City's Next Step: Sell Malloy's Plan

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City’s Next Step: Sell Malloy’s Plan

by Melissa Bailey | Feb 18, 2011 1:27 pm

(8) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: State

Melissa Bailey Photo After hearing words of encouragement from Gov. Dannel Malloy, Tirzah Kemp turned to a state House Republican and took the next step—trying to get suburban legislators to support people returning to New Haven from jail.

Kemp (at left in photo, with Melissa Driffin) made her pitch to state Rep. Tim LeGeyt (at right in photo) on the first floor of the state Capitol Wednesday afternoon. She was one of 40 people who hopped a yellow First Student bus from New Haven City Hall to Hartford for New Haven Day, a lobbying effort timed to coincide with the governor’s budget address. At the Capitol, the crew joined up with 20 other New Haveners, including a half-dozen aldermen and members of non-profits and activist groups.

For the first time in a generation, New Haven political and civic leaders got a proposed budget from a governor this week that it wants to fight to preserve for the most part, rather than fight to change.

So this week marked the start of a months-long effort to convince the suburban-dominated state legislature to keep the budget largely intact as it works it way through the approval and amending process; as well as to pass some other top-priority bills.

On the ride up to Hartford Wednesday, aldermanic President Carl Goldfield said he had already heard Malloy would hold cities harmless this year on most state grants. The critical next step, he said, is to “make sure the legislature” follows through.

On the bus, mayoral staffer Adam Joseph passed around a list of bills that City Hall has set as a priority.

The list includes: creation of a gun offender registry; a bill that would give local police chiefs more say over yanking licenses of problem bars; red light cameras; entertainment districts; the Connecticut DREAM Act; municipal worker residency requirements; stormwater authority; binding arbitration reform; local option taxes; and support for transportation, education and economic development initiatives.

Joseph urged the crew to pick a bill, grab a legislator, and appeal for their support.

“You have 30 seconds to make your impression,” he advised.

As the bus pulled up to the Capitol, Joseph gave these words of parting encouragement: “There is no better advocate on behalf of New Haven than y’all.”

With those words, Tirzah Kemp stepped off the bus. Kemp works at City Hall as the community organizer for the city’s prison reentry initiative. (When called, she also serves as a level-headed emergency storm responder.) She was one of a half-dozen members of the city’s prison reentry roundtable who trekked to the Capitol Wednesday to lobby legislators on the topic.

The city’s prison reentry initiative, funded exclusively by federal grants, helps find resources for the 25 people per week who return to New Haven from prison each week, said coordinator Amy Meek. Meek and Kemp helped launch a new program that opened up public housing spots to ex-offenders; they also help ex-cons find social services and jobs.

Meek (at right in photo, with state Rep. Susan Johnson of Windham) said the Hartford-bound group had two goals—to raise awareness of the initiative, the only one of its kind in the state, and to push for specific legislation that would keep ex-felons from re-offending.

At the top of their legislative list is a bill that would create a “gun offender registry” that cities could use to keep tabs on people with gun convictions once they return from prison. The bill was proposed by three New Haven state legislators, state Sen. Martin Looney and Reps. Bob Megna and Roland Lemar.

In his budget address, Gov. Malloy didn’t address that specific policy. But he did call for changes to the criminal justice system that would emphasize treatment over incarceration.

“There are simply too many people who’ve been arrested and jailed for minor, non-violent or drug offenses who, if given access to an alternative forms of punishment would take advantage of that additional chance to choose a different and better path,” Malloy said.

“Despite the reforms of the past decade, we are still spending money we don’t need to spend imprisoning people who, if given access to the treatment they need, would pose no threat to any of us, and who can eventually become productive members of our society.” Malloy said.

Malloy said he’s committed to working with “city police chiefs, mayors, and community activists to turn the tide on neighborhood gun violence.”

Meek called his words “encouraging.”

When his speech wrapped up shortly before 1 p.m., Malloy’s budget and his policy initiatives fell into the hands of state legislators, where they’ll be subject to political winds and horse-trading on pet issues.

As legislators trickled down the staircases from the grand Hall of the House of Representatives, where the budget address took place, Kemp and crew stood at the ready.

