Digging Out Slowed By Storm Intensity, Accumulation

The storm that moved into the city at mid day on Friday dumped upwards of 27 inches of drifting snow. It will likely take two to three days to get streets back to normal in cities such as New Britain and Hartford.

By 9 p.m. Saturday many residential side streets remained unplowed as crews labored to get major thoroughfares cleared for emergencies and public safety responses.

The intensity of the storm and Friday night blizzard conditions forced crews off the roads disrupting a normal schedule of snow clearance that occurs with less severe storms.  Public and private crews have been working all day Saturday and will continue through the night to make all streets passable by some time Sunday, officials said.

"You can't even quantify how bad it is out here," said one private plow operator about the situation in New Britain. "Take the 2011 storms and triple it. I've been stuck in the truck 10 times. There are places I can't even do with the truck. There is just too much to plow."

In an update Mayor O'Brien said that all streets should be clear by Sunday:

"In New Britain, city crews have been working around the clock, under difficult conditions, since during the storm, to clear the snow. As of right now, it looks like city streets will be opened by snowplows sometime tomorrow (Sunday).
With the massive amount of snow, the clearing has been tough and slow-going. To get the city up and running, the city has been clearing the major roads first and working to the neighborhood streets.
The job is so large because of the historic snowfall that the city workers actually have to use pay loaders in addition to plows to clear the large amount of snow. And because there is so much snow to be removed, it is going to take time to completely clear the streets. It is a tough job, given how severe this storm was, and other cities and towns are experiencing similar challenges."

A pristine Brighton Street near CCSU in the Belvedere neighborhood was among many secondary roads that were still waiting for street plows late Saturday night.  Friday's blizzard forced crews off the roads for a time during the storm. 

Lower Values Will Mean Fewer Assessment Appeals, Lower Taxes (But Not For the Right Reasons)

The Board of Assessment Appeal will be hearing from hundreds of property owners in a couple of months who disagree with the just completed, state mandated revaluation on residential and commercial real estate in the city.  

But for City Assessor Mike Konik and his three-member board the number of appeals should be dramatically less than other reassessment years. The caseload load may be at an all-time low.


The Herald's Scott Whipple reports: "The city’s Grand List for Oct. 1, 2012, decreased $498,847,668, or 16.92 percent, from the 2011 list to $2,450,232,418. Revaluation, mandated by state law at least every five years, was the reason for the drop-off as housing values have been adjusted downward reflecting the bottoming out of the market that had reached a peak in 2007 when the city last reassessed property."


Homeowners and apartment house owners will be getting a break as the mill rate is set for another year. Tax rates are going down not because governments are ending the over reliance on property levies. They are declining because of the  economic collapse of five years ago.   Long term, the fiscal squeeze on cash-strapped cities such as New Britain is getting worse..


It used to be a given that your home would  always go up in value in good economic times and bad. Home equity was that economic ace in the hole for American households. It could leverage loans to pay for college or help reduce debt. The seller, with rare exceptions, could always count on a return on investment, getting  significantly more than the original sales price.  The only downside was that whenever revaluation occurred homeowners would always get whacked with a bigger tax bill. And in Connecticut ,with some of the highest property taxes in the country, that meant lots of appeals and more pressure to shrink municipal budgets.
"The banks had issued so many mortgages, so rapidly, that they had given short shrift to basic procedural safeguards," says Economist Joseph Stiglitz in his book, The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future. "And as the banks and other lenders rushed to lend more and more money, not surprisingly, fraudulent practices became endemic. FBI investigations spiked. The combination of frequent fraudulent practices and a disregard of procedural safeguards was lethal."
 
And so bad things happened to many working and middle income people when the unregulated "too big to fail" banks and investment houses consorted to bring down the economy.  The bailed out bankers foreclosed quickly on the little guys, including those duped into homeownership via lenders who stretched and broke the rules..


Locally,  lower assessments will further  reduce municipal income as communities seek revenue to keep school funding and essential services afloat.   Few thought the ever expanding housing market would go bust until the "bubble" burst and the economy tanked in 2008. 


As reported in the New York Times in a story on the plight of municipal budgets in 2011:

And because it often takes several years for property tax assessments to catch up with the state of the housing market, the real impact of the housing implosion is only now being felt in many cities. For the first time since the Great Recession began, property tax collections fell during the last three months of 2010, according to an analysis of data by the Rockefeller Institute, and many mayors expect the declines to continue.

