UPDATE
: Mayor Joe Ganim announced on Friday he has signed a $552 million budget approved by the City Council that sets a mil rate at 54.37 for real estate and personal property and includes a motor vehicle mil rate at 37 per a state-mandated cap. Ganim asserts, despite the rate increase from the current year 42 mils, about 65 percent of residential homeowners will see flat or lower taxes in a revaluation budget year that begins July 1. Businesses will absorb the higher tax hit, according to city financial officials. The vote was 13-7.
Historically the council sets the mil rate in June but convened a special session Wednesday night. The budget assumes $4 million in union concessions and adds a projected 100 new police officers to address low staffing levels.
“Since taking office I have had two major fiscal goals for the city of Bridgeport: erase a $20,000,000 deficit left by the previous administration and reduce the tax burden on residential homeowners,” said Ganim in a statement released late Friday afternoon. “This budget accomplishes both. I want to thank the diligent work of my staff and city councilors who pored over the details of this spending plan in a challenged fiscal environment for the last few months. We worked very hard to reduce expenditures to keep the tax burden as low as possible. The proposal we have enacted will allow the city to invest in public safety and replenish the ranks of the dangerously undermanned police department. With the state holding its commitment to reduce auto taxes and increase municipal aid, most residential homeowners in Bridgeport will see flat or lower overall tax bills in the next fiscal year.”
The adopted budget provides level funding for the Bridgeport Board of Education, according to Ganim, making up for more than $2.3 million reductions in education and school transportation funding from the State of Connecticut.
Voting against the mil rate was Tom McCarthy, Katie Bukovsky, Scott Burns, AmyMarie Vizzo Paniccia, Michelle Lyons, Evette Brantley and Richard Salter. The council had unanimously approved the city budget May 9th. The setting of the mil rate is a budget formality but provides cover for council members representing the highest taxed districts to vote against it.
David Walker, the former U.S. Comptroller General who resides in Black Rock, says he’s outraged by the budget. He issued this statement in the comments section of OIB:
I am tired of being lied to by politicians. This budget is outrageous and does not represent tax relief for ANY taxpayer. The mil rate increase will result in an effective tax rate increase for every taxpayer of about 29%! Higher effective tax rates result in lower property values. They also will make the city a less attractive place to live and to have a business. The people whose actual tax bills will go down were overcharged for years. The tax bill on our home will go up over 20%. And what do we get for it, good schools, well maintained streets, many city services? None of these! We need an independent financial control board NOW! Mark my word, this City is headed for bankruptcy if major changes do not happen soon. The mil rate is even higher than originally estimated. The numbers don’t work and the disease has not been treated.
Joe Ganim is a liar and he will be reelected in 2019 over my dead body.
Every year the BOE pays 100% of bus transportation for parochial, charter, state and our true public schools. The BOE would then apply for reimbursement, which has steadily decreased although our bus transportation costs have skyrocketed due to charter and magnet schools. The reimbursement would go to the city not the BOE.
We still have to fund every dollar of bus transportation costs out of our operating budget.
Anthony Paoletto and Nessah Smith are done, too.
The city raised taxes by $23 million and the state is giving Bridgeport $7 million next year than this year but there isn’t an extra dollar for over 21,000 urban school children of whom 40% live in poverty.
Joe Ganim, you are a disgusting person and every city council member who voted for this is going to be held accountable.
Maria, don’t tell me you’re going to put together 20 City Council challengers for the next election. Did your property tax increase?
Why not, Joel? I have people who reach out to me for help or guidance throughout the city.
I have aligned myself with a variety of women who are politically savvy and we want to change the direction of the Dem. party.
I have NEVER asked Dem. leadership for permission to do what I want. Those who really want change have to go around the power brokers and directly to the voters.
Why does it have to be women? And I would agree 100% to avoid the DTC. The DTC is a graveyard.
And any planning would have to begin NOW for the 2017 CC elections.
Lennie, were all 20 council members present? Was the vote unanimous?
