UPDATE
: The Town Clerk’s Office is preparing for a blizzard of absentee ballots for the September 16 Democratic primary. Roughly 4500 absentee ballot applications have been signed out by political operatives for various campaign camps. The actual absentee ballots will be ready August 25, about three weeks before the primary.
Within the next few days, following review by the Registrar’s Office of candidates trying to petition onto the ballot to challenge endorsed candidates, a list of candidates will be sent to the Town Clerk’s Office to establish ballot order and then printing of absentee ballots. The Town Clerk’s Office will mail out absentee ballots to voters based on the number of returned applications.
The state of Connecticut allows excuse-only absentee ballot voting such as health issues or traveling for work. But some political operatives will fundamentally notify voters they can vote by absentee. It’s amazing the number of fit electors requesting an absentee ballot.
The Registrar’s Office is also planning supervised balloting at designated senior citizen buildings and high rises.
Any voter in the building who signed an absentee application and wants to vote by absentee ballot can do so that day under the supervision of elections officials. State law provides local registrars with the authority to conduct supervised balloting if a high proportion of absentee ballot applications comes from a particular address. It helps to provide a check against campaign operatives trying to manipulate votes by absentee. It also provides an option for electors that filled out an absentee ballot application to vote at their desired designated precinct.
This mayoral primary cycle is tracking to dwarf the number of votes cast by absentee ballot for the 2007 and 2011 Democratic primaries. For example in 2007, roughly 500 votes were cast by absentee ballot when Bill Finch defeated Chris Caruso. In 2011, about 800 votes were cast by absentee ballot when Finch bested Mary-Jane Foster.
About 38,000 Democrats are eligible to vote in the primary.
Votes by absentee ballot tend to trend higher in districts with senior citizen housing units, but based on the sheer number of applications signed out this primary may produce a much higher proportion of votes by absentee ballot than the past two mayoral primaries. This primary certainly looks like more than 1000 votes will be registered by absentee.
The Finch-Caruso primary turnout was 25 percent, Finch-Foster about 22 percent. About 9200 Democrats voted in the 2011 primary. Most campaign operatives believe next month’s turnout will be closer to 30 percent. If that happens more than 11,000 votes will be cast.
I’ve been looking at the websites of the Democratic candidates. What they say and what their priorities are is illuminating.
Mary-Jane Foster, one of two reform candidates in the general election, lays it out this way:
• On the mayor appointing City Council members to paid positions:
“While a mayor cannot stop a City employee from seeking public office, a mayor can fundamentally decide to never appoint a member of the City Council to a paid City position. It is my position that a mayor should not appoint a member of the City Council to a City job without a clear irrevocable policy. If they’re qualified to do the job, they must resign from the City Council. You cannot have it both ways.”
• On requiring pension obligations are met:
“For residents who wonder why Bridgeport is always behind the eight ball, putting off paying our bills is the reason why. That’s what we get when our mayor puts his re-election ahead of our taxpayers, and Bridgeport deserves better. In the interest of good government, I urge the State legislature to put a plan in place with clear requirements and timelines for meeting our financial obligations and unmistakable consequences for failing to do so.”
• On Finch’s economic performance:
“… Bill Finch has had three-plus years to face up to the real costs of running this city. Because of this total lack of leadership, we are once again looking at a looming financial nightmare. Budget deficits, budget secrecy, no economic development plan, jobs and pay increases for political friends all contribute to poor city services and more red ink. In 2007 Finch promised a $600 tax cut. What did he deliver? A tax increase. Soon the Mayor will have to submit a budget to the City Council–an election-year budget that is sure to be served up with a lot of blue smoke and mirrors. The city’s financial solvency and our collective future require leadership and the ability to make tough but fair choices. Anything else will simply validate this article in Forbes and once again, we will be embarrassed by the poor administration of our city.”
This is all fine and good, a bold plan to move the city forward and away from the edge of the abyss. On the downside, all of the above passages are dated 2011. Surely Ms. Foster has something new to say.
