UPDATE:
The City Council’s Budget and Appropriations Committee Friday night approved the majority of Mayor Bill Finch’s no-tax-increase spending plan adding $1 million for reading and math interventionists and nurses at every school, according to City Council President Tom McCarthy. Generally what’s concluded in committee is a done deal in what has been a quiet election-year budget process that included additional public hearings with little citizen turnout. The new budget year starts July 1.
The full council is scheduled to vote on the budget Monday night.
Matters to be acted upon according to the full council agenda:
Budget and Appropriations Committee Report re: General Fund Budget for Fiscal Year 2015-2016
Votes as follows:
General Fund:
a. Revenue Increases
b. Revenue Decreases
c. Appropriation Increases
d. Appropriation Decreases
e. General Fund Budget Fiscal Year 2015-2016 as amended
I so dislike being suspicious. JML is this legit or just another city employment opportunity, or a way to hide/move money?
blog.ctnews.com/connecticutpostings/2015/05/08/bridgeport-considering-municipal-ids/
I think it’s a campaign gimmick aimed at the Hispanic vote. We didn’t hear a word about this until now. I think Finch and McCarthy are desperate and will try anything.
I am sure the budget committee has one eye on the numbers as they are received and one eye on JML.
Has Joe offered tours of those Federal Dorms he recently graduated from, to some of our Bridgeport worthies?
It’s basically “this is an election year, let’s hold the line on taxes, get re-elected, then who cares, we’ll double the tax increase next year, and there’s not a damn thing they can do” scenario. Very nice.
How dare the Finch administration not raise our taxes this year?
We want a tax increase, we want a tax increase. city hall smoker, I think the Hispanic community wants a caddy increase, we all do. Can’t we find a candidate who will guarantee a huge tax increase? 🙂 How about that great project on Railroad Avenue and Cherry Street? Why? Why why couldn’t the Finch Administration leave it vacant and derelict like it was during the prosperous years of the Ganim administration? Why? Joe Ganim, we are coming into prosperous times again. We need a Mayor like you to make sure there is no development for the next four years.
Steve, I am sure you realize people are cynical for a reason. Railroad Avenue and Cherry Street? More Section 8 housing. The news article said they are hoping for a market-rate component later. Steve, we could all use a dose of your eternal enthusiasm, but we have difficulty praising things that are not what the ministry of public enlightenment says they are.
Tom, I totally agree with you. There is section 8 housing all over the city. Tuck’s neighborhood in question will benefit with the charter school and the hope the area improves to eventually get market-rate housing. After all, section 8 will not last forever and the building does have great bones and how many decades do we need to drive 95 and see these derelict properties?
Thank you for acknowledging my enthusiasm, it is extremely difficult to always appear super-psyched. I do believe it is a great project, though. Definitely great P.R. 🙂
“No Increase” is still way too much at Bridgeport’s tax rate. A good start, in regard to getting Bridgeport property taxes to an appropriate level, would be for the Mayor to make good on his original campaign promise to give us all a $600 tax rebate.
Could Council President McCarthy introduce that measure as a special item at the Council meeting on Monday?
This rebate could be paid for by eliminating the “phantom” municipal jobs already included in the submitted budget (per JML’s OIB city budget analysis of earlier this week).