Maria, unfortunately I was not at the meeting but was told it was a 13-7 vote.
Lennie, how each City Council member voted is critical information that must be publicized.
Those who voted against it are to be commended. Those who voted for it need to be held accountable.
This dude really just raised my taxes like 1500 bucks? Unbelievable.
Does this mean you will be changing your OIB handle to Bridgeport Rising Taxes?
Maybe just Bridgeport Falling or Bridgeport Failing (to include the educational element).
At the last BOE meeting we had some really nervy city council members stand before the board and urge us to not cut paraprofessionals, especially kindergarten paras. And then, a mere week and a half later, this same city council votes to flat fund the BOE, virtually assuring these and many more will lose their jobs. Hypocrites!
With this vote, some 170 BOE employees will lose their jobs. I feel so bad for these people, many of whom are residents of Bridgeport, pay taxes, shop locally, and make very little money. I hurt for those who stand before the BOE each meeting and ask, urge, and plead with us to not close their school or cut these jobs. I am angered because they are directing and venting toward the wrong people.
Combine this with the political skulduggery going on with certain members/former members of the board and it would seem I am surrounded by liars and carpetbaggers. Thankfully there is a handful of members on the BOE who will meet at each finance meeting and work our hardest to keep the cuts away from the jugular.
Meet the Flockers.
I have seen City Council members and former CC members do their “act” in front of the Library Board. It’s revolting.
The Finch administration left G2 with a financial mess:
*** An overdue revaluation that was paid for twice without a squeak from the City Council revealed property in the City had decreased $1 Billion or more. What did that do to personal balance sheets?
*** A final year budget that was purposefully and unskillfully provided to the City Council one year ago and which they passed despite the facts some of the items projected as revenue had not been available to the City in the previous year and would not be in 2015-16 either; and expenses Tom Sherwood told us he had under close control did not include critical payments to the State for public safety pensions, now no longer a secret.
*** And at the eleventh hour the failure of Tom McCarthy to identify for the public the parliamentary technique where a resolution to pass management and political appointee compensation could pass without opposition increased the deficit.
*** And then “cost cutting” did not mean the permanent elimination of positions that were to have been identified as superfluous, “political,” unnecessary. While employees in place, good, bad and ugly, whatever, were subject to being cut and perhaps still are, we are six months into this G2 term with no comment from Av Harris or Joe Ganim as to his priorities. And no word yet on what they found in the crumbs left in more than one department of wiped computers, missing records, etc. ACCOUNTABILITY, not without consequences! ACCOUNTABILITY, not without stated priorities and record keeping!!!
I agree with Maria Pereira, a serious injustice has been done to the School System this year. The term “level funding” may sound satisfactory to some folks but in a system with more employees than on the City side with contractual increases each year, it means serious cuts. The schools have not been Ganim’s priority in campaign nor governance mode. Not a word from him on operating funds, but he looks grand with third graders, doesn’t he? Perhaps they will learn to spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y.
By the way if level funding is such a good thing these days, let’s examine the Public Safety record for the past several years in Bridgeport:
** Retirements stacking up and reducing the ranks
** Overtime called for to meet internal and external needs (in a money-losing manner for the City itself)
** Training classes set up slowly and in face of severe limits on firing range availability
** About five years of large overtime assumptions in operating projections continued to be exceeded
** Creating pension credits under MERS for overtime earnings for police and fire that was never to be under the reasonably funded Plan B Municipal plans.
Get the picture? Look at the serious crime statistics. They have been decreasing for several years. Are we lucky or is this part of a larger US trend? If so, how do we secure public safety at a reasonable expense? What would happen if public safety were to be subject to a policy of “level funding”? What would it mean?
Crime statistics down? That’s a good thing.
Educational statistics continuing low? That’s not a good thing.
Where to fund? Public safety!!! What are we doing, Mayor Ganim? Time will tell.