Bill Finch makes the following claims (caps lock is his, not mine; TBK doesn’t need to shout to get the point across):
• CREATING JOBS & GROWING OUR ECONOMY
• PREPARING KIDS TO COMPETE FOR 21ST CENTURY JOBS
• CREATING GREEN JOBS & PRODUCING CLEAN ENERGY
• MAKING OUR CITY SAFER FOR BRIDGEPORTERS
• ENSURING THE PARK CITY LIVES UP TO ITS NAMESAKE
• CRACKING DOWN ON CORRUPTION
Item by item this is all demonstrably false.
• Mayor Finch’s claim of creating jobs and growing the economy is a nonstarter. The city’s unemployment rate is more than 8%. That’s about 25,000 people out of work; Bass Pro, Starbucks and Chipotle are only going to need about 300 employees.
• The school system has continued to fail during Finch’s tenure as the grand pooh-bah. Special education students have been appallingly neglected and the dropout rate is still hovering around 48%.
• Finch gets the cookie for creating “green” jobs; he just hasn’t created many. Producing clean energy? Okay, he’s done that too. What about the other environmental issues troubling Bridgeport? Couple of years ago there was a fire at an old thread factory in the West End. It burned for days, releasing toxic fumes into the air. Barrels and barrels of old dye and other industrial chemicals were found in the basement, poorly stored. Some of these chemicals leaked into Long Island Sound.
• I have a hard time reading Bill Finch has made the city safer. His administration tried to conceal police reports and crime statistics from the media “until after the election,” in clear violation of public records laws and the Freedom of Information Act. In point of fact, the city is more violent than it was a year ago. There have been at least three shooting in a week’s time.
• “Ensuring The Park City lives up to its name.” Are you kidding me? How many more parks do we need? The city should be selling some of these properties so they might generate some badly needed tax revenue.
• Finch’s administration may not be as corrupt as Joe Ganim’s but there is definitely corruption. Threatening city employees with termination if they don’t follow Adam “Pecker” Wood’s plan is corrupt, stifling dissent with a sledgehammer.
Joe Ganim appears to have a plan for progress. Among his suggestions:
REDUCE CRIME
• Hire more police in order to solve problems related to crime and ensure a safer neighborhood.
• Community policing will be given great emphasis in my administration, particularly in addressing areas of persistently high levels of crime and disorder.
• Our police will work in partnership with each community to gain vital intelligence to prevent crime and disorder and to attack gang and gun violence that blights our community.
• Increased street patrol visibility and foot patrol in challenging neighborhoods.
STABILIZE TAXES
• Your tax bill shows that we pay some of the highest real estate and vehicle taxes in the nation. As mayor, Joe will reduce the tax burden to make Bridgeport more affordable.
• Under Mayor Finch’s leadership, residential taxes have skyrocketed by 45 percent. By contrast, when Joe was mayor, he proved you can hold the line on taxes by keeping the mil rate unchanged, a 0% tax increase, for ten straight years!
• The delayed Finch reassessment, postponed to after the election, is a hidden ticking time bomb on taxpayers.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND JOBS
• Formulate a strategic marketing plan for the business districts.
• Do a better job of training residents for the workforce and use incentives as leverage to create job opportunities for residents.
• Consolidation of redundant services in existing city government offices and seek new State and Federal grants.
• Whenever resident tax dollars are used to assist a private developer in a project, residents should see additional benefits, such as jobs.
On reducing crime Joe is on point. The second and third bullets should’ve been consolidated into one. He’s talking about the same thing.
On taxes he’s right. The other candidates have been jumping on Finch for lying about taxes (remember when George H.W. Bush said “Read my lips …”?). People don’t want to buy homes in Bridgeport because of the taxes. People who already own homes cannot sell them because of the taxes. That’s not fair to the property owners. They can’t reap the capital gains because the taxes are too damned high.
The rest of this is all good. There is a big problem: he still has to deal with a recalcitrant City Council, still has to deal with a business community used to getting no-strings-attached abatements. Show us the magic wand, Joe. How you gonna do all this stuff in 100 days?
Kid–can any of these claims be validated? Finch was elected in 2007 and the mil rate was:
mil rate fiscal year 2006-2007: 42.28
Now it is:
mil rate current fiscal year 2014-2015: 42.198
The mil rate is 0.082 less than it was when Finch was elected. There was a re-eval making it difficult to judge taxes by what is actually being paid on the average BPT house.
