New Haven Independent

Posted by: Daniel Casey | February 26, 2009 11:00 PM

My first thought is that all these cuts will lead to more money to be thrown down the hole later on when it comes time to repair the damage--in schools, on the roads, etc.

This budget...appears sloppy and not well-crafted, but perhaps that's just the presentation.

Posted by: Willie Williams Jr | February 26, 2009 11:32 PM

I Suggested Back IN June 2008 That The City of New Haven Cut Staff By 25% and No Tax Increase On Property Tax. You Reap What You so, Buying Housing For 5% Down and Can't Even Pay Your Mortgage. By The End of March, A Lot More People Are Going To Be In The Streets. YALE Going Next, They Going To Start Around The 15th of March. Now, Who Is Laughing NOW!

Posted by: chuck defrancesco | February 27, 2009 7:17 AM

at least this is his last term. no one is going to re-elect him in november.

why didn't he fire john ward and recoup his $105K when he hired [Victor Bolden] at $150K?

There is money, they have it, he just wants to bully people.

oh well, have fun while is lasts john, you' done!

www.sinsofnewhaven.com
www.anyonebutdestefano.com

Posted by: East Shore Guy | February 27, 2009 7:31 AM

My takeaway? My tax bill does not go up and that makes me very happy.

I feel sad for people that have lost their job to no fault of their own, but this is happening everywhere.

It stinks but no new taxes helps - a lot!

Posted by: Joe | February 27, 2009 8:45 AM

Thats great but I bet if conultants were let go instead of city employees the savings would be much higher.

Remember folks unions only exist in an organization because that organization has serious management issues.

Posted by: Joe | February 27, 2009 9:08 AM

Before you celebrate the "no tax increase". You need to re read this paragraph..

His budget rests on the assumption that the state will allow the city to freeze the third year of its property revaluation phase-in - which isn't guaranteed.

Taxes are going up.....

Posted by: cedarhillresident | February 27, 2009 9:15 AM

I agree with Eastshore guy. The home owners of this city have been put through so much. We are hanging on by the skin of our teeth. This can save more from leaving or having no choose to leave the city. Smart move to work for the goal of no mill rate raise and freezing the phase in for a year....at least till the stimulus can kick in a little. I pray the not a Garnette turns into a yes.

The job loses are a sad thing. But maybe all is not lost for the first 27. Givebacks can come in all shape...maybe union members can make it happen. As far as the BOE jobs very interest change in events.

Lose of city services...hmmm ok 20 years ago people use to walk out their doors and pick up the trash on the streets scape around them... yes even renters did. I believe if we all take a few minutes out of our weeks we can make this lose not be so bad...with some community help.

Posted by: Edward_H | February 27, 2009 9:40 AM

JOE

I think you have it right. This also has the advantage of allowing him to blame the state for the upcoming tax increase.

He aims to gain another $3.1 million by selling surplus city schools.

What's going to happen if not one buys these surplus schools?

Posted by: 2nd Amendment | February 27, 2009 9:43 AM

Hmmm...reduced city services. How can you have less than ZERO?! I've seen streets in better condition in third world countries. As far as the unions, I recently observed a bulk trash pickup. Let's see...one guy sitting on his fat a*s in the loader and three other guys sitting on their a*ses in three idling dump trucks. The guy in the loader was trying to scoop up the bulky trash. The guys in the dump trucks were too lazy (or maybe not in their job description) to manually pile the trash in the bucket-hence, crap spread all over the street. I pointed this out to my alderman who also saw it and he just shrugged...jeez!!

Posted by: mark t | February 27, 2009 9:47 AM

We still dont get it the unions are not the the problem,This city has so many made up jobs for all of mayors political people its a joke.This guy grew up on a union pension his father was a cop.Man up john and get rid of all those people in the schools with made up jobs and maybe you should look at what the mayor in hamden is trying to do. Have every body give back 3 percent just like you.