A July 2012 report from the Rockefeller Institute, State University of New York, "The Impact of the Great Recession On Local Property Taxes,"  puts the new property assessments and the financial struggles of cities  into perspective:

• The property tax is, by far, the most significant revenue source used to finance critical local services such as K-12 education, police and fire protection, and other front-line public services.
• Although the property tax is generally a stable revenue source, the Great Recession, the housing bubble, and tax limits have combined to weaken tax collections significantly.
• Local property tax revenues declined by 0.9 percent in nominal terms in the first quarter of 2012, after two consecutive quarters of growth. However, after adjusting for inflation, local property taxes actually declined by 2.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012, marking the sixth consecutive quarterly decline in real collections.
• Prolonged weakness in the property tax, combined with continued budget stress at the state level and the prospect of deep spending cuts in Washington, raise the prospect of serious budget problems and service cutbacks in local governments in many parts of the country.

Everyone on all sides of New Britain's budget and tax debate needs to consider the big picture before pointing fingers and blaming the Mayor, the Council and their neighbors.

Tribute To Bart Fisher, the Herald's Historian-In-Residence

Herald sportswriter Bart Fisher, who died last week at age 68, touched many, many people with his coverage of sports, "encyclopedic" knowledge of athletics and community and informative pieces about the city's history.  Invariably a Bart Fisher column would reveal little known but important aspects of New Britain's past that gave us a deeper understanding and appreciation of where we live.

Dennis Buden, a former Herald writer, gave one of the tributes to his mentor:

Bart’s Hardware City History column in The Herald offered a weekly chance for nostalgic readers like me to fondly recall the New Britain of a kinder, gentler time. His Around Town column highlighted the special people and places in our community, and always brought a smile. His reporting and countless columns as Herald sports editor, chronicling the exploits of New Britain’s athletes over the last 40 years, preserve a permanent and poetic record of New Britain lore as only Bart could tell it.

Link to tribute:

The New Britain Herald : New Britain, Conn., and surrounding areas (newbritainherald.com)

Community Journalism Gone Bad

The New Britain City Journal, once a promising venture in community journalism, has plunged into a tabloid gutter of innuendo, rumor and personal attack over the issue of regulating non-owner occupied housing and paying for code enforcement in the city.  

The City Journal, violating basic rules of journalism with all kinds of unsubstantiated accusations, has taken sides and cast its lot with out-of-town landlords, particularly their loudest voice,  New Yorker Sam Zherka, the owner of Farmington Hills apartments (formerly Ledgecrest Village) and publisher of The Westchester Guardian. 

Yellow Journalism In New Britain

Every week now scurrilous stories and anonymous advertising of questionable legality are hammering the O'Brien administration and members of the Common Council. 

The latest "news story" in the January 25th edition, offers readers a $25,000 reward for information leading to "the arrest and conviction" of Mayor O'Brien and Aide Phil Sherwood to "clean up city (sic) of a corrupt and dirty administration."  The Journal, at Zherka's behest, is relying on readers to come up with the "dirt and corruption" to bring down Mayor O'Brien. 

Wrote City Journal Editor and Publisher Robin Vinci: "Anyone who has any information is asked to send it to: The New Britain City Journal....and it will be forwarded to 'Taxpayers and Associates affiliated with Farmington Hills."  

The situation at the New Britain City Journal is akin to what occurred at Zherka's Westchester paper in 2010.   In his column, "The 'Zherkus' is back in town," Phil Reisman of  The Gannett-owned Journal News wrote a story on the resignation of the Guardian's editor in chief, Sam Abady: 

"The falling-out was caused by the Sept. 16 issue, which featured a cover story about Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone titled,'Rumours (sic) Of Impending Indictment?' The piece by Hezi Aris, who succeeded Abady as editor, is all over the map in its criticism of the Mayor, but it never says exactly why Amicone is supposedly in hot water. It is overwrought, rife with tortured metaphorical references to the battle of Gallipoli, Shakespeare and 'Waiting for Godot' -- and thick with innuendo and winking, read-between the lines suggestions of criminality. Nothing is substantiated. But the most damning piece is that Aris all but admits he didn't have the only metaphor that matters -- the smoking gun. The self incriminating sentence is as follows: 'The rumor mill has been spewing out tidbits of information accepted as 'facts' by some, yet is unsubstantiated to date." 

In that 2010 column Reisman reported that Zherka, the organizer of a Tea Party demonstration in White Plains (confirming his right-wing, extremist views),  had won a 1st amendment lawsuit when the Yonkers Mayor overstepped his bounds during a longstanding feud and ordered removal of newspaper dispensing boxes.  

"Besides owning a topless bar in New York City and publishing a vanity newspaper filled with political conspiracy theories, Zherka is known for being a self-styled 'player' with a flare for attracting attention," wrote Reisman, "Zherka is also notorious for filing lawsuits against public officials he believes have crossed him. There are many who fall into this category --- and many have also been the subject of sensational attack stories in The Guardian since it was started in 2006."