OMG. The lord and master of Bridgeport politics has spoken. We will have a new mayor in 2019 and 20 new council people, imagine that. It’s too bad the president of the US won’t be here to see her work come to be. Joe Ganim will be gone and Lydia Martinez will be taking Ganim’s place. There will be 20 women on the council and President Pereira will be telling the country how she and her fiends screwed the kids in Bridgeport.
Go Stallworth.
What a lousy article written in The Connecticut Post by Ken Dixon. The news column is headed by the statement “Ganim maintains campaign promise.” Lousy journalistic standards by the Connecticut Post. The article reads as if it were written by a Ganim PR person. SHAME ON THE CONNECTICUT POST.
Agreed.
It would be great to find out who voted for and against this budget on the City Council. Of course, Ken Dixon did not report that either in his probing and insightful article in the Post. I’ll have to go to BridgeportCT.gov and see if the roll call is published.
My tax bill is going up $1000. From $9200 to $10,220. So I am not one of the 65 percent whose tax bill is going down.
I am tired of being lied to by politicians. This budget is outrageous and does not represent tax relief for ANY taxpayer. The mil rate increase will result in an effective tax rate increase for every taxpayer of about 29%! Higher effective tax rates result in lower property values. They also will make the city a less attractive place to live and to have a business. The people whose actual tax bills will go down were overcharged for years. The tax bill on our home will go up over 20%. And what do we get for it, good schools, well maintained streets, many city services? None of these! We need an independent financial control board NOW! Mark my word, this City is headed for bankruptcy if major changes do not happen soon. The mil rate is even higher than originally estimated. The numbers don’t work and the disease has not been treated.
Dave Walker, what are the legal requirements for this city to file bankruptcy?
The Governor has to approve any related bankruptcy filing. The Governor has the right to appoint an independent financial control board as a means to avoid bankruptcy. The City should seek such a board and the Governor should appoint one. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before a bankruptcy filing must occur. After all, the state is in poor financial condition too!
No, the governor does not have the authority to appoint a financial review board. That requires a special at the legislature and a request from the community involved. Even then it can only be done in fairly limited circumstances.
It is worth noting Review Boards are no longer considered the panacea they once were. The General Assembly has not approved a new review board in more than a decade and has demonstrated a reluctance to do so. It has not even approved a review board for Hartford, which is in far worse shape than Bridgeport.
I completely agree with you, Mr. Walker. Nero is fiddling while Octavia burns! A state financial review board is the only solution for Bridgeport.
The special act that resulted in the Financial Review Board to oversee city finances also guaranteed Bridgeport’s $58 million bonding issue by the State of Connecticut. This guarantee was in large part why the State objected to Bridgeport filing for bankruptcy protection.
Okay, the city files for bankruptcy. Then what? Tell us what changes need to take place.
Miss Pereira, while one could never question your determination to better Bpt, I find it hard to take you seriously with your constant namecalling and obvious anger issues. The issues you feel so strongly about get lost in the anger in which you present them. Perhaps if you took a step back and just sometimes present your points without the namecalling and anger, the message would be stronger. Just my opinion.
Mr. Weintraub, you are entitled to your opinion but I am entitled to mine. The fact is I am very well liked in THOOKER and have a loyal following.
Two of my voters called to let me know Stallworth was walking my neighborhood with Anthony and Nessah today.
I pulled up on Louisiana Ave. and a loyal supporter told me Stallworth and his posse approached her. I asked did he give her any literature. She sad yes and then took me into her house. There were at least ten pieces of Stallworth’s literature in her trash can. I asked her why he gave her so many walkpieces. She told me she asked for extras. I asked her why. She told me the more she took the less he had to hand out and she was 100% with me.
That is loyalty.
Harvey Weintraub, I’m in total agreement with you. Now I have no problem with her position because that’s her right but she’s like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Cruz is smart but nobody in the U.S. Senate likes him and she’s like Trump because it’s all about her, it’s I, I, I, I and she’s always talking against someone or something. She’s not a team player and she listens to no one. She thinks everybody she talks to likes her and supports her but her namecalling and anger will always hold her back from ever expanding a base. She can’t and won’t change her style, it’s Maria’s way or the highway and there’s a traffic jam on that road.