I did find this crime and city data:
#7 on the list of “Top 101 larger cities with the highest real estate taxes percentage in 2005:
www .city-data.com/city/Bridgeport-Connecticut.html
Interestingly it said–#7 on the “Top 101 larger cities with the highest real estate taxes percentage in 2005.” 2005 was when Ganim was mayor? Yes?
Look at the crime stats. 2013 is the lowest of all the years listed for almost every crime. The stats go all the way back to 2001.
I took the figures from stats published online. Overall crime is down in Bridgeport, violent crime is up. Bill Finch raised taxed four (some say five) times.
I don’t want to get into a pissing contest about “Finch is a lousy mayor because of this” versus “Ganim did that” or Mayor Fabrizi did the other thing. None of it matters. What matters is, whoever takes the throne in January is going to have a big hot steaming pile of bovine fecal matter to deal with.
Before any abatements are offered to developers, before any other parks are sodded, before any other window dressing, the incoming mayor will have to address the tax assessment process and recalibrate it before the reval comes down to land. Once the tax assessment process has been brought back into line with reality, the city’s revenues will drop so new revenue streams will have to be created. That will require some hard decisions by City Hall that should include selling dormant residential properties and getting them back on the tax rolls, creating affordable housing and jobs for the people who will live there, etc. It’s all common-sense stuff.
I have some theories on that.
1- Abatements are needed to get someone to develop in BPT. If you do not give the abatement, no development. Too bad for you. Look at how many companies NY is paying to move to NY. The second thing is up-front money. You could, if you have the money, pay to build the building for the company. BPT does not have the money. Fairfield will give you $400K to move your $1,000,000 company building to FF. BPT will give you 10 year’s free taxes @ 40 mils. Ten years x 40 mils x $1,000,000 = $400K. It is all the same. The company may even build a $2 mil plant and expand, since it is free. It was a bad idea for municipalities to start competing with each other in this way. Now, companies can extort cities. If you do not play, you lose. As long as cities and states keep doing this, businesses will never pay taxes again.
2- The re-val will just cause a change in the mil rate. What each taxpayer pays will stay about the same. Sure, East Side houses may pay a little less and North End a little more but 2-3 mils on $100K is only $300 a year or $25 a month. Plus, it is deductible. So your federal income tax will be reduced somewhere between 15-20% of that. But you are annoyed by it. So move. The issue is moot. Regardless of who becomes mayor the same thing will happen. No one is going to fix this in a few months. It took 20+ years to give away Steel Point, plus State, Federal and local money. We did not give Steel Point away. We HAD to pay someone to take it AND that took 20+ years. You think anyone is going to become mayor and increase the grand list in 2-3 months? Property taxes and a few minor fees are the only revenue streams the city has.
3- As far as the parks go, I think it is a way to beautify empty lots, clean them up and make them more attractive to developers. Finch already sold/rented part of Seaside to UI. I think the new park will be sold off to developers as they can. You have to admit, a nice grassy field looks a lot nicer to develop than a dilapidated, urban jungle, bomb site.
4- The mayor creates jobs. Who gets those jobs is out of his control. You could require new companies to give the jobs to BPT residents but all these deals have a give and take. What should the mayor ‘give’ for this or what will the company ‘take?’ Usually, it is tax abatements. For everything the city demands from the developer, the city gives up property tax. In other words, the city is paying the company’s employees. One year of free property tax = $40K on $1 million. The company will agree to hire one BPT resident (including pay and benefits). These developers are not running a charity. The city would be better off if it gave the land away with no ‘deals’ or demands on the company. The city gets its property tax and everything else is left to the free market.
Who gets the jobs is not out of his control. Abatements are necessary to attract development, sure. But they should be in the 5-10 year range, no longer. Requiring the developer to hire local people and businesses is not unreasonable. It is not a matter of charity; it is a matter of improving the local economy. If the jobs stay in Bridgeport so do the big construction paychecks. No one working a minimum–wage job at Bass Pro or Starbucks or hustling faux Mexican food at Chipotle is going to be able to afford a house or a new or late-model motor vehicle; a construction worker earning skilled wages will. The infusion of cash will improve the local economy, allow existing small businesses to thrive and create opportunities for other small businesses.
