Herbst Whacks Malloy For Bailing Out Pal Bronin–Ganim, Harp: What About Us?

Ganim Harp
Ganim and Harp: what about us? CT Post photo

If you want a third term for Governor Dan Malloy, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin is your guy. Maybe that’s why Malloy has engineered a massive debt bailout for Hartford’s Bronin who’s eyeing the governor’s office. What’s Malloy doing for Bridgeport, the state’s largest city? Republican gubernatorial candidate former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst calls the deal for Malloy’s “hand-picked successor” irresponsible. Mayor Joe Ganim and New Haven Mayor Toni Harp who run Connecticut’s two largest cities assert their cities are shortchanged for a favorite son.

“While most Connecticut cities and towns have responsibly managed their finances, despite savage cuts from Hartford, the city run by Gov. Malloy’s hand-picked successor for governor has barreled toward bankruptcy on the expectation of a bailout from struggling Connecticut taxpayers,” Herbst said. “It is the latest slap in the face to struggling Connecticut taxpayers for Gov. Malloy and his insider allies in Hartford to hand an irresponsibly managed city a $550 million bailout, while simultaneously proposing new damaging tax hikes and fees and further savage cuts to education for dozens of well-managed municipalities to close the state budget deficit,” Herbst continued.

“Our entire state is barreling toward the same bankrupt fate as the capital city if we do not elect a proven reformer and Hartford outsider to tackle Connecticut’s fiscal crisis head-on, upend business-as-usual under the Gold Dome and reverse the job-crushing agenda of the last eight years,” Herbst said. “It’s long past time for Connecticut taxpayers to have a champion for them rather than the broken status quo in Hartford.”

From the Hartford Courant:

The two Democrats issued a joint statement Friday questioning the fairness of the bailout, perhaps looking for leverage to get a Bridgeport MGM casino approved. The privately funded project includes an employee training center in New Haven.

“It seems the state continues to shortchange New Haven and Bridgeport–its two largest cities, with comparatively stable finances, while rewarding the past practices of other cities that put them on the edge of financial collapse,” Ganim and Harp said.

Full story here.

Full statement from Ganim and Harp:

“While we evaluate the state’s new, half-billion-dollar bailout of Hartford, and recognize it as an acknowledgement of the responsibility the state has to assist its structurally, and perpetually distressed cities, we question whether it represents an equitable practice.

Connecticut absolutely must have a consistent, comprehensive urban policy to lift all cities constrained by current tax laws, now compounded by tens of millions of dollars in state budget cuts.

It seems the state continues to shortchange New Haven and Bridgeport–its two largest cities, with comparatively stable finances, while rewarding the past practices of other cities that put them on the edge of financial collapse.

Connecticut requires comparable support for its two most populous urban centers and an economic development strategy for the Bridgeport/New Haven region. We’ll meet next week and present a consistent municipal aid program for all cities in the state.”

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9 comments

  1. WHAT??? “It seems the state continues to shortchange New Haven and Bridgeport – its two largest cities, with comparatively stable finances. Bridgeport finances are stable? Ask the tax payers of Bridgeport if they think their high ass taxes would symbolize stable finances.

    C’mon Joe you know that’s BS, but if you say it loud and long enough you think people will believe that garbage?

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  2. Rather than focus on the impossible candidacy of Tim Herbst (he’ll wind up working as a Hartford lobbyist in 2019), or going beyond the relativistic comparison of absurdly mis-managed/dysfunctional Hartford’s, down-the-toilet, bankrupt condition, with the bowl-circling financial conditions of Bridgeport and New Haven, it would be instructional to recognize the facts related to the statements in the article…

    Take a good look at how the rest of Connecticut is being made to pay to maintain the Stamford-Harford power axis… Take a look at the bone$ thrown to New Haven and Bridgeport (maybe $30 million each) during the same time period (past 10 years) during which Stamford/Gold Coast received billions (maybe $1.5-$2.0 billion for Stamford/Gold Coast) in state economic development grants and Hartford/Capital Area received close to $1 billion… Not to mention Bridgeport’s $30 million, yearly, ECS SHORT-CHANGNING during that period (that means another NEGATIVE $300 million for Bridgeport families/taxpayers…).

    It must be recognized, regardless of how the present, mayoral regimes in New Haven and Bridgeport are perceived, that political games are being played in Hartford (that are orchestrated in Stamford/Gold Coast) that are cruelly impacting the people of Bridgeport and New Haven (and most of the rest of Connecticut) in order to maintain the present state power structure and elitist lifestyle of the (mostly) Gold Coast and the Hartford Area (lesser) elite…

    Hate Bridgeport’s and New Haven’s mayors, if you must, but recognize the drubbing that (especially) Bridgeport has taken during the past several decades at the hands of the Gold Coast via its lackeys in Harford (and DC)… And we’re being set up for DECADES of more-of-the-same if the Stamford/Gold Coast scheme being acted out in Hartford, per the 2018 gubernatorial race, is allowed to proceed…

    Wake up and smell the $$$!!!

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  3. Tim Herbst, Trumplican presenting Alternate Facts.
    He sure didn’t manage Trumbull manage finances responsibly. He raided the general fund leaving it at a dangerously low level. He presented a budget that sent tax bills marked TBD. Counted revenue from a tipping fee at the town dump that was NEVER approve by the Town Council. Gave long term employment extensions and golden parachutes to town managers to cripple the incoming administration. REFUSED to provide detailed receipts for his expense account as required by IRS standards.
    Liar, Liar, Pants on fire………………..
    No one should elect this Trump wannabe to any office. He has never done anything but feed at the public trough, enough feasting on taxpayers’ dollars.

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  4. No tears. Gov Malloy is to Mayor Bronin in 2018 as Gov Weicker was to Mayor Ganim in 1992. This blog has provided me with an even-handed historical perspective.
    The best way to get what Bridgeport needs is to sell
    Sikorsky Memorial Airport for $540 million. Don’t conclude there’s not a buyer at that price. It’s better to try than prove it’s impossible.

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  5. Mr. Ganim and Ms. Harp have a solid case. Connecticut’s cities have been shortchanged by a legislature dominated and controlled by senators and representatives from suburban districts. They hog all the money for soccer fields, new high schools, greenways, and other middle class bourgeois indulgences.

    Meanwhile, Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, has a crumbling infrastructure, failing schools, the highest property taxes east if the Mississippi River, high unemployment, poverty, despair and a local retail economy dependent of welfare benefits and proceeds from criminal activities. Were it not for that litany of socioeconomic maladies a casino would not look so good. Some want the casino for the jobs and the community investment promised by MGM Resorts. Others favor the casino proposal because it will be constructed on the old Carpenter Technologies property, obscuring the Stratford Avenue, consealing the East Side from public view.

    That’s the impression I get from a few other regular contributors. One would rather hide the slums from public view. Typical New England attitude: ignore the problem and it does not exist. “We have to agree to disagree” he said, after calling me a scumbag for pointing out his hypocracy.

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