Local Leaders Express Concern About Lack of Budget
by Christine Stuart | June 30, 2009 8:25 PM
Posted to State Capitol
With the fiscal year ending Tuesday and no state budget agreement between Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and legislative leaders, local elected officials gathered at the state Capitol to express their concerns about what the future may hold for cities and towns.
“Tomorrow we start putting our local tax dollars at risk,” New Haven Mayor John DeStefano said Tuesday.
He said the failure of the governor and legislature to reach a deal means the $7 to $10 million a month New Haven spends on school construction may be at risk because the state will be unable to make progress payments.
“Starting tomorrow we’re on our nickel,” DeStefano said. “Our choice is to stop construction at our schools, which would put about 400 workers out of work… or basically take the risk.”
DeStefano said New Haven has chosen the later and will bond $30 million to cover the construction costs until the state has a budget in place.
“I can’t shut these jobs down,” DeStefano said.
In 2003 with no budget in place former Gov. John G. Rowland exercised his executive authority to continue state spending for certain services. When the legislature and governor finalized a budget agreement cities and towns were reimbursed for the interest incurred on local school construction bonds, Jim Finley, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said.
Finley said he suspects the same will happen this year.
Anything that relies on state bonding, such as school construction, will not be paid for through an executive order, Finley said. He said the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities has received informal assurances from Rell’s office that municipal aid payments will be made through an executive order.
However, the executive order Rell signed Tuesday does not include funding for at least two municipal grant programs which traditionally receive payment in July. The first is Town Aid Road and the second is a payment to the Regional Educational Service Centers. But it does include funding for charter schools, which is one of the three municipal aid payments traditionally made in July.
“If municipal aid is cut further during the special session, it will clobber towns across the state, there will be more service cuts, more lay-offs, and higher property taxes—maybe even supplemental property tax bills,” Mansfield Mayor Betsy Paterson said.
In a press release sent out following the signing of her executive order Tuesday Rell said the executive order ensures that state government will continue to operate.
“First and foremost, people should rest assured that state government will continue to operate - services will be delivered; we will care for the vulnerable and the sick; public safety and public health will be protected,” Rell said. “Negotiations between my Administration and legislative leaders from both the Republican and Democratic caucuses are continuing.”
Rell said she will issue another executive order in August if no budget deal is reached before the end of July.
As legislative leaders prepare for the third day of budget negotiations, none were willing to comment on how the negotiations were going except to say they will be meeting again Wednesday.
Comments (17)
Posted by: iBlogWestHartford | June 30, 2009 8:36 PM
I hear that the state police are preparing for chaos at midnight that will "make Y2K look like nothing at all!"
Posted by: James D. | June 30, 2009 8:40 PM
"We will care for the vulnerable and the sick; public safety and public health will be protected."
Hey, WAIT a minute . . .
Then why can't Rell do that ALL YEAR LONG????
(For the same reason they don't build the whole plane out of that black box material, dummy....)
Posted by: Martha H. | June 30, 2009 8:50 PM
I want to express concern about lack of leaders.
Posted by: ACR | July 1, 2009 8:30 AM
One thing for sure.
We're all lot safer with Rell running the state via exec. orders than we would be if we let Williams and Co. off their leash.
Posted by: lance | July 1, 2009 9:55 AM
the problem in new haven is that those schools are being build for kids whose parents pay no taxes at all and live off welfare. if everybody carried their own weight this budget thing would not be an issue.
Posted by: ctkeith | July 1, 2009 10:48 AM
ACR,
I always new Republicans favored dictatorships as long as the dictator had an R after their name.Thanks for confirming that.
PS-Have you, 3 time DUI convicted Republican State Chairman Chris Healy and the 49 Impotents cleaned up your noses yet after Jodi stuck it in that pile of s**t when she signed the Senate vacancy bill?
