New Haven Independent

Posted by: anon | June 25, 2008 8:36 AM

Cut essential services, but keep that $2,000,000,000 Q bridge contract coming so that we can continue to expand our $11,000,000,000,000 national debt!

Posted by: cedarhillresident | June 25, 2008 9:20 AM

HOLY COW! Johnny it is time to do the right thing cut the double dippers cut ALL the fat and save New Haven. It can be done! If they are getting a pension then let them stay retired! It is time for you guys to get real and do the right thing!

Posted by: Rep. Pat Dillon | June 25, 2008 9:48 AM

This list is preliminary. There are some cuts to large line items in departments and the commissioners will implement them.
The list was released to us in hard copy so it required reading quickly late yesterday.

Arts and Ideas cut $50,000 also.
Arts and Tourism line items all got the maximum legal 5% cut.
Corrections has no cuts.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | June 25, 2008 10:20 AM

Thanks pat for the heads up...times are getting scary .

Posted by: resident | June 25, 2008 10:39 AM

We just have to realize where the money is going. It is not a matter of being scary, it is simply a matter of fact.

Every time the price of gas increases by one penny, Americans spend another $1.5 billion on their cars. More than 2/3rds of that goes directly to foreign countries and doesn't come back. Think about all that money leaving the country forever, never to be seen by your children, the next time you fill up your gas tank.

There are few alternatives, because the state of walking, bicycling and mass transit in our country is pathetic. Until we begin promoting alternative transportation and stop our welfare program for car use (say, with a high gas tax like every other Western country), our country will continue to build on its multi-trillion dollar debts to the rest of the world, which will result in endlessly skyrocketing prices (also known as our country getting poor).

Posted by: True New Havener | June 25, 2008 11:37 AM

Our governor screws the poor once again.

Didn't the legislature run back to do the governor's bidding by passing a 1.7 cents a gallon cut in the gas tax, saving us all about 20 cents a fill up or $5.30 a year? Since we have I-95, I-84 and I-91, of course this is savings for a whole lot of people just driving through our great state.

Then she cuts programs that effect people who live here. And these effect all of us. An increase in AIDS cases will effect all of us. More homeless on our streets will effect all of us. Children without community programs will effect all of us.

But our governor continues to operate in a suburban fantasy land, protecting Fairfield County millionaires at all costs.

Thanks gov -- but you have already told us how you feel about New Haven. I guess it was only a matter of time before you gave us the finger again.

Posted by: NHResident | June 25, 2008 11:54 AM

"Every time the price of gas increases by one penny, Americans spend another $1.5 billion on their cars. More than 2/3rds of that goes directly to foreign countries and doesn't come back. "
Consumer dollars paid for high gas prices actually increases big oil company profits and goes directlt as dividends in the pockets of oil company owners, who are Americans and foreigners alike. Just making it straight.

Posted by: Carole | June 25, 2008 12:00 PM

Pat (or anyone else who knows),

This list cuts about $3.4M aimed at keeping people out of jail. Don't those programs actually save money, since incarceration costs more than the alternatives?

Posted by: Rep. Pat Dillon | June 25, 2008 2:03 PM

Hi all,
Good comments.
Carole, you are right. But I can't characterize the cuts yet. I don't have the big picture.
The state projects a deficit, the governor cuts to close the budget gap. Some accounts - entitlements and aid to towns - are protected from the governor's power to cut. So cuts fall on other programs, and the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

Resident, TNH et al,
Actually the governor opposed cutting any tax unless spending cuts were made. The legislators chose to rewrite the gas tax without cutting spending. I do not agree with some of these cuts at all, but fair is fair.
Legislators wanted to do something because the cost of gas is high. However Connecticut gas taxes are higher partly because we raised them after we took down the tolls after an accident at a toll booth.
One might argue that out of staters are getting a free ride and we should at least look at tolls again, since EZ Pass has made safety less of a problem at toll booths.
That said, the gas tax piece was only (only!) $25 million of this, and the state would still be facing a deficit.
Perhaps I may blame the governor too, when OFA gives us a bigger picture. But blaming won't solve problems. We have to deal with this.

Posted by: resident | June 25, 2008 2:26 PM

The problem of constantly-increasing foreign oil consumption (much of which is entirely preventable through better government policy) and massively expanding public and private debt is much larger than debates over the gas tax or even the state budget itself. Just making that point.

NHResident, the money we spend on gasoline does not all go to corporate profits. Almost all of it goes into paying for the oil extraction itself. Mostly it does not come back to anyone in the form of dividends. Obviously, a small part comes back (disproportionately to the rich of course - which is why the richest 30 people in the world now have more money than the poorest 300 million). The majority of the dollars we waste on fuel leaves the country and never returns.

Hope that makes you feel good the next time you fill up!

Posted by: True New Havener | June 25, 2008 2:37 PM

I stand corrected. The governor still hates cities but the legislature wanted its nonsense gas tax savings so badly that it cut $25 million in programs for poor people.

Brilliant.

Everyone who voted for that gas tax foolishness should be run out of Hartford. That was shameful in the extreme. The average resident saves $5 a year and that is only if the gas companies choose to pass on the savings -- anyone want to take a bet on that one?

Only $25 million? (That's what Pat says the gas tax savings of 1.7 cents a gallon cut from the budget.) Seems like we could get back all of the programs Pat listed and then some with only $25 million.

This is just shameful.

Posted by: NHResident | June 25, 2008 4:27 PM

Resident,
Sorry for my poor choice of words. What I meant is we should not blame foreigners about current gas price inflation. Should we believe big oil companies when they argue that their current huge profits are used for exploration expenses? That would be supporting their organized theft on our purses by way of price gougings and the like.
I meant rich Americans along with Bush & Co are more to blame than oil exporting countries. They are not deciding for us.
And to make things worse, CT state rose oil taxes. We are just milked out at will by big companies and by our local government.
That's why the idea of taxing big oil companies on their recent huge profits is best to reestablish justice. Provided that the taxes levied are used to fund our broken social system.

Posted by: Gary Doyens | June 25, 2008 9:59 PM

True New Havener: Just a point of interest on the budget - Who took the largest hit in the city budget reductions? The homeless - $500,000. That was the decision of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano. You've heard the story of glass houses...

Posted by: eastshoreguy | June 26, 2008 8:03 AM

Is it me or does this list look like the policy priorities of the board of aldermen? youth and prison reentry? did she do this on purpose and cut these specific programs to screw with our city?