I’m well aware what took 20 or 30 years to screw up is not going to be fixed or repaired overnight or even within a few months. A few major landowners pay absurdly low taxes on property that is lying fallow. DuPont has a sweetheart deal without the benefit of abatement, $600 per acre for about 300 acres. In that case the liability must be brought into line with reality or they should sell the property so it can be developed and taxed at a more realistic rate. Bridgeport can ill afford to continue its corporate welfare policies.
It’s not a matter of ideology. The national GOP has been using Reagan’s “trickle down” economic theory for more than 30 years; time has proven that it is a failed theory.
BOE SPY,
Fuck it, let the middle class continue to suffer, let Bridgeport continue to be the punchline of countless jokes told in the backrooms of the legislative Office Building?
Which mayor is going to make BPT LESS of a joke, Finch or Ganim? Foster would be a good choice but her campaign seems to be dead in the water. Again, if the BPT resident has the qualifications to do the job they have the same chance of getting it as anyone else. If the company is forced to hire based on residency instead of qualifications they will want compensation but you do not want to compensate them. You seem to want your cake and to eat it, too. It is socialism bordering on fascism. Why force the company to hire these people just to fire them shortly after because they cannot do the job? Look, I was at McD’s the other day. The guy in front of me could barely ORDER at the place (from the dollar menu). Never mind work there. Now, you want to force a company to hire the guy who failed counting and give him a good job? It is hard enough to get a company to build in BPT, as seen by the time it took to get Steel Point built. Now you want to put more demands on the company with no reciprocation? Good luck. BTW, in the article about the Trumbull Gardens shooting. Every car in the parking lot was better than mine. Sad but true. I am not sure how that works into your new or late-model motor vehicle theory.
Who says those construction workers are not BPT residents? Many were but moved out of town after working the job for a few years.
I am guessing the 300 DuPont acres you speak of are the 344 acres of Remington Woods? That land is undeveloped and not served by roads, gas, sewer or electricity. Some of it is under a lake. This makes most of it unbuildable. BPT’s mil rate is about 42. A 9,134 sq ft lot nearby is going for $55K. That would make an acre worth $262,284 assuming $55K for the plot is fair. The tax on that acre would be $1101/year when it is served by roads and utilities and not underwater. $600/acre seems about fair.
As far as Remington Woods liability, who is going to buy a house there? No one wants to build a school at the arms factory site. Never mind the pollution. What about the unexploded bombs? If one kid or construction worker is hurt by unexploded ordinance, the project would stop and the lawsuits begin. The land, workers and buildings would be uninsurable. Unfortunately, that land is wasted. BPT is lucky DuPont does not stop paying taxes and let the city take the land.
I’m not going to waste my time with Gardner, Daniels or Coviello but I will make an early prediction: None of them is going to be the next mayor.
This is disgusting.
Lennie, the CT Post in 2010 said there were about 68,000 registered voters in Bridgeport. If 4500 AB were turned in, that would be 15% of the registered voters. My questions are, is 4500 a lot for other urban cities and would 4500 be a lot for Bridgeport?
DD, I updated this story to address the question you raise. This mayoral primary cycle is tracking to dwarf the number of votes cast by absentee ballots for the 2007 and 2011 Democratic primaries. For example in 2007, roughly 500 votes were cast by absentee ballot when Bill Finch defeated Chris Caruso. In 2011, about 800 votes were cast by absentee ballot when Finch defeated Mary-Jane Foster. This cycle looks like more than 1000 votes will be cast by absentee.
About 38,000 registered Democrats are eligible to vote in the primary. Votes by absentee ballot tend to trend higher in districts with senior citizen housing units, but based on the sheer number of applications signed out, this primary may produce a much higher proportion of votes by absentee ballot than the past two mayoral elections.
Lennie, please take your meds!
All you have to do is follow Lydia M. and place people to watch her 24/7. I saw her in action, she is a Finch mutt to the fullest.
