Former Mayor Joe Ganim, exploring a comeback for his old job, has issued his take on Mayor Bill Finch’s no-tax-hike budget proposal to the City Council. In comments to the budget and legislative body, Ganim writes, “The new City Budget should reduce the mil rate and taxes to help weary Bridgeport homeowners.” Ganim letter:
The average homeowner in Bridgeport pays $8,440 in property taxes, per the City’s web page. Taxes have gone up on residential homeowners over 40 percent since 2008. Look at the City Vision Appraisal web site to see this. Residents of Bridgeport know their taxes have gone up and a 2013 national study confirms Bridgeport has the worst taxes of any city in the nation.
This year’s budget picture is doubly disappointing. First, important information about tax levy revenues and about the grand list are missing from budget materials this far. It’s the public’s right to have all proper budget information disclosed before you. Second, the FY2017 budget, one year out, will probably hold another double-digit percent tax increase as a delayed reassessment hits homeowners.
There has been a claim that the grand list is up a lot the past several years. This is patently inaccurate. According to the City budget book, the grand list now is lower than in 2010. Cities usually see an average increase of 1 to 2 percent annually, but not in Bridgeport. All the talk about economic development growing the grand list is misleading. I worry that tax breaks for developers and big business have caused the regular citizens of Bridgeport to pay more in taxes.
I believe there is another issue about how this new proposed budget is being balanced. Budget documents state that property tax revenue will increase $6 million. But calculations for this proposed tax levy are missing from publicly released budget documents. A City press release stated the grand list is $1.12 billion. This would only generate $4 million in new tax revenue, not $6 million. Where are the supposed extra revenues coming from? The only place the budget proposal discloses extra receipts is in a delinquent “tax arrears” account budget projected to nearly double to $4.1 million, even though the City has only collected $2 to $3 million the past several years. If the grand list is generating only $4 million and if arrears are overstated, the City may have to raise taxes 1% to make up this difference, or cut program expenses.
As to the expense side, I would look closely at the continued underfunding of the education budget and the police department as areas of great concern. I hope the Council looks into all of these items and request for full explanation.
I want to thank you for your service.
JML, what say you on Mayor Ganim’s figures? Is he right?
Hey Donald Day, don’t hold your breath looking for that answer!
Thank you Mayor Finch for holding the line on taxes, so many people on this blog have attacked you for increasing their property taxes in the past seven years, and it’s not fair to you, after all you pay taxes too!
When you increased taxes on good people like John Stafstrom who’s the Bonding council for the City, back in 2008 revaluation, and who lives in the Brooklawn area, and his neighbors by +18% to +22%, it hurts everyone.
Oh Shit! John Stafstrom had a decrease on his property taxes by -18%, I’m sorry! His neighbors were the only ones you flucked!
I’m sorry, Mayor. I won’t let that happen again!
Then there are the poor little people in Black Rock, who are sitting with a +30% to +45% tax increase from your administration while so many of your friends in BR whose taxes have gone down, it truly is a miracle on this Easter week you have found ways to hold the line on taxes.
Some people will find it hard to believe you did this as just an election year ploy! But not me, you see Mayor I don’t think you’ll even win the primary, let alone the general election!
We in Black Rock are suffering the most these past eight years especially with property values plummeting the way they did since 2008 Revaluation, like poor Richard Deparle who owns so many three-family homes in Black Rock have been suffering with the rest of us, his high taxes will finally find some relief from your holding the line on taxes for FYs 2015-2016.
Oh SHIT! Did I do it again?
Rich Deparle is on the Board of Tax Assessment Appeals, I think he’s Chairmen. I believe all of Rich Deparle’s three-family rentals in Black Rock went down in taxes, anywhere from -10% to -14% each, no conflict of interest here, while Deparle’s next-door neighbors’ taxes went up to cover his gain!
I like to call the BOAA, the F&D candy store!
Thank you Mayor Ganim for putting their feet to the fire!
Jim Fox,
“I’m sorry Mayor, I won’t let that happen again!”
I think you let this happen again.
lol.
Donald,
Just saw this today. I have not talked with Joe Ganim about the budget though have been willing to sit and share and made that known to him as well as to all candidates. My belief is this is the year when more good info may get flushed out of the system and into view.
I continue to see overfunding of employee expenses each year that also increases benefit funding. So when the position is vacant for a month or a year, there is “extra” funding for other line items that the City Council does not get to see because of the way Finance Department reports variances.
They focus on Police, Fire and Emergency Operations mostly overtime excesses to the exclusion of all other overruns. I question accurate reporting of the Grand List in budget and audit documents. We should have a chart showing the actual land and buildings, automobile and personal property business accounts at least for a number of years. Footnotes advising on how Wheelabrator numbers have or have not been adjusted as well as tear downs and burn downs being treated are important also. Finally the Grand List itself includes public buildings, hospital values and universities as well as other non property taxpaying entities. It is the net taxpaying (at 100%) roster I would like to see reported and turned into a trend line to communicate the truth or falsity of that jingle about Bridgeport is getting better every day. Thermometer anyone? Time will tell.
I’d just like to know where he’s been in other years. Where was his concern for the budget and taxes then? In Easton?
Joe Ganim makes a great point about delinquent tax arrears and how much is collected.
Baffled, where’s he been? In the joint for ripping off the city and its taxpayers. The ones who trusted him, and watched him try to pave his way to Governor by spiffing up the city. Some landscaping for his pals, little architecture work, paint his house on our dime. And because the distaste for mayor Finch and his crew is so bad Jail bird Joe is who the sheep will be herded to by the filth that runs the political underworld.
House of Cards,
Wood you like to play a little Poker? I hear a Royal Flush beats a Full House!