They were stocked with boxes of Pepe’s pizza, provided by the city-hired Capitol lobbyists, DePino Associates.

State Rep. LeGeyt (at right in photo), a Republican representing the towns of Avon and Canton, grabbed a slice from city budget staffer Becky Bombero.

At the prison reentry roundtable, he heard a pitch about a topic that’s far from home. Tirzah Kemp told him about City Hall’s effort to help ex-offenders “integrate into society.”

As she made her pitch, she stood next to Melissa Driffin, an ex-con who has benefited from the program. Driffin said since her felony conviction, she went to college and got a bachelor’s degree, but the felony charge has thwarted a two-year effort to find work. Kemp is helping her appeal to the state to get her record expunged, as well as set up job interviews.

Kemp explained to LeGeyt that ex-offenders face many obstacles and need resources to get back on track, or else they may become poised to reoffend.

LeGeyt said he has “no idea” how many people return from prison to Avon and Canton each week.

He agreed that “it’s a problem” for prisoners to reintegrate back into society, just as it is for veterans returning from war. But he said he’s not on the same page as Kemp in terms of who should pay for it.

“Dollar signs are meager now,” LeGeyt said. “There’s always more need than the government can afford to buy.”

He urged Kemp to look at non-governmental sources for funding, such as churches and volunteers.

New Haveners found more support from their own legislators.

At the Capitol, aldermen met with their former colleague, state Rep. Lemar, who represented East Rock as an alderman himself before winning election to the state legislature. Lemar said has introduced or is supportive of everything on New Haven’s lobbying list, with one caveat.

Lemar said he won’t support an increase in the sales tax unless it is coupled with a state version of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which returns money to the working poor. Malloy included both proposals in his state budget.

While he cut $1.76 billion from current-year spending levels, Malloy saved cities from the budget axe and even proposed sending them more revenue.

State Sen. Toni Harp, who represents parts of New Haven and West Haven, said she’s optimistic that New Haven’s funding won’t get stripped in the legislative process.

“I think that the funding to the cities is going to survive the legislative process,” she said. Harp has been co-chair for six years of the powerful appropriations committee, which decides how the state’s money is spent.

Harp said having the governor on cities’ side makes it easier to retain municipal funding throughout the legislative process, she added. In the past, when the governor cut funding out of New Haven’s budget, Harp would have to take money from another town or line item in order to restore the cut.

“The really good thing about his proposal is that all the towns are pretty much held harmless, so we don’t have to fight among ourselves,” she said.

Comments

posted by: Threefifths on February 18, 2011 5:11pm

This is nothing more then a meeting of political pimps.Keep on voting and see what you will get.

posted by: Cedarhillresident on February 18, 2011 10:04pm

YOU IN NO WAY ARE SELLING THIS TO ME! the working poor are getting raped! these are the people that make just above qualifying for help but are just barely getting by! Someone that makes 30,000 will be paying the same increase as some one that make 60-70,000 THAT IS JUST PLAIN MESSED UP! Again rapeing the working poor, many single women!!! yeah there it is! same women that went door to door to get this guy in! SHAMEFUL! GRR sorry venting! This is going to ruin women all over the state this is our income median. This is LOW. Not like we can cut out going to dinner or a vacation, not like we can eat pasta a little more or shop at thrift stores, or keep the lights off or wear sweaters in the winter BECAUSE WE HAVE already did this! And this is all on top of the property tax increases in this city, Malloy cutting the 500 property tax credit all the other taxes he is laying on us and all the taxes the feds are laying on us…..What the hell!

chart is pn page 36
http://www.ct.gov/opm/lib/opm/budget/2012_2013_biennial_budget/section_0_introduction.pdf

posted by: Curious George on February 19, 2011 2:41pm

So what exactly does the re-entry initiative do that other agencies don’t already do? As best I can tell, and your article confirms, Tirzah helps with emergency services. That’s an “initiative? That’s it? They got hundreds of thousands of dollars in federaL money and HAVE KEPT IT ALL by paying for salaries for city hall folks, and haven’t spent any money on new or better services. Tirzah is a nice person, and at least she works hard, but what she does seems pretty pointless becuase it does not change the conditions for these folks coming back to New Haven. It’s like she is bailing water from a leaking boat instead of trying to stop the leak. Lastly, the city’s misnamed “Prison re-entry Initiaitve” should properly be called a “Community re-entry Initiative”. We’re not trying to aid a felon’s re-entry to prison. The goal is to help ex-felons return to their communities as law-abiding persons.

