Opposing a property tax increase, Black Rock resident David Walker, the former U.S. Comptroller General, writes in a letter to City Council President Tom McCarthy, the city is in “danger of passing a tipping point whereby current residents will decide to move out of the City, especially senior citizens.” Mayor Bill Finch, who’s copied in the letter, is scheduled to make his next public budget presentation today at 6 p.m. at the Black Rock Library Branch.
Finch has proposed a 2.7 mil increase in his budget representing a substantial tax hit. The City Council is in the review process of Finch’s proposed budget that calls for $7 million more to support city schools. Walker served as U.S. Comptroller General under two presidents and spouted about spending in Washington well before the dung hit the fan. Walker writes in his letter to McCarthy:
While I understand the need to support public education and fund reasonable and competitive pension promises, these items need to compete with other items in the budget. Should the Council decide the additional funding is needed for these or other items, then other expenses should be cut in order to avoid a tax increase.
Based on my limited review of Bridgeport’s finances, it is clear there is room for significant spending reductions. For example, some of the City’s pension plan designs and City’s current retiree health care plan benefit structure are unreasonable, unaffordable and unsustainable. These plans need to be restructured to cut expenses, improve taxpayer equity, and increase the competitive posture of Bridgeport. Based on the size of these unfunded obligations, failure to do so will not only serve to crowd out more important societal funding needs but may well lead to the eventual bankruptcy of the City.
I would be pleased to meet and discuss this matter further should you so desire.
Isn’t Mr. Walker the former COMPTROLLER of The UNITED STATES of America???
Do you think these corrupt politicians in Bpt will even read his letter? Nah, that would make too much sense and might rock their little boats. These idiots in office most likely think they know more than he does. We are doomed.
We now have a letter from Mr. Walker, the former U.S. Comptroller General, telling the administration what they are doing budget-wise is wrong. This is also what JML and I have been saying for the past year. This administration just does not get it. The numbers listed in various sections of the budget are wrong and misleading, even the numbers for our “Financial Expert” Dawn Norton.
This is what you get when you keep recycling the same idiots who got us in the trouble we are now in.
Uh-uh. What we have from David Walker is his preference for AUSTERITY over a tax increase–not proof Mayor Finch is wrong as mistakenly claimed by Andrew C. Fardy. Walker’s main topic is pension reform. During his term, David Walker’s employer could print or borrow their own money. Mayor Finch doesn’t have that luxury.
NOBODY is in favor of a property tax increase but municipal costs are set in stone and leave little wiggle room. Nobody likes to pay taxes but everybody likes to consume municipal revenues. Mayor Finch has one of the toughest jobs in America.
JML,
Take careful note. Walker made his point in 2-1/2 paragraphs.
This says it all …
“Based on my limited review of Bridgeport’s finances, it is clear there is room for significant spending reductions. For example, some of the City’s pension plan designs and City’s current retiree health care plan benefit structure are unreasonable, unaffordable and unsustainable. These plans need to be restructured to cut expenses.”
Mr. Walker knows NOTHING of the Bridgeport budget. That is his “limited review.” All Mr. Walker knows is to blame the unions, renege on contracts and screw people who have lived and worked a lifetime to get to a point where the government pulls the rug out from underneath them.
Typical Republican BS. And this man was Comptroller General when Bush was running up the biggest spending deficit in US history. I guess he had his epiphany right after he finished working in DC. Up until then all of these practices under his watch were fine.
Bob, to denigrate Mr. Walker like you have is pure bullshit. I sat through two years of budget hearings and you showed up a few times but rarely spoke. You never brought up what was wrong with the budgets. Yes you voted NO but that was it. You know what Bob, we are getting the same bullshit from Obama you claim came from Finch. Before you go off on a tirade tell me what Obama has done to ease the financial pain.
Here we have a financial expert living in Bridgeport and stepping up and all you can do is knock him because he is a Republican. We are seeing the results of Bridgeport’s Democrats running the city or should I say robbing the city for all these years.
Bob,
You obviously do not know me nor what the Comptroller General position is. The Comptroller General is in effect the “Auditor General” and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
I was the most visible and aggressive Comptroller General in history. For example, I took on Vice President Cheney regarding his Energy Task Force, spoke the truth on the “war” in Iraq, and blew the whistle on the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration and the Congress. I also transformed the GAO to make it smaller, more effective and more respected.
As Comptroller General I also served as Chair of the National Intergovernmental Audit Forum. This Forum was for the heads of all federal, state and local auditors in the U.S. Therefore, I know a lot about local fiscal and accountability issues.
Finally, I have spent hours with John Marshall Lee reviewing and discussing Bridgeport’s finances. In addition, I have attended two City Council meetings dealing with the budget and Charter revision. I also plan to attend other public meetings in the future.
Make no mistake, Bridgeport must not raise taxes. President Obama’s latest budget was rejected in a rare bipartisan vote of 414 to 0. Mayor Finch’s proposed tax increase should also be rejected. This is a litmus test for City Council members. It’s time to get serious about putting Bridgeport’s finances in order.