Customarily, reports on passing budgets and establishing mil rates include examples of the impact on various properties, including the residence of the mayor. Perhaps that will be done in a follow-up story. We will see if the Mayor has bought a residence or is still using a friend’s apartment as his stated residence.
My property taxes are up $200. I suppose I’m a 35 percenter.
The Mayor has purchased a residence. He will be a owner/taxpayer in good standing for
2016 and 2017.
Did the Mayor of East Bridgeport buy property on the East Side?
STILL RENTING.
Unfortunately, with this mil rate I fear my taxes will increase as well. My home value went down, but not enough to cover an 8-plus mil rate increase. Aw man.
Actually it’s 11-plus. Holy crap.
Ipon more reflection, this is truly a MASSIVE MIL RATE INCREASE. This is a 28% mil rate increase. 28 PERCENT!!! When Bucci and Moran were looking at 17-18%, we ended up with the State Financial Overview Board, Moran trying to file bankruptcy, the State refusing and the Board forcing through the 17% mil rate increase. THIS 28% MIL RATE INCREASE IS TRULY OF HISTORICAL PROPORTIONS.
And the stupid Connecticut Post wrote this up as business as usual.
Frank Gyure–Mr. Ganim was so proud of himself for cutting 100 jobs, but what he failed to mention is he hired all his inept cronies who supported him and is paying them huge salaries that probably double the salaries of the people he eliminated.
Godiva, where is Mayor Ganim’s supporting list for “cutting 100 jobs?” Anybody seen it? Are we talking about positions deemed redundant or unnecessary, because some of those were revealed in conversations at budget sessions, but never a listing, in the same manner as we have been used to for year so we may compare? And verify? Otherwise no trust is created or established. Is that the point Mayor Ganim, you do not care to provide OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE, TRANSPARENT and HONEST governance? We have six months of example behind us, along with memories of words you used when you were walking and talking around the Cit, but now you are talking to third graders, and offices that took calls and responded reasonably now have trouble remembering what they were asked. Seriously? And how is that fiscal hookup with State Controller Lembo coming?? Time will tell.
The worst thing about this whole scenario is the city has absolutely no viable economic development plan. The economic development “planning” in this city has been definable, for decades, in terms of “Take whatever lands here or the regional planners want to cram down Bridgeport’s throat, regardless of how much it costs the city, or how negatively it impacts the people of Bridgeport.”
Without a viable plan to re-create Bridgeport’s tax base on an absolutely massive scale, there will never, ever be palatable news at tax time. Bridgeport continues to hemorrhage taxable grand list as it accumulates non-taxable liabilities, and welcomes the latter with ribbon cutting ceremonies even as it accommodates the further accumulation of these liabilities (e.g., the accommodation of the expansion of the mammoth parasite SHU via its current Bridgeport land-grab).
The people of Bridgeport are being taxed to death and further sold out by our own City Council and other political representation at all levels of government, even as we read these OIB entries.
(How is the search for a REAL economic development director going? Has Dan Malloy been slow in submitting a list of names?)
I went to bridgeportCT.gov and of course there was no record of the roll call vote on the budget. Can we find out the roll call and who voted for and against this budget?
Frank, call the City Clerk’s office, she’s responsible for the roll call and must keep those records for every Council meeting.
Every one of these fools who voted to increase the mil rate has to go; enough is enough!
Please let this city file bankruptcy and let the state take over the BOE.
Really, the State of Connecticut already controls the Bridgeport public schools and the BOE. Just observe how things happen in Bridgeport, from economic development to what happens and doesn’t happen in our school system. The state uses its purse strings and economic influence to handle us like lab rats and thereby direct just about every aspect of our municipal lives. Just take a look at what happens in Bridgeport and follow the money back to Hartford and their down-county handlers. Look at our history and try to determine how many decades it had been since Bridgeport was treated with any decency or respect by the state and federal government. We’re thrown some crumbs and vague promises at election time and vote to keep ourselves in our “place.”