Posted by: iBlogWestHartford | July 1, 2009 12:07 PM
Veto message just out:
"Instead of reducing spending as families and businesses across Connecticut have done, Senate Bill 1801 does nothing to reduce the size or cost of a government that has outgrown the taxpayers' ability to pay for it. Rather, it pushes the pain of sacrifice off the state bureaucracy and onto the state's taxpayers. I cannot allow that to happen. Senate Bill 1801 calls for $2.5 billion in new taxes on the people and employers of Connecticut in the midst of the greatest global economic downturn since the Great Depression: exactly the wrong move at exactly the wrong time."
She means: "It pushes the pain of sacrifice off the state bureaucracy and onto the state's tiny percentage of people earning a half-million/yr or more."
SHE prefers:
Children with gum infections tossing and turning at night because can't see a dentist.
Skilled mothers sitting at home because there is no child care for thier kids.
Adults going without eye glasses.
Job training programs shutting down.
Eliminating inspectors that ensure state nursing-home patients aren't living in squalor.
Cutting a half-million dollars for treating prison inmates with debilitating mental illnesses.
Yanking money for community health centers, mostly used by low-income families, even as the Obama administration is directing more money to them.
Posted by: bill | July 1, 2009 12:43 PM
iBlogWestHartford did you voluntarily increase your taxes yet to help pay for all those programs you are worried about?
Posted by: iBlogWestHartford | July 1, 2009 12:49 PM
Sorry, Dollar Bill - but I don't make over $500,000/yr (which is what we're talking about, here on Earth).
Tell me - do feel any less guilty now, for your own personal selfishness?
I'm guessing not . . . .
Posted by: oh well | July 1, 2009 2:41 PM
New Haven is the place where the Average person work's hard and struggle to keep ,a roof over their head and pray that people like lance stop and think
about what come's out of their mouth.You cannot put everyone in the same boat.
Posted by: Bill | July 1, 2009 3:37 PM
iBlogWestHartford, I don't make over $500,000 per year and pay my taxes but don't ask others to pay more, except people like you who want to spend more. Put your money where you mouth is.
Posted by: Kenny | July 1, 2009 10:24 PM
Bill,
iBlog can't talk right now, but he told me to tell you that $20 bills taste a lot like chicken.
Posted by: ACR | July 1, 2009 10:37 PM
>>Have you, 3 time DUI convicted Republican State Chairman Chris Healy
At least he's gainfully employed and not feeding at the public trough thanks to some probably fraudulent "disability".
Your hero Joe Stalin didn't have any of that did he? Nope he had Siberia as the "cure" for those that refused to work.
Good old Joe.....
?? and the 49 Impotents
You mean those folks that DO vote as a block?
Williams and his silly side-kick should do so well.
Please tell us again how big and powerful the house Dems are.....just what did they get passed this year????
When has a Governor of CT ever appointed a US Senator due to a vacancy?
Ever?
Posted by: Consti2amend | July 2, 2009 9:28 PM
to "King" John,
No, YOU are on OUR nickel! By the way, where will YOU get the money for the Firemen's back-pay, etc?
Are you going to pull another "mil" out of our ASSets? Or our ever dwindling paychecks?
What kind of magician are you? "Everyone, look to MY LEFT(ALL of those Liberal projects}, don't LOOK to (believe?) the RIGHT{Taxation withOUT representation}"!
Posted by: christine | July 3, 2009 3:09 PM
Thanks for holding CTKeith's feet to the fire ACR. I've warned him several times about his comments. But he continues to ignore me.
Posted by: Richard Phillips | July 3, 2009 6:29 PM
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano complains about no funds. Why did he make New Haven a sanctuary city. The hard working taxpayers foot the bill.
Same for Hartford mayor Eddie Perez.
Why don't they obey the laws and stop spending our hard earned tax dollars on ILLEGAL aliens? If the two mayors are breaking the law, should they not be sent to prison? Just asking.
Posted by: Lothar | July 3, 2009 9:11 PM
Richard that's not the issue now and never has been. You're talking about a drop in the bucket. If spending is the issue, the main problem lies elsewhere.