When the City Journal began in October 2009 it was the subject of a laudatory post by NB Politicus. Then known as the Hardware City Journal, the grassroots, free-circulation paper was praised on this blog:

New Britain's "October surprise" has nothing to do with the upcoming municipal election and everything to do with what may be a revival of community journalism in town.
The first edition of Hardware City Journal (HCJ), a 16-page free circulation paper, began circulating Friday (Oct. 16th) packed full of local news and information. The paper, with only a handful of ads upon which free circulation newspapers usually depend, is similar in content and appearance to the Berlin Citizen weekly next door. The upstart HCJ appears to be the brainchild of Robin Vinci, a former Herald reporter who covered Berlin and a native of New Britain. Vinci's love for her native city comes through in an opening letter on the editorial page. She is a journalist who knows the town she is writing about past and present, a factor which can count for a lot in delivering news you may not find elsewhere.

Robin Vinci denies that anything has changed at the City Journal or that it has become Sam Zherka's "vanity newspaper" in New Britain.   She maintains the out-of-town landlord's money and influence are not a part of her publication. It's hard to believe, however, that print and online ads  in a 16 page tabloid alone are paying for mailings of the paper into 23,000 households and for the addition of  "writers" and ad reps who may be imported by Zherka himself.  

Whatever the Vinci-Zherka relationship,  the tone and content of Ms. Vinci's stories over the past few months calls into question her credibility as a reporter.  Her tirades without facts about the O'Brien administration sound more like a propagandist  beholden to special interests, the Republican Party or both.  

The City Journal has  abandoned the mission that you can still find on its online masthead: "We will not publish accusations or hurtful comments. We feel New Britain is a great city and want to focus on the brighter, positive aspects of it."

This is not the same City Journal that won praise here three and a half years ago.  The promise of "honest, straight-forward reporting" has given way to the strident and sensational and an agenda that is not in the public interest.

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Sunshine On State Budget: Lembo Launches Open Connecticut

Score one for State Comptroller Kevin Lembo on the government and transparency front to start 2013. .

Lembo has launched a new website for the public to get an unabridged and politically neutral one-stop source for where state government spends its money, gets its income and borrows. If there are inefficiencies or redundancies to root out as CT faces billion dollar budget deficits this is the place to find it. "Sunshine," the Justice Louis Brandeis famously said, "is the best disinfectant."

Open Connecticut is more comprehensive than the website served up by the Yankee Institute -- a right wing think tank -- that paints state employees with a broad brush whether they are earning their keep or notand uses data to tear down government  

According to Lembo's office Open Connecticut -- www.osc.ct.gov/openct --centralizes state financial data and simplifies access to important information about the state budget and its financial future.


Here's more from the Comptroller's Office:

"It’s your money, and you have a right to know," Lembo said. 'That’s the simple message behind Open Connecticut. 'Pockets of state financial information have long been available, but scattered across state agencies. Those who actually have the time to locate information often discover the next difficult step - understanding the information. 'Through Open Connecticut we want to accomplish at least two things - we want to end the scavenger hunt for taxpayers by creating a centralized warehouse for financial information, and we want to help explain and break down the state’s financial processes as simply as possible. 'We want to help answer basic questions that the public may have - and deserves to know - about state government. For example, what exactly is in the state budget? Where did our deficits or surpluses come from? How much did we spend on a particular vendor or program? And what should we expect in future years?" Open Connecticut is currently organized into seven sections: STATE BUDGET: Provides access to the state budgets for current and previous years, annual end-of-year financial reports, deficit mitigation plans and results-based accountability (RBA) reports that serve as report cards on how state money was spent on certain projects. STATE INCOME: Features monthly reports by the Department of Revenue Services on the amount of state revenue received, as well as reports on income tax collected by bracket and by town. STATE BORROWING:  Provides access to the state’s Bond Allocation Database, which contains information about projects approved by the State Bond Commission. This section also features background about the State Bond Commission, its members and how the bond authorization and allocation process works.  FUTURE COST OBLIGATIONS:  Provides background and links to actuarial reports on the state’s various retirement systems and retiree health care (known as the Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) report). FOLLOW THE MONEY:  Features links to transparency.ct.gov, an existing searchable website maintained by the Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA) that already provides information (from the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC)) about employee salaries, vendor payments, retiree pensions and other detailed information about state spending. FINANCIAL FORECAST:  Includes links to monthly independent financial forecast reports by the OSC, OFA and Office of Policy and Management, as well as links to fiscal accountability reports and consensus revenue projections.  TAX BREAKS & EXEMPTIONS: Provides links to reports by OFA and Department of Economic and Community Development on the cost of tax expenditures and evaluations on certain tax credit and abatement programs. Open Connecticut also features brief tutorials on issues such as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), the state spending cap and consensus revenue. "This site is by no means a finished product - but a starting point towards greater transparency and connectivity between the public and state government," Lembo said. "My goal is to see this site evolve and expand to include more information as it becomes available. I encourage state residents to use the site, to better understand their government - and to let us know if they have ideas to improve the site going forward." Lembo, as state comptroller, is the state's chief fiscal guardian. In that capacity he monitors state finances and issues monthly and annual financial reports. Elected in 2010, Lembo previously served as the state's Health Care advocate..