Dave
David Walker is an accountant’s accountant. Andy Fardy and I are humbled by his knowledge and experience of fiscal affairs, national and international. We slog along in the Bridgeport financial details and the local stories. David Walker is looking at the “big picture,” a visionary just as the Mayor considers himself. But Walker keeps his eye on the money at all times, and thus is a living, breathing watchdog with real experience, knowledge and self-interest, unlike anybody in City governance today. Why didn’t Mayor Finch place Walker on the Charter Revision Committee, especially after personally extending an earlier invite. What, I think the Mayor forgot. (In this case the ‘dog did not eat’ the invitation, because there are no dogs with teeth in City Hall.)
Since becoming a Bridgeport property taxpayer Walker has followed some of the material available to the public, and his comments about doing some real cutting from this budget are right on. The 2013 edition continues to be padded with proposed positions and expenses that will never get spent on the items indicated. When Mayor Finch finally provides the 12th month reports so long denied to Bridgeport taxpayers, which are his mandatory duty as Mayor, we can add up the “slush funding” in the City easily. I am betting it is enough to meet the Vallas-negotiated education needs without a tax increase.
The Mayor has added about $6 Million to proposed retirement funding for the year, funding he never considered in his first term. Go figure, he REQUESTS the same funding as last year with one hand for Fire and Police Pension A and then PROPOSES a higher number with the other hand? What is the contribution required by the State? Verify the contribution for the plan. And adjust any increase for a straightforward presentation of MERF EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS! The MERF assumptions for the Police and Fire Departments actually generate a $2,300,000 reduction in the next year. Use it for Pension A contribution offset.
Finally, eliminate all raises for non-union personnel. You, as Mayor, have not earned it for supposed Accountability. You have not earned it through “Budget transparency.” And you and the conflicted Council members are not operating an “open” government operation.
Personally I look forward to your comments and responses this evening. Bring along your Transmittal Letter and the Department Budget for the Controller as a starting point. It will be informative to the public for an explanation of this specific budget request. (You might wish to look back to last year’s entry for the same department and tell us how many people are, or were working, and are being paid. Nothing adds up, Mayor Finch, and that is only one of the problems.)
I’ll pay my taxes and shut up when fiscal governance finally kicks in for the City of Bridgeport. I invite the Mayor to bring along the past five years of Management Letters from the two external auditors as well and the City responses to these communications. After all, we have paid for them, and the City Council claims not to know about them. And getting an FOI response takes so much time unfortunately. Time will tell.
JML,
The only “way with words you have” is you have way too many. ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ and in effect say nothing.
Please Andy and John,
Correct me if I am wrong. When Mr Walker was Comptroller of the US Currency, did the Federal deficit see one of its largest growths in history?
He made a career out of these practices in DC but now that he is on the receiving end it is totally wrong.
I am not saying there are not problems with the city of Bridgeport’s financial condition or with the budget document and process. But he is definitely not an authority on that matter. The two of you speak with greater authority and accuracy on the city budget.
Troll, let’s say Walker is not an authority on the budget. You spent roughly 16 years on the City Council. Is his assessment about unfunded obligations correct? Could it break the bank? Or perhaps it already has?
It is correct in Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury, Hartford and probably every large city across the state and the country. It is probably true for most states and definitely true for the United State of America whose piggy bank Mr. Walker was watching with one eye closed.
You know Bob, congress at that time was in charge of the Democrats. They passed the bills that spent the money. Name me one bill Walker had passed. This has always been your problem, you deal in minutia.
Once again, David Walker, the former U.S. Comptroller General, “Based on my limited review of Bridgeport’s finances, it is clear there is room for significant spending reductions. For example, some of the City’s pension plan designs and City’s current retiree health care plan benefit structure are unreasonable, unaffordable and unsustainable. These plans need to be restructured to cut expenses.” Bob Walsh has it right, this is his way to do away with the City’s pension fund for firefighters and police officers.
Vallas is demanding the BEA union contract be broken so teachers and administrators take five furlough days (saving $250,000), or else heads will roll.
To make nice, in Chicago he took some freebee days, but his attorneys made sure he was paid for them (and more).
www .thenotebook.org/blog/113903/ackerman-has-taken-10-furlough-days
“Back in fall 2006, then-CEO Vallas agreed to forgo a $25,000 increase to his $250,000 salary after an unanticipated $73 million budget gap emerged. He stepped down the following June. News reports from 2007 indicated that in the face of a continued large budget shortfall, attorneys for Vallas negotiated hard for a good severance package as he prepared to leave the District.
In the final deal, Vallas was paid the raise as specified in his contract, which had not been amended. He was also paid a $100,000 retention bonus even though he left his post days before the date he was eligible for it, using vacation days to bridge the difference.”
He’s a model for us all.
Seems like Vallas wasn’t fully vetted. Or was he???
Vallas was fully vetted alright; by the Calamarians. They got exactly what they were looking for and what they needed to maintain the lucrative status quo of BOE goods and services contracts.
First, David Walker has been a registered independent–second, he resigned during the Bush II era–he is a person who believes people and the government need to live within their financial means. This city does not seem able to set a realistic or honest budget–and thus will always come to us for more money if we allow this practice to continue. There are entirely too many questions about how the city spends the money they have in the budget and any increase in taxes at this time is without merit until some real explanation of where the money goes is shown to all of us.
*** RESEARCH ANY AND ALL HYPE BEFORE PICKING SIDES, NO? ***