Posted by: The employee | February 27, 2009 9:55 AM

How this guy(the Mayor) is able to live with himself is beyond me.Taxpayers should demand the workers to be interviewd with out a doubt you will see administration failed to manage correctly.The worker did what he was directed to do and for that they get thrown out into the streets. However the same people(Johnny puppets)who failed us remain in control.Who will step up to the plate to help the poor people who were wrongly made scapegoat and the burden he has already put on the taxpayers.Will it the Alders I doubt it he seems to have enough of them on lock down to turn the tide.Will it be Mayo (sorry I had to stop laughing) I think not.The Mayor is raping and pillaging the employees who have faithfully served under you for years.And your only concern seems to be your next golf outting not to worry you most certainly can afford the greens fee.Dr.Martin Luther King Jr must be really proud of you.

Posted by: anon | February 27, 2009 10:08 AM

no cuts to fire union? wasn't there a report that called for the vast reorganization? i'll have to finish that report and come back to the comment page, because for the amount of fire fighters we have in this city and lack of fires (on the other hand the large amount of medical services the fire department serves), this doesn't seem like the logical outcome of the negotiations.

unless of course you're a cynic and have your own opinion of why there were no cuts to fire

Posted by: Bruce | February 27, 2009 10:29 AM

Tough decision to make, but increasing taxes at this point would be absolutely devastating. Taxes in New Haven are already outrageous. Next step is to keep moving in this direction and actually reduce taxes so that people and businesses start moving into the city rather than flooding out.

Posted by: mark t | February 27, 2009 10:48 AM

We still dont get it the unions are not the the problem,This city has so many made up jobs for all of mayors political people its a joke.This guy grew up on a union pension his father was a cop.Man up john and get rid of all those people in the schools with made up jobs and maybe you should look at what the mayor in hamden is trying to do. Have every body give back 3 percent just like you.

Posted by: dscarp | February 27, 2009 10:59 AM

To my understanding last time i heard was that the BOE was not over budget.I wish the person who told me (Will C) would have the testicle fortitude to tell the mayor, your looking in the wrong dept.Hey Will maybe you and the silent superintendent could try to justify your salaries and you want to lay off the people making peanuts,what a joke.

Posted by: sally | February 27, 2009 11:18 AM

Hey 2nd amendment guy dont judge union people on those 4 clowns you saw maybe you should call the so called person who knows so much about trash mr prokop one of the mayors boys who noes nothing about trash.This is new haven they hire every loser in the city and let them do what ever they want and after they get by their probationary period then you cant get rid of the. Sounds to be a managment issue.

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | February 27, 2009 11:31 AM

Can someone tell me with all of these cuts and layoff,Why do the people keep puting King John back in office!!!!

Posted by: anon | February 27, 2009 1:17 PM

Hear that great sucking sound? It's the sound of more and more of our household savings being sent to Saudi Arabia every year, never to be seen again.

We spend way too much on energy use per capita. Until we reform our country's infrastructure and land use policies, and stop building larger and larger houses, things are just going to get worse and worse. We need to go back to conserving energy the way our country did in the 1970s (or more realistically, the 1870s).

Posted by: Ellis Copeland | February 27, 2009 2:10 PM

Chuck D-- I agree Johnny the Clown should NOT get re-elected. But he will. First, NO ONE has the guts to run against him. Second, New Haven is populated by MORONS who like getting repeatedly screwed. King Johnny will rein till he drops.

Posted by: Joe | February 27, 2009 2:34 PM

We need to establish the SERVICE in Civil Service....When one takes a job in Government, it's a calling, not a get rich quick scheme. Lay off them all and start over......

Posted by: MSM | February 27, 2009 5:53 PM

Can't we find a true reform candidate to get behind? A Josiah Brown-type if not the real deal. Okay, I've said it, I personally want Josiah Brown for mayor. I will not post again until someone else throws out a name or weighs in on my choice. I almost agree with the anybody but campaign, but Ferrucui ain't cutting it.

