The Deficit Factor, When Finch Lost The Primary He Checked Out As Mayor

On September 16th something occurred for the first time in city history, an incumbent mayor had been defeated in a primary. Know what happened after that? Shock for Bill Finch and his inner circle of government payroll advisers. And after that? A lot of the people responsible for checking the budget had checked out emotionally including the mayor. And something like that can contribute to the current budget deficit as well as other factors following passage of an election-year budget that had no tax increase.

When Bill Finch became mayor in 2007 he inherited a budget deficit from John Fabrizi. In Finch’s first budget, following a promise on the campaign trail to cut taxes $600, he ended up raising them that much for many homeowners. In 2012, following his reelection, Finch tangled with an election-year budget deficit from 2011 and answered it by proposing a tax increase of more than $400 for the average homeowner that was scaled back to about $225 by the time the City Council was done with the budget.

What if Finch had been reelected to another term? He’d have said little about the budget deficit that was the result of election-year positioning. Then another tax increase would have followed. And so it goes.

Mayor Joe Ganim is trying to trot out as much bad budget news as possible in part to make it clear he did not cause this deficit. He’s trying to show he’s fixing the problem caused by Finch.

One of the many expenditures Ganim and financial advisers cited the other night as out of control was public safety and Public Facilities overtime accounts. The current budget year began July 1 in the thick of Finch’s reelection. Ganim was kicking Finch’s fanny on a regular basis following a spike in violent crime. Ganim opened a campaign headquarters/police substation manned by volunteer police supporters in the troubled Trumbull Gardens area. Police Chief Joe Gaudett announced that was against department rules for cops to man. Finch then announced, hey, we’ll open a real police precinct up there. But to do that costs money including an increase in overtime. Police presence was increased in Trumbull Gardens and other areas of the city. That increases overtime.

Finch, in an election year,  commenced an ambitious street-paving program, promoted park improvements with signage all over the city to remind voters. That costs money and an increase in overtime.

As the primary race tightened a prevailing attitude set in, let’s just do this, pay for it and we’ll deal with it later after we win reelection. Ah, the pleasures of failure. Finch lost. Finch stammered around in disbelief telling anyone willing to listen to him he could not understand how the voters threw him under the bus for Joe Ganim.

As one voter said on primary day when asked why he chose Ganim over Finch: I’d rather vote for the effective felon than the ineffective liar.

One of the budget casualties of Finch losing was he checked out as the chief executive and some key advisers checked out emotionally to keep an eye on the shop. Their days were numbered starting from mid September. For the next two and a half months they mailed it in until leaving office Nov. 30.

But not without Finch landing a final payout of roughly $30,000 split between a retroactive pay raise and unused vacation days that by the way had not been budgeted and contributed to the deficit, according to Ganim financial advisers.