Ganim has a hole card. Finch is a Joker not good for Poker.
MJF is holding her cards close to her vest. She’s no Bluffer!
Joe needs a proofreader or a ghost writer or both. Could also use a conscience.
Phil Blagys, cute reply but what about what he is saying and if he’s wrong then what is your solution?
A few thoughts:
Joe Ganim is a shrewd politician. He has no connection to the Bridgeport community. While knowledgeable people like John Lee have expressed concern and offer advice to the city council members, Joe Ganim is seizing on the budget process and the impact on property taxes as a campaign talking point. It will be interesting to learn who his advisers are. While JML has exposed how ineffective the city council is in great detail, his expectation is the few council members with a three-digit IQ and conviction to good government will bring about the needed changes.
Ganim has no such expectations. He is establishing talking points to establish a difference between him and Finch. Ganim will direct his energy to points that will suggest he is credible and deflect the suggestion he is an opportunistic, unrepentant felon.
Tom White, isn’t Joe Ganim doing what a candidate for mayor should do?
Hi bloggers, kudos for the diversity of opinions.
Mackey,
Joe seems to be lost without Jerry Barron. His message lacks continuity and specificity. He starts out by saying Joe is saying “The new City Budget should reduce the mil rate and taxes to help weary Bridgeport homeowners” but he offers no real solutions.
As a matter of fact, Joe is saying the budget is out of balance and implies revenues are overstated. Therefore to correct this the council would need to raise taxes.
Then he goes on to say education and public safety are underfunded on the expense side.
So reduce revenues, increase expenses and cut taxes. Yes Ron, that is what most candidates would say and will continue to say if no one asks them HOW?
Let me remind you Ron, when Joe Ganim was mayor he closed more firehouses than any mayor has, putting at greater risk public safety. And he was totally into privatizing any and all public services.
So I think you had better take those rose-colored glasses off and try reading between the lines.
Bob Walsh, good points and Joe Ganim will have to address those points.
And the point you are making Ron is without people on this blog (or anywhere else in the City for that matter) addressing issues that are there, month in and month out, the public remains in the dark, frustrated and angry.
Whether it is Joe Ganim, Mary-Jane Foster, Howard Gardner, Dave Daniels or Charlie Coviello who raises questions, issues or just plain City subjects showing “leadership lapses,” it is necessary for Finch to respond in some manner. So demonizing Ganim at this moment for his past actions (if that looms most important with you) is your choice. But I would suggest getting more people to look at how the Finch gang has misled us regularly and what real facts are is a positive course for discussion at this time.
Budgeting of revenue numbers for Bridgeport is tricky business especially in a year when the State has so much fiscal turmoil ongoing, and we must approve our City Budget before they are complete. However, questioning a rise in local tax revenues of various kinds may be just the type of assumption to be questioned by the City Council. Has that happened?
Straight talk on the Grand List and regular posting of it would be a gain for the City also. The taxpaying Grand List devoid of property with special deals, abatements, or pilots of any kind is the type of list that might show whether Bridgeport is getting better every day, from an economic development viewpoint. Is there a rush from City Hall to post these details? Time will tell.
And to Maria I must remind her, for someone who was always big into privatization like Joe was, privatizing education is called charter schools.
He privatized waster waste treatment, the golf course, other city services like parks department maintenance just to name a few.
I believe in only one budget did he move spending above the MER and his gamesmanship resulted in the MBR. So please look at who he was and not what he will claim to do so differently now.
Ganim’s support of charter schools will actually get him support as many parents want charter schools. Finch already supports charter schools.
Steven, please provide any data or reports that support your statement ‘many parents want charter schools.” We have approximately 30,000 BPS parents.
Finch’s support of charter schools is going to hurt him in the upcoming election, not help him. I am going to make sure of it.
Bob, the legislature converted from the Minimum Expenditure Requirement to the Minimum Budget Requirement because of John Fabrizi and the games going on in a few other urban districts.
The state Department of Education retained the outside services of auditors to review three years of records under the Fabrizi administration.
They reported that over a three-year period Fabrizi’s administration stole over $13 million dollars from the BPS through in-kind services that did not qualify as in-kind services, and the Internal Service Fund. They even used words like “illegal.”
I actually have their reports, and there is not a single mention of Mayor Ganim.
Bob, worry about whom you are going to support in the upcoming election, not whom I am considering supporting.
Bob,
It is smart for you and others to identify the vulnerable parts of the budget and why you think this is so. Taxpayers should be happy to have someone take their side this year. A no tax increase proposed budget is not necessarily a fair budget to taxpayers.
And focus on the way the City is setting up to deal with education costs is very important. Maybe no one can really figure out what the administration has up its sleeves at this moment.
Budget meetings have been held for the past week, including two hearings. Public attendance includes perhaps a handful beyond those in affected departments. Last night I was the only person to speak and it was to raise a question about the overtime public safety expenses of several years duration still not being reduced to projected budget. In 2013 there was $8 Million negative variance. In 2014 that dropped to $3.4 Million. But this year it looks like they will rebound to about $6 Million. Why doesn’t the City show us 6 lines of expense for each department each month instead of wasting paper and print, baffling everyone with the detail? Can anyone find the 51000 Line Item in the budget from which Chief Gaudett is paid? It is not in the Police Administration section. Time will tell.
John Marshall Lee, I agree with your point about:
“Bob,
It is smart for you and others to identify the vulnerable parts of the budget and why you think this is so. Taxpayers should be happy to have someone take their side this year. A no tax increase proposed budget is not necessarily a fair budget to taxpayers.” I think it’s good nother voice has spoken out like Joe Ganim and it’s good Bob Walsh has pointed out some of Ganim’s problems when he was mayor.