Posted by: Union? | February 28, 2009 9:39 AM

New Haven Unions are a peach. They focus on a few "high paid" people and ignore that fact that their salaries and benefits make up the largest portion of the budget. Do you think $40K to $85K in base salary and OT is "peanuts"? Custodial salaries with overtime are about $10M according to the budget. Add in the medical, pension, accumulated sick days, personal days, holidays, bereavement days, etc. and the "peanuts" accumulate quite nicely while the taxpayer foots the bill.

To suggest that these buildings could not be cleaned by an outside company for less is simply INSANE and nothing other than Union bull. Is it an accident that virtually every other business other than municipal governments oursource this function? City Hall looks great. Even the New Haven PD now sparkles (as much as that building can). These places, as well as banks, shopping malls, stores, private businesses and offices somehow remain clean while contracting this service out. I guess all of those businesses missed the memo that they could have the same level of cleanliness for less cost by using municpal unions with accumulated sick time, top of the line medical and town funded pensions.

Paras had a deal which they announced at a press conference and then pulled away when AFSCME come in with their plan of calling the layoff bluff and letting the junior people go (wrong again as many long-time employees are now out of work thanks to your dues funded top down leadership).

The taxpayer is finally on to you and the costs associated with you. The Union leadership should stop calling attention to your sweatheart deals and do whatever it takes to make concessions. Otherwise you can go back to your suburban homes that the New Haven taxpayer paid for with your AFSCME talking points on a pink slip.

For you dues paying members out there, wake up. Demand to vote on these issues. Otherwise at least make sure that no dues are deducted from your severence check.

Posted by: hdavid | February 28, 2009 11:35 AM

I sat through the budget presentation last week. I have no serious comment about the details.

One statement did catch my attention but which has received no comment thus far. The presentation said that the City's pension funds, which are already underfunded by about $300 Million, have lost 27% of their asset base of around $480 Million. This represents a further decline of $125 million or so which will have to come from future taxpayers to continue to pay the pensions that are built into existing labor contracts.

NHCAN had previously estimated that non-bonded obligations already totalled about $750 million in addition to the $750 million or so in bonded debt. And we learned recently that new debt will be issued to pay for various school project disallowed State funding, etc., to the tune of $100 million.

A hundred million here, a hundred million there and pretty soon we are talking real money!!!!

When will we begin to focus on making labor contracts work for rather than against the city taxpayer?? Pension agreemens that call for retirement after 20 years guarantee expensive police force turnover. Retiree medical care obligations, first disclosed a year ago at $430 million have not yet been revised. Expect this number to increase by several tens of millions even with the very conservative assumptions contained in the current $430 million estimate. (I believe the assumptions are that medical coverage costs will increase at an annual rate of 10% and will decline to 5% over 5 years. Nice assumptions, if you can get them to reflect reality)

So enjoy the no tax increase pledge -- we will soon have to pay more to cover pre-existing committments.

Harry

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | February 28, 2009 4:44 PM

"He aims to gain another $3.1 million by selling surplus city schools."

Surplus schools? SURPLUS SCHOOLS??? Why the hell are we blowing budgets by building new schools if we already had excess inventory of school properties?

Posted by: hurtz | March 1, 2009 7:32 AM

Fedup: he'll sell the schools to his friends!
These layoffs come barely a week after he says he going to add that Street Workers program to the General Fund budget at a cost of half a miilion dolllars. Has anyone come up with proof that program works??? Lastly, he's laying off people and hasn't asked his staff to take pay cuts. That plus his measly 3% cut send a real loud message that he doesn't give a **** about anyone else but himself.

Posted by: DSCARP | March 1, 2009 4:37 PM

He this is for the union guy I mean Will why stop at outsourcing the custodians, why not do the teachers and ever body at gateway and you to Will Im sure we can get somebody to do your job for way less then 130,000 a year you get.