Bridgeport’s new mil rate is beyond ludicrous. There is no salvation for this city, no light at the end of the tunnel. This clearly brings new business ventures, economic development and new construction to a screeching halt. The homeowners whose taxes increased will find themselves unable to sell their homes and foreclosures will abound. For all of those who praised Joe Ganim as the redeemer and thought he was the solution to all the city’s ills, what do you think of him now? And as for the 13 lemmings (I wonder how many of them are home or business owners) who approved this increase, their constituents should take them to task, loud and clear. They should be ashamed of themselves for falling in step with that little tyrant they call mayor.
Uh-uh, like this: PUBLIC SAFETY is the number one increase in the budget but because of rising taxes, it’s Bridgeport’s number one victim, too.
Here’s the disturbing part: what this budget calls public safety amounts to private security at Trumbull Gardens.
Getting the vote breakdown is key here.
Wait a minute. The budget passed unanimously. After that happened the mil rate was nothing more than math (total expenses minus other revenues). A vote for the budget and against the mil rate is a gesture that is both contradictory and meaningless.
You don’t think that the tax rate is enough of a reason to vote no?
Then they shouldn’t have voted for the budget. You can’t vote to spend money and then not raise it.
Phil, you’re correct. The no vote for the mil rate is just for show.
Phil Smith, thanks for pointing out that political cover move by Tom McCarthy et al.
On June 19, 2015, OIB ran a piece:
onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/ganim-finch-hiding-tax-hit-finch-spokesperson-ganim-dishonest/
quoting Ganim as stating Mayor Bill Finch was concealing a “ticking tax hike.”
Turns out Ganim was right about that.
Now, though, has Mayor Ganim done, is he doing, all he stated he’d do in this regard?
Verbatim from that 6/19/2015 OIB article:
Ganim said as mayor he would do the following:
• Release all available information to the City Council and the public.
• Review the reassessment as the first action item in a new term and work with state legislators to seek ways to smooth any projected tax increase from reassessment.
• Hold public budget sessions next year in neighborhoods around the city to explain both the budget and any mil rate change.
“I will do everything in my power to keep taxes from rising, just like we kept property taxes from increasing for ten straight years when I was mayor,” said Ganim.
???
The quote from Ganim is election-season verbiage, which meant NOTHING. Maybe people on the East Side believed it.
Why do you keep mentioning the East Side?
Andy Fardy, the reason why I keep mentioning the East Side in reference to Joe Ganim is because he pandered to the East Side both in the Democratic Primary and then the General Election. His headquarters was on Stratford Avenue in the East Side. He relied heavily (almost exclusively) on East Side political leaders for all of his so-called redemption with Mario Testa as the main exception who happens to live in Monroe if I heard correctly, yes, he is the Bridgeport Democratic chairman of the TC. Also, if I remember correctly but I would have to do some research, Ganim ran up big pluralities on the East Side winning the mayor’s office. So that is why I refer quite often to the East Side when I discuss Joe Ganim.
The East Side is home to many nonstop winners.
But when it comes to taxes, there is a disparity between what Mayor Ganim said and how the blogosphere reacted. What’s the deal?
Either way, no mayor wants to raise taxes.
“The setting of the mil rate is a budget formality but provides cover for council members representing the highest taxed districts to vote against it.”
Cover? Not even close.
The members who rejected the mil rate look even more phony than the ones who realized it would make them look like political asses.
*** LORD GIVE ME A REAL ESTATE CUSTOMER BUYER WHO’S READY TO BUY MY HOUSE AS IS, SO I CAN LEAVE THIS OVERTAXED GHETTO CITY GOING NOWHERE FAST! *** POWERBALL OR MEGAMILLIONS WINNINGS WOULD BE EVEN NICER, NO? ***