Who won the mayoral debate?
- Joe Ganim (41%, 95 Votes)
- Mary-Jane Foster (31%, 70 Votes)
- Bill Finch (22%, 50 Votes)
- No blood (6%, 14 Votes)
Total Voters: 229
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OIB Poll: Who Performed Strongest In Debate, Finch, Foster, Ganim?
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For all the talk about “holding the line,” not one of the contestants said much about LOWERING taxes. As Bridgeport residents pay the highest property taxes in the nation, LOWERING taxes should and must be the highest priority. Corporations and developers have to be bribed with abatements to invest here; the cost is borne by homeowners. Is that fair? Hell, no!
How about making steps toward increasing the grand list? Better yet: all those incompetents who owe their city jobs to Mario Testa and/or Bill Finch ought to be put on minimum wage. That would save a lot of money.
TBK,
Thanks for keeping the public eye on City finances that to most mean taxes…as something to complain about….but who is tasked with doing something about it? The only part of City governance structure that has a chance to deal with that is the Budget and Appropriation Committee of the City Council. And that is a worry because they are not up to the task of looking at the numbers, all of the numbers, and making some common sense of them. What is a priority to them? Who knows in the past and it will be the past because five of the current seven are leaving the Council by not running again.
A simple mantra to keep in mind is that “The City budget must increase at a slower rate than does the City Taxable Grand List.” Sounds easy, perhaps? After all the Council explores the Operating Budget each year but after that fails to spend any time to reasonably dig into the over spending. For example the Police Overtime budget line has been overspent for five years now, but the format of the Monthly Report makes that difficult to see. CHANGE THE FORMAT, maybe? And variances are not shown on most line item expenses? WHY NOT?
And the Grand List? Where can you find it when you want to see how it has been sitting? Where can you see the Ganim years, the Fabrizi years and the Finch years for instance with reliable Grand List values? You can’t.
You can see the total for Gross Grand List values reported annually by the Tax Assessor and maintained in the Town Clerk office. Would it surprise you to see that there may be a difference of $100 Million or less between the report to the Bond Holders written about yesterday, and the numbers from the Town Clerk’s office for 2013? Isn’t it more fun to talk about new school buildings, parks, ball fields, and splash pads or Steel Point rising when they will not contribute to the Net Taxable Grand List in any meaningful way for years, if ever? And those other things have their own expense that must be paid today and or into the future for 20 years or more. Time will tell.
To your point, Finch’s weakness in his message is why taxes have increased since Joe left office. Was there a serious hidden deficit, or is administration spending out of control? Saying this state taxes unfairly is not a valid argument when preparing a budget, in my opinion. You know what the projected income is, plan to allocate accordingly.
That’s right Jen, it’s called hold the line on TAXES!
Mr. Lee, were you in the town clerk’s office on Wednesday afternoon? I was there to drop off a request for an absentee ballot and I wanted to thank you in person for your insightful comments on this blog. I wasn’t sure if it were you (and it may very well have not been) so I did not approach you. Anyway, thank you.
What is “no blood?”
Wicca, “no blood” means no one came out ahead. There was some blood–Bill Finch lost his temper more than once.
The city of Bridgeport has reached a turning point, a historic moment. Decades of corruption has allowed a few to benefit at the expense of the many, of the people of the city of Bridgeport. Manipulation of absentee ballots, individuals voting several times under the names of dead people, etc., has kept a corrupt political machine in power. Not all members of the Democratic Town Committee are corrupt or even complicit in the chicanery of its leadership; some are ignorant, others just plain naive. Whatever the case, they are being used to further someone else’s agenda, an agenda that is not in the best interests of the people of the city of Bridgeport.
The corrupt politics of Bridgeport is joked about in Hartford. Not one official elected to the state legislature is willing to do anything about it. No, we are cynically exploited by politicians holding statewide office. Richard Blumenthal, Jim Himes and Governor Dannel Malloy all owe their offices to the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee. Not a one of them is held in the highest regard, so how much did their endorsement of Bill Finch truly mean?
Smokin’ Joe Ganim made a good showing last night; Mary-Jane Foster managed to win a few converts; Bill Finch went on the defensive. All of them have diehard supporters.
The Democratic primary is a bit more than three weeks away. It will be more of an opinion poll than a nominating process as all three candidates will be in the general election. Not all the other candidates have been heard from. November will be an interesting month here in the Park City.
In order to lower taxes the city needs to bring in more money or spend less. Increase the grand list or cut back City services. We really can’t increase the grand list because of the tax abatements we are giving developers. What City service do we cut, lay off police officers, close fire houses, lay off teachers? Oh yes, we can cut taxes but what services do you want to cut?