investigative reporting and to uncover facts is also left to writing BS articles and fluff pieces.
If you ask me it all falls at the feet of Mike Daly who has turned into a teddy bear and forgot what his real job is supposed to be.
If this rag closed down tomorrow, Bridgeport residents would hardly notice and the suburbs would be upset.
I for one know that most of what they print about Bridgeport is half truths and bullshit. That’s why I stopped buying this rag.
What town committee really means is this:
I’m part of the tinfoil helmet crowd SO I stopped buying that rag (CT Post) because I can read their website for free!
images.quickblogcast.com/5/0/4/0/7/180964-170405/Oct09005.jpg
bonus: www .newser.com
???
That a boy Local Eyes, your record for dumb-ass posts that make no sense is intact and being studied for inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records. As far as aluminum helmets are concerned I believe I designated you as the number-one customer for aluminum foil purchases.
Here is a perfect example of what the CT Post does. Their online paper states President Obama has declared CT and most counties in CT a disaster area and eligible for federal aid because of the back-to-back snowstorms.
Not one mention about Bridgeport and their costs of the storm. We have info on Stratford, Norwalk, Stamford, Greenwich and even a town in New York and photos are available. NOT ONE MENTION OF BRIDGEPORT.
This is a real Catch-22. If taxes go way up, it’s bad for City growth, etc. … Yet if these pension contributions get kicked down the road yet again and taxes do not go up, a fairly apathetic public will not get furious with the administration and vote them out.
I don’t know the answer other than this current administration (City, State, Federal) has got to start treating the electorate like grown-ups and give an accurate accounting. The electorate must begin taking responsibility for the administrations they vote into office.
Unfortunately large cities in this state are overwhelmingly Democratic One-Party ruled. For the most part it seems the voters don’t have the brains God gave them. That’s why I despair that there will ever be improvement.
It will be interesting to see if the Governor, who has made such a big deal of fiscal responsibility, agrees to sign a bill deferring the city’s pension payments. I guess we will see what counts more, politics or principle.
*** Poor community economic development, high property taxes, rising crime, poor public education, lack of jobs, anti-city suits, political pro-nepotism, city worker concessions & low city worker morale along with four years of city budget deficits, etc.. Does the Post really think taxes will not be raised in “2012” after this year’s election? “HELLO!” *** FORGETABOUTIT ***
So who cares about retirement plans anyway, other than their own? I for one believe past administrations have negotiated with unions and failed to explain the details to the City Council who votes approval for the most part. Thus long-term costs are adopted but there is no scoreboard for people to see the impact on future budgets.
Frankly I praise Ken Dixon, on the State government beat, for outing the truth the City is contributing some % of required pension funding (while deferring as much as $20 Million per year because the State has given him a waiver). But the State of CT is not paying us one dollar to make up for the funds we should be normally contributing. And financial markets have risen almost 80% in the past 24 months thus increasing the value of pension assets invested in equities. Forty million dollars over two years might have increased significantly with market rise depending on asset allocation, timing, etc.
Who knows how much is in each plan? What is our allocation? When do pension fiduciaries meet? Who are the members of the Committee? Where is any of this information on the City internet site?
Why does the Mayor talk about his magical powers in budget reduction during hard times, that keep tax increases at bay, when he knows that it is a deferral of pension funding (that will cost the public more in the long run) that is primarily responsible for seeming tax stability? It is phony, and one more example of hypocrisy in terms of accountability and transparency.
BEACON2 // Mar 4, 2011 at 10:43 am
to your posting
B2
You know what it’s all about and you say it right …
“It is phony, and one more example of hypocrisy in terms of accountability and transparency.”
I hope you are going to give a substantive effort to get Bill Finch removed through a September 13, 2011 defeat in the Mayoral Democratic Primary, and end these daily and ongoing occurrences of betrayal, greed, and hypocrisy.
Perhaps you’d like to meet at Bloodroot Restaurant for lunch and put this discussion into high gear.
Lennie, where does the Connecticut Post fall as far as The Top Ten Bridgeport Taxpayers–Real Estate/Personal Property Combined for 2010?
Is the City of Bridgeport tax assessors properly assessing the value of the CT Post? It makes me wonder!
Is the CT Post so profitable that they feel tax increases won’t affect their bottom line? Maybe they’ll just move to Shelton.