 

The Herald: Putting Absentee Landlord Policy In Perspective

 The Herald's Lisa Backus provides a thorough examination of the city's landlord license and issues related to regulating non-owner occupied housing in a December 2nd story.

Accurate and balanced information like this is the best way to combat the propaganda and misinformation coming from elsewhere, including the landlord lobby that has used political grandstanding and redbaiting instead of engaging in constructive dialogue.

NEW BRITAIN - Just days after an estimated crowd of 500 marched on City Hall to demand a repeal of two new ordinances aimed at imposing “hot spot” and licensing fees on out-of-town landlords, city detectives with a police shooting team were knocking on the door of 80 Clark St. to serve an arrest warrant on a home invasion suspect.

It wasn’t the first time city police had been at the address. According to dispatch records, since January 2011, officers had been at 80 Clark St. 50 times to deal with all manner of criminal and nuisance activity including the arrest of a man charged with attempted murder in the shooting of another Clark Street resident over owed drug money, a report of shots fired and six illegal drug investigations.

 Link to Herald story...

The New Britain Herald : New Britain, Conn., and surrounding areas (newbritainherald.com)

Lessons from California for New Britain, Hartford and Washington

Elected officials  at all levels can learn something from Governor Jerry Brown and the victory of Proposition 30 in California this month as they contend with "fiscal cliffs" and budget holes.

What Brown says and did points to a way forward for those who serve us at New Britain City Hall, the State Capitol and the U.S. Capitol.

Well-financed anti-tax referenda in California have often prevailed. But Proposition 30 passed with a 54% majority.  The measure called the School Protection and Safety Act by proponents hikes the sales tax from 7.25% to 7.5% and raises income taxes progressively on high income individuals (above $250,000) for seven years.  Approval brings close to $7 billion averting what Brown promised would be draconian cuts and hardships for working and middle income people.

"It sold itself. The core reason it brought people together was a belief in schools and universities and the capacity of government to make wise investments that benefit all of us," Brown said on election night.
Prop 30 proponents such as California's American Federation of Teachers made the identical argument  President Obama and Congressional Democrats now must use to restore federal tax rates on the wealthiest Americans to pre-Bush levels: 

Prop 30 asks no one but the wealthy to pay more in income taxes.  This income tax affects no one below $250,000/year. The top one percent of income earners has doubled its share of total state income over the past twenty years (from 12% to over 20%), while income for the rest of us has stagnated. Meanwhile, the top tier tax rates (state and federal) are lower than they used to be.  20 years ago the highest tax rate in California was 11% of income; today it is 10.3%.  When Congress extended Bush’s federal tax cuts for the rich in 2010, the top one percent in California received a windfall of nine to fourteen billion dollars per year—nearly equal to the entire state budget deficit.  The people who would be affected by this income tax can afford to, and should, invest more in their state.

Brown, 74,  is a  former Oakland Mayor, Attorney General, Secretary of the State, two-term Governor and Presidential candidate. The son of former CA Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, Brown took over from "The Gubernator" after the 2010 election; stepping into the biggest economic crisis since 1930s, massive layoffs and disinvestments  and a gridlocked Legislature that needs two-thirds consent to get budgets done.

In his second coming as Governor,  Brown's modus operandi (he's fond of Latin phrases from his seminarian days and Jesuit training) has been, he says,  telling the unvarnished truth about the state budget and never using one-time revenue fixes and gimmicks that make matters worse in CA and everywhere.

Pragmatic progressive Brown will entertain plenty of cuts and austerity, but through Prop 30 he's now got a firewall against a Paul Ryan-style decimation of basic government services, especially to education.

In referendum-crazy California, Brown pledged not to raise any more taxes unless citizens approved them via the ballot initiative.  The tax cutters got beat at their own game. At the same time, Brown campaigned vigorously for a plan that gives  K-12 schools, community colleges and California's higher education system a new lease on life and keeps the books balanced.


Brown, according to the LA Times, says Prop 30 signals a national movement of taxpayer support for public investments and tax dollars spent prudently.  He draws a parallel to the famous Prop 13 of 1978 property tax revolt that cut regressive local taxes and Prop 30 that will raise taxes progressively.

Said Brown: "I was here in 1978, when Howard Jarvis beat the entire establishment, Republican and Democrat, because the property taxes had just gotten out of control. Now the cutting, the cutting and the deficits are out of control.”