Harp, Ganim Team Up

They joined forces on a casino and on a youth summer hoops tournament. They’re joining forces on wooing Amazon. Even their hometown daily newspapers and community colleges have joined forces.

The mayors of New Haven and Bridgeport — until now two parallel urban universes 21 miles apart — have decided it makes sense to do business together in order for both of Connecticut’s two largest cities to grow. And they’re making it a habit.

“I don’t think that we’ve seen it previously. … You haven’t seen New Haven and Bridgeport working together,” New Haven’s Toni Harp said during her latest appearance on WNHH radio’s ​“Mayor Monday” program. ​“As more and more of these proposals come up, they’re looking for a place where there are more people. We begin to look at our neighbors and say, ​‘Who can we work with?’”

“I’ve never had a problem with [Bridgeport Mayor] Joe Ganim. We always worked together on ​‘urban policy issues’ when I was in the State Senate. He’s been easy to work with. And so am I,” Harp said.

Call it a marriage of mutual economic self-interest at a time when the state’s fiscal tap is running dry.

“I admire Mayor Harp and am excited about working with her and the City of New Haven,” Ganim said. He said the casino and Amazon opportunities brought the two administration together in the quest for ​“billions of investment and thousands of jobs. “

He called Bridgeport and New Haven ​“just minutes away.” ​“The benefits of each city, for jobs and tax base growth as well as for the region and the state, are magnified and become massive when you combine the attributes.”

The first inklings of a Harp-Ganim alliance came this summer when Bridgeport’s hizzoner showed up at City Hall to promote this year’s annual ​“Hoop It Up” summer basketball tournament, which began as a New Haven-only affair.

The Harp-Ganim duo made a joint appearance two weeks ago by the Steelpointe Harbor development on the Park City’s waterfront. They were there to support the surprise announcement of MGM Resorts International’s bid to gain state permission to build a $675 million casino there. Other New Haven leaders joined her, including Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker, UNITE HERE Local 35 (and international Vice-President) Bob Proto, whose union works with MGM in Nevada and who noted, ​“We’d be crazy not to pass this deal.”

Behind the scenes, Harp had negotiated a commitment to place a job-training center for the casino in New Haven. And she’s banking on New Haveners getting jobs there as well if the state approves the casino (by no means a foregone conclusion).

“We really have a vibrant region and opportunity between Bridgeport and New Haven. There are a lot of things that can happen in between and in both areas if we work together,” Harp said at the announcement.

Harp and Ganim have also decided to redouble efforts to try to woo Amazon to locate its planned new 8.1 million square foot second headquarters in both New Haven and Bridgeport. The state has opted to push two other proposals instead, from Stamford and Hartford/East Hartford. Harp said on radio Monday that she believes New Haven/Bridgeport can still make a better case. They need Connecticut to champion the proposal because Amazon is looking for steep state tax breaks wherever it ends up locating.

“It’s going to be a hard sell,” Harp acknowledged on the radio Monday. ​“But nothing beats a failure but a try.”

In the process of working on the proposal, she said, officials developed a greater appreciation for how, combined, the two cities’ regions add up to well over 1 million employees. That presents a large enough workforce perhaps to attract large employers who might otherwise not look at the area. She echoed a remark that New Haven Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Virginia Kozlowski made last week in this Independent article, about how whatever happens with Amazon, the process has created new possibilities of working together.

To that end, Harp said, New Haven and Bridgeport officials are planning to travel together to an international business fair in Hanover, Mass., next spring to connect with potential employers. In the past New Haven’s delegation has gone on its own.

The emerging New Haven-Bridgeport meld began organically in June, when Heart, the parent company of Bridgeport’s daily CT Post, purchased New Haven’s daily New Haven Register. The two organizations now sport identically designed websites and share much copy, from statehouse coverage to stories that span the two regions, such as the new president doing double duty at Housatonic and Gateway Community Colleges.

New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield noted that ​“a lot of people have noticed” the new Bridgeport-New Haven alliance. He called ​“smart policy.”

“I think the cities should be working together, particularly how the state seems to work. The smaller towns seem to work better together than the cities do. The future of this state has to do with what happens to the cities,” he said.

Harp said she can also envision some marketing efforts involving the full I‑95 corridor from the New York State line to Branford or Guilford or Madison. She and Stamford Mayor John Martin have had discussions along those lines, she said.

Meanwhile, Ganim has launched a bid for the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He’s looking for the urban vote in particular as a self-styled champion of cities.

Harp was asked if she’s supporting Ganim for governor.

“Right now he’s the mayor,” she responded. ​“I want to collaborate with him as mayor.”

State Budget Fears

Harp was asked on ​“Mayor Monday” about the ongoing budget stalemate at the state Capitol. Connecticut is the only state in the country without a budget. Many communities braced for local budget problems of their own this week when, in the absence of a budget, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy planned to cut many towns’ educational aid.

But New Haven’s aid, under the Educational Cost Sharing program, is remaining constant under Malloy’s plan. So Oct. 1 wasn’t a portentous date for the city, Harp said.

Nov. 1 might be. She said that cuts to other forms of state education funding —and the inability of the governor to distribute PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes program) in the absence of a legislatively approved budget — put $100 million in expected money at risk for New Haven this fiscal year. The first third of that cash would be needed by Nov. 1. So if no budget gets approved by then the city may have a cash emergency, she said.

She said the city’s planning for that eventuality. Meanwhile, it has a second scramble on its hands: to convince agencies like Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s not to lower New Haven’s bond rating.

“We’ve been warned. We’re worried that we’re going to be downgraded,” she said. Her financial team has been meeting with the agencies to stress that the city has been balancing its budget and doing what it needs to do to meet its obligations — unlike, say, Hartford, which faces bankruptcy. ​“You’ve got to look at our track record. They’re not looking at that.” A lowered bond rating increases the cost of borrowing money, which in turn can plunge a city deeper into debt.

Click on or download the above audio file to hear the full episode of WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven,” which also dealt with the schools superintendent search and the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Or click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the program.

This episode of ​“Mayor Monday” was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.