For years, former management at Success Village did not pay property taxes to Bridgeport and Stratford funded by the monthly common charges of property owners. That created a deeper financial mess: accruing interest.
State law doesn’t allow municipalities to waive interest on property taxes not paid, as a measure to block political favors. This led local and state officials to craft a special bill aimed at providing additional relief to Success residents.
From Dan Tepfer, CT Mirror:
Residents of Success Village were celebrating Tuesday after the state General Assembly passed legislation granting the state’s largest privately owned low-income housing complex hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax relief.
“This is just fantastic, I’m so happy for the people of Success,” said Barry Knott, the court-appointed receiver for the 900-apartment complex that straddles the Bridgeport-Stratford line. “There are plenty of uses for this money,” he said.
…Among the 700 pages of that bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont, is a paragraph authorizing municipalities to waive the 18 percent interest on overdue property taxes and sewer fees. Both Bridgeport and Stratford officials have said they will do so.
City Councilwoman Maria Pereira, who wrote the initial bill, told CT Examiner that its passing could result in the co-op getting back more than $1 million.
“I proposed this bill in late January to help thousands of Success Village residents who due to no fault of their own, were responsible for $1.1 million in interest penalties due to the failure of the previous president to pay their property taxes, sewer fees and gas bills on time,” Pereira said. “They are innocent victims and deserve relief. State Rep. Chris Rosario agreed to team-up with me and was instrumental in spearheading this legislation and getting it passed, although he does not represent a single SVA member. He is a hero in Success Village.”
Full story here
let’s celebrate Barry Knott, the receiver appointed by Judge Radcliffe, for his reach in reorganizing a self-governing housing cooperative that includes citizen-residents from both Stratford and Bridgeport. It appears to be a fair result and so I salute City Council person Maria Pereira and State Representative Chris Rosario for pursuing a “fair result” in eliminating the interest charges by State law.
For several years I have followed up on the heat and hot water issues that Bridgeport had to attend to for health reasons. But where was any Board, Commission, or Authority of the City where the breakdown of owner self-governance could have turned to for assistance? DEAD. Allowed to die in plain sight by administration leaders failing to find enough folks to participate in public service. And so this failure to recreate a body continues. Who cares about “governance”, the rules, Charter laws, and ordinances of the City? I do daily. I ask questions and rarely do I get a response from the “truths” I speak to power. And you can label that politics, the way personal and common interests are advanced within the structure of good governance.
We are waiting for a report on the hidden story of how financial matters became so entangled when by-laws were ignored, and reporting to owners failed. Investigative reporting from fiscal enforcers seems overdue. Perhaps we can ask the “point of the spear” of legal investigators to expand the boundaries and limits of Receiver Knott’s reports. And perhaps we can focus on broader instructions on CIVICS, the study of citizen rights and responsibilities, in Bridgeport specifically means. Time will tell.