Funny, she couldn’t even get an audience with Finch five years ago. Now apparently she’s carrying him.
Hector, five years and four weeks ago today, Joe Ganim was released from prison and now he is running for Mayor. Who has the more interesting story? Things change, no? Maybe Lydia can get a few clergy to endorse her. What do you think?
Steve, this thing with people being locked up doesn’t mean much to me. I grew up in an era and area where people were getting locked up all the time and for reasons much more serious than political bull5#!t, many of those came home with no skills and even less patience yet still I wished the best for them and still do. Steve, if none of your friends or family have ever been locked up, you my friend are a special individual. I pray, for your friends and familiy’s sake they never do, your words and actions leave me with the impression you would abandon them.
I second that, Hector. Mr. Auerbach is not the only one on this blog who comes up more than a little lacking in compassion and humanity, not to mention humility.
Do you ever give up?
Dead men vote Democrat. In this case, which one?
The dead and the demented are legally entitled to vote in Bridgeport. They do it early and often.
Never would I abandon a friend. I just wouldn’t make them king of the kingdom. I’ve known people in my life who have been to jail. I do not shun them. What Ganim went to jail for was extremely serious. It wasn’t violent but it was extremely serious and I wouldn’t call it political bullshit.
Hector, I would not shun Joe Ganim either in case I wasn’t clear. I do respect Ganim and I can’t stand regurgitating his fall from grace. I just could not put him back in power. I do however, wish him great success and hope he will eventually be able to practice law. I had hoped he did not run for Mayor knowing it can and will get ugly because it has to.
You contribute to the ugliness, Steven.
Bpt Kid, you are pure cancer and I have asked you to please not respond to my posts with your insults. I was communicating with Hector Diaz who is always respectful. You are invading a conversation that has absolutely nothing to do with you. So why not be an adult and not respond to my posts? You are a very negative buzz kill. Every post is an attack on the Mayor. How do you stand living here? I think the term troll was wasted on Bob Walsh, though in his case it is a term of endearment. You really are a troll. You have nothing positive to say, have no filter and actually believe you are important. You are worse than a bully. I have asked you at least 15 times to not respond to my posts so it is clear you are just an instigator with social shortcomings. Please communicate only with those in your Klan. I am not one of them.
Lydia and her people pull this shit every election. How is that woman still walking the streets? And running for city clerk. SMH.
Isn’t it a riot making allegations against Lydia Martinez? Really, city hall smoker? You are supporting Joe Ganim and you are pointing a finger at Lydia? I’ll bet if she were supporting Ganim, she would be just swell! 🙂 I happen to like Lydia Martinez. I have heard she is the queen of the absentee ballots. Not a bad title in a political campaign. I certainly hope she lives up to that title.
One month out and I do not even know who the heck I’m voting for, not a Finch fan but must say downtown looks better than it ever has with a lot more things to do during the weekend. I like Joe Ganim but not sure about his motives.
donj,
I have noticed something interesting about you. As with past elections, you seem to be on the fence until the last minute. You have three very different candidates to choose from. Three who can possibly win. You must make your vote count and think about the future. Who is the individual who has the ability to put our city on the map and attract developers? This is not a personality contest. This is about positioning our city for the 21st century. May the best man or woman win. I hope you will consider Bill Finch.
A recent CT Post article says they will be able to take notes on their computer. I really hope Adman Wood sends messages to Finch during the debate. And I hope Ganim and Foster make Finch look like an idiot in front of a crowd of 400. And I hope they get on the microphone and ask Adam Wood to come sit next to Finch on the stage. That would be funny.
What would be funnier is Joe Ganim sitting on Mario’s lap!
What would be even funnier would be you wearing a clown suit.
You are such an adult! 🙂 I will be there and I am looking forward to meeting you.
I’m sure you are, Steven. What are you going to do, beat me up? Verbally harass me? I’m a big boy, I can handle myself. Don’t do anything that will end with you being led away in handcuffs while a police officer recites the litany “You have the right to remain silent …”
There you go, fellow bloggers. Derek Brown’s response to my gracious post of looking forward to meeting him. Socially awkward, alienating and just mean-spirited.