From Brian Lockhart, CT Post:
There are residents who owe as little as $100 in back motor vehicle taxes who face having their cars crippled with wheel locks, towed off by the city and potentially sold or scrapped.
Marshan Coleman owes $13,298 in car taxes dating from 1999 to 2006, according to city records available on the tax collector’s website that neither he nor the city disputes.
Yet Coleman’s giant, beaming mug was in rotation last week on a downtown digital billboard facing Interstate 95 as part of a campaign promoting the city.
More here.
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Poor Mr. Coleman does not want to pay his car taxes. Does he pay taxes on his work trucks or are they registered elsewhere? People have had their cars towed and sold out from under them yet Coleman keeps rolling along. This is just another example of the Finch administration’s incompetence.
Council member whose husband has city contract owes back taxes also. Do the DTC leaders ever vet their candidates as true representatives of what is best for the city? Sadly, an engaged and informed electorate does not appear to be the voting record of this city, or state. Just elect the endorsed Democrat. The DTC needs to step up their vetting in this day of social media outreach and influence. Ditto the administration.
If he owes that money in back taxes, his cars cannot possibly be registered. You cannot register a vehicle with back taxes owed.
Maybe you know the State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles and you both support the same Candidate for Mayor of Bridgeport? Oversights can happen, you know.
Wicca, there is no way in hell Ayala would be that ignorant! Absolutely no way!
How can all of you be correct? Let’s think about this as it would be difficult to get the exact facts today on the City web site I assume.
Perhaps a business had vehicles that were old and beat up and might have been parked in a lot to deal with another day. I can imagine a small businessman thinking that way. So the taxes came due, times were tight, the bills weren’t paid, registrations were lost, and the bills continued to be unpaid every tax cycle. However, perhaps there are fees and interest due (and there would have been more fees due had towing and storage been involved for any reason). So here we are years later with “fiscal junk” on the books, some of it predating Finch’s terms in office. But it does not bring honor on his office when they have not figured out how to turn the subject into a “win-win” with a sure plan going forward. Perhaps if the parties involved were to convene a public meeting where ideas can be shared between those with “taxes, interest, fees, etc. due to the City” and the City. Clean the books, raise some funds, let everyone understand the system. OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE and TRANSPARENT governance getting practiced with good results. And everybody can take credit for it. That’s the way “good governance” should work. You don’t need “green signs” saluting leadership. And pray tell, with the City Council persons also recognized in most parts of town (sorry Bob Halstead), what did each Council person do relative to the street paving? How about recognizing the “unknown and unpraised Bridgeport taxpayer” who is assessed at 70% of valuation and pays without rebate or other lessening of his obligation? Where’s the recognition? A classy plaque presented to Steve Auerbach? Don’t you want to be there? Time will tell.
JML, a classy plaque? For what? Speaking about Melanie Jackson, why are the signs around Beardsley Park still reflecting Richard Paoletto? Melanie now represents the area and the city should put stickers over Paoletto’s name and replace with Melanie Jackson. Doe that make sense? Fair?
Steve, what is fair to the taxpayer? Time will tell.
So now let’s see if there is a scandal there. Are these vehicles registered? Maybe the few cops supporting Ganim can look into that or the Connecticut Post.
The owner stated in a CT Post article he no longer owns the vehicles with the back taxes due. And he plans to pay off the liens.
“Maybe the few cops supporting Ganim can look into that or the Connecticut Post.” Really Steve, how about Finch looking into it as he has the whole police dept at his disposal.
Donald Day, duh … because it would serve Ganim and Foster. Finch already addressed it. I think it is a great ad. I think Council woman Eneida Martinez said it best. He is a good man and she has known him for years. To owe back taxes does not make you a bad person and I am glad they are not pulling the ad.
As Steve said, Finch has already addressed the issue. So all you ingrates should stop being so critical and get ready to pay your taxes in July. And besides, one of the esteemed council members says Marshan Colemen is a good man. Plus, there is a new sushi bar! Yep, Bridgeport getting better every day.
Tom White, honestly, how can you stand getting out of bed every morning living in a Democratic purgatory? Honest question Tom. Can you tell me your candidate?
How about the fantastic plan to open up downtown? Is that acceptable to you? The announcement about AT&T? Just curious, is there anything Mayor Finch has done that impresses you? I could not imagine being you and living in Bridgeport. But yet, here you are, whining.
Tom, it really is. 🙂 And it really bothers you!
One must ask if he is a “successful minority business owner” as Finch claims, why he hasn’t paid taxes that have been delinquent from as long as 16 years. Does anyone really believe he could not pay off these outstanding taxes since 1999? There should be an ordinance that states no individual or company can be the recipient of taxpayer funds if they owe taxes to the municipality.
Kenneth Moales owed over $20,000 in payroll taxes to the state of CT, but is receiving state taxpayer dollars to fund his daycares.
People who pay their taxes should not be funding individuals or businesses who do not pay their taxes.
Maria, I agree 100 percent. That would be an ordinance that would send a serious message like increasing the dumping and littering fines.
Mayor Bill Finch, who constantly complains about brownfields in the city and has known the DiNardo family all his life, rarely mentions the developer’s multimillion-dollar tax bill on the large, crumbling Remington factory on Barnum Avenue.
In fact, at a North End community meeting Sept. 12, Finch, when asked what the city is doing about developers who owe back taxes, responded, “Developers that don’t pay their taxes? I don’t know any.”
Yet the city’s foreclosure on the factory owned by Remgrit Realty Inc., of which DiNardo is the major shareholder, is ongoing and the tax bill is, ironically, shrinking each year.
Since 2011, the tax bill has plunged to $5.4 million from $7.4 million, due to a 15-year statute of limitations that forced the city to lop off its claim on taxes owed from 1995 to 1997.
Meanwhile, the Finch administration in recent weeks has focused on acquiring several properties needed for economic development projects by eminent domain, including one on South Avenue that would be paid for and given to DiNardo.
During the North End meeting he hosted, Finch brought up DiNardo’s name and implied that the city had pursued the issue and the matter was settled.
“I’ve known the DiNardo family all my life. We were neighbors,” the mayor said. “I don’t care who it is. We went to court.”
What he didn’t do was speak badly about the developer, like he did a week earlier when a lawyer argued the city should have given his client, Britain-based Invensys Inc., a chance to negotiate a private sale before pursuing eminent domain to help DiNardo.
www .ctpost.com/local/article/DiNardo-gets-big-tax-break-4851634.php