The Budget, Legislative Session And Mayoral Race Machinations

Monday is the deadline for Mayor Joe Ganim to veto alterations the City Council made to his proposed budget that adds $1.3 million more to schools and roughly halves his modest tax cut of $150 per household for the budget year starting July. Click the link to changes: FY2020 BAC COMMITTEE BUDGET ADOPTED.

If Ganim does nothing the budget is approved as voted upon by the council. If he vetoes portions of it the council would need 14 votes to override him. Ganim has line item veto power.

Ganim, in an election year, is balancing calls for more education dough against pleas for tax relief, albeit small. The budget year begins July 1. Education advocates contend the council’s increase is many millions short of what the district needs just to keep pace with annual rising costs from labor contracts. The district has made deep cuts surviving on essentially the same budget allotment for years.

If Ganim messes with the council’s budget it will be solely to leverage a larger tax cut. If he leaves it alone he’ll assert we’re providing a cut while giving more money to schools. His election year opponents State Senator Marilyn Moore and State Rep. Charlie Stallworth will declare Ganim didn’t sacrifice discretionary hires or his own vacation time payout in his budget while flatlining the education budget for most of his term. Ganim will counter if schools mean so much to you how come you didn’t bring back more state dollars from Hartford?

State Rep. Charlie Stallworth balancing legislative duties with mayoral fundraising.

That’s the rub when running for mayor from a legislative seat: there’s a record to defend that can resonate or recoil depending how the candidates frame arguments. Both Moore and Stallworth are balancing their time in Hartford against the demands of a mayoral race including raising money and building an organization with about two weeks left in a busy regular session addressing tolls, commercial marijuana, sports betting, gaming expansion, minimum wage and family leave.

Many lawmakers predict they’ll not complete all regular session business necessitating a special session. If that occurs Moore and Stallworth will be tied up in Hartford in the gut of the summer race presuming a September Democratic primary. The other option is bypassing committee responsibilities and missing votes, a conundrum legislative mayoral candidates don’t want to face.

State Senator Marilyn Moore received a civic award from Bridgeport Generation Now at the Discovery Museum.

Moore, for one, has stated repeatedly she will not sacrifice her legislative duties for the mayoral race. The party endorsement and window to ballot qualify for a September primary are just two months away. Friday night at the Discovery Museum Moore received a civic award for her legislative and community work from Bridgeport Generation Now.

Meanwhile the Board of Education is receiving pushback from East End City Council members concerned about relocating Bassick High students to the vacant old Harding High for a few years while a new Bassick is built on its current site.

In lieu of that, Ganim is floating the old Harvey Hubbell property on State Street as the preferred location for a new school so students can segue directly into a new building rather than trek across the city, a process that requires a series of logistics to pull off.

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19 comments

  1. Joe’s vacation payout shouldn’t surprise anyone,past mayors have done the same thing. Evidently once you get elected Mayor, you don’t write down sick days or vacation days.But Joe, being as arrogant as he is,obviously took a lot of time off on his ridiculous escapade to run for governor. Another “F you” to the people who fell for his lies again..

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  2. If this guy gets re-elected than Bridgeport deserves him.
    How about no vacation for the mayor???
    He wants time off the take it but he doesn’t get to cash in untaken vacation. Case closed.

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  3. And while we are at it, get rid of that LONGEVITY BONUS.
    He is so cheap he takes $500 dollars and says he has to. It’s part of his benefits. Give me a break.

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  4. Let be absolutely clear. Right after Mayor Ganim lost the Gubernatorial Primary he left the Continental U.S. to take a vacation.

    Ganim is a pathological liar.

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    1. His reasoning is he had his cell phone with him while away. Lol.. Listen mayors and other elected officials have been doing this forever.Its just that this year, being an election cycle, in a city that is talking about closing schools, laying education personal off,cutting quality of life services,etc, the optics of Joe taking his vacation money when everyone knows he used it, is as arrogant as you can get.But obviously he doesn’t give a shit how it looks.

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    1. Mayor Ganim had a fundraiser at Trump Towers and the check for payment was made out to the same address as Stallworth’s fundraiser. Yes, Jared Kushner’s building.

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      1. 666 Fifth Avenue
        Make of the number what you may…………………
        40 years ago my brother had his office there, but the Tischman family owned it then

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  5. Harvey, just because you can doesn’t mean that you should. One is privilege and the other is integrity, so knowing Mayor Ganim as we do was there ever any doubt what he would choose?

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  6. This is what Joe Ganim has always done to the black voters of Bridgeport with the help of “some” black ministers and black politicians, taken their vote for granted.
    idiom,
    take someone or something for granted
    to expect someone or something to be always available to serve in some way without thanks or recognition; to value someone or something too lightly. I wish you didn’t take me for granted.

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  7. Excellent article in the CT Post as to how to handle a protest like the one in Bridgeport. On a scale of 1 to 10 with ten being the best and 1 being like a Bunch of Police Academy Flunckies, Bridgeport Police got a 1.5. The only reason that they got that high was no one else was injured or killed.
    There are a lot of lessons to learn but will anybody learn? Remains to be seen.

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  8. If we had a qualified police chief he would have had procedures in place much like New Haven. Instead we have Joe’s friend who now needs a $6000 a month consultant to help Chief Perez run the dept.Thats the way it is in Bpt.

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  9. This is the very reason what there should be some type of oversight committee when it comes to things like this. They could ask the chief why there isn’t anyone on his staff or in the police department for that matter that could do this study as part of their job? As chief he should have some ideas of his own, he has been there long enough. I am sure someone has called him about some incident when they felt his Officers were out of control. Clearly this is shows he has no faith in any of his minions but it is a poor reflection on him and his short comings as chief. The tax payers are on the hook for this “expert” so they need to know what they are getting out of it. Perhaps a report or a public meeting on what he has found so far and what if anything is being done to improve the deficiencies.

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    1. Let’s just say this administration allows a public meeting about the findings the consultant found.Do you really think Joe would allow an honest assessment of the force under Perez??
      This administration is all about secrets and smoke &mirrors.I’m sure at the meeting the consultant would paint a rosey picture.As the weather gets warmer,buckle up Bpt..

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    2. In the BIG picture,we do have an oversight committee. It is called THE COMMITTEE OF REGISTERED VOTERS OF BRIDGEPORT,CT.” Unfortunately,this committee has failed to to it’s job for various reasons. Disinterest,Overwhelmed.Uninformed, Inactive. This the the tragedy of Bridgeport,CT. A populace uninvolved with the direction of where they live or where they call home. It’s discouraging but there are some points of light such as Bridgeport Generation Now and some concerned Bridgeporters. Thank you to “Only In Bridgeport” but I feel only single percentages of Bridgeporters know about this resource.

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  10. All of this goes back to Joe Ganim’s first term as mayor when AJ Perez was Ganim’s driver and later on Ganim was arrested and serve time in a federal prison. Ganim owes Perez big time for being Ganim driver and seeing what Ganim was doing that got him attested. Everyone will tell you that Perez is a nice guy but Bridgeport needs a police chief who is up to date on the changing climate in society and on a police department changes with the proper training to better serve the residents who are paying their salary.

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  11. I looked at the City Council approved changes to the mayor’s recommended budget. This is budget oversight?
    These are minor, easy to do,insignificant and likely all they understand.
    Appears that they made reductions to some department requests for travel and conferences.
    Did they reduce their budget for travel and conferences? Of course not.
    All in favor? Aye!!!!! Motion to adjourn?

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