posted by: Noteworthy on February 20, 2011 12:33pm

To be clear, the town hall meeting is scheduled to last one lousy hour. We will be lectured to and Malloy, squired around like a King complete with security guards will tell us why we have to bail out the state government who is also bailing out towns and cities. This is not a Town Hall Meeting.

If you want to see the real impact of these tax increases, see the http://www.ctmirror.org. They have excellent examples and very good explainations.

That said, most of us will be 10 - 12% more on income taxes alone. Add the gas tax, the 6.35% tax to haircuts especially for women where a haircut and color can cost $150 or more, the cost to taxpayers is not insignificant. Let’s talk about the paperwork and time it will take all these small businesses too; and the surcharges on business.

And, lest we forget, let’s remember that we were asked to pay more just two years ago. That tax increase was a billion dollars. So we are still paying that billion and now Malloy wants another $1.5 billion. That’s a $2.5 billion tax increase in just three years. And still, it’s not enough.

This tax increase won’t be enough either. Why? Because the size and headcount will not significantly change. We will still end up with too many permanent commissions of this and that; too many employees; too many programs; too much redundancy; too many jails; to many pols being squired around with $90K drivers; and too many…the list goes on.

One more thing: This budget like very budget before it does not spend less money. It spends more. If Dan, the Danell Malloy doesn’t get that, he’s a lot less smart than he thinks he is. And trying to be too cute by half.

posted by: Cedarhillresident on February 20, 2011 1:11pm

Noteworthy well said. Now that I am coming down off the shock that I will be in a major hole, and many others will be in that same hole because a $1000. plus in new taxes is my breaking point.
One has to wonder way even waste our time with a horse and pony show. WELL it will be the perfect place to protest this ... ! My email is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) I am trying to get the workin poor to let Danny boy (yes I said Dan not dannel) that the working poor are seeing the most increase in this budget. People that will not benefit at all. People that make a little to much for help, but not enough to live on. If you are a union leader, community leader of groups of people who make under 60 ,000 a year they are the ones that are seeing the biggest hits percentage wise to the pay checks…remembering propert tax credit elimination, gas and other increases and federal increases, not to mention what the city may impose on us.
PROTEST this…. There is free parking after 5 in Yale lots so I can provide that info. And if all groups are organized in some common way we can at the least make it clear… Taxing the working poor was not why he was voted in!

posted by: Amy Meek on February 20, 2011 6:20pm

To Curious George:
If you’re wondering what Tirzah and the Reentry Initiative do to help individuals returning to New Haven from incarceration, you could start by re-reading the article, which features Melissa Driffin, and mentions the hard work Tirzah has put in to help her look for work and clear her record. Or you could search on this very website, which would lead you to the November article profiling two other clients:
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/prison_re-entry_program_wins_two_federal_grants/
Chanel Highsmith and Mark Maltese are just two of the more than 300 individuals who have sought out the assistance of the City’s Reentry Initiative over the past year for help with housing, jobs, identification, basic needs, legal questions, and more. The Initiative works based on best practices, which show when people are provided with information and access to services in their first few months after release, they are less likely to be arrested for committing new crimes.

If you’re wondering what the Reentry Initiative does to expand services beyond City Hall, you could read the June article on this website describing the mini-grants we’ve provided to other agencies to expand reentry services in New Haven:
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/seven_grants_will_support_prison_re-entry/
Thanks to the federal grant that wholly funds our work, we’ll be able to expand these grants to New Haven organizations for the 2011-2012 year. In addition to the grants we’ve provided to New Haven organizations, the Initiative has helped provide technical support and grant-seeking assistance to several small New Haven organizations that provide reentry services.

If you’re wondering what the Reentry Initiative does to change the conditions for people returning from incarceration, you could read the October piece linked to from this very article (http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/joe_lands_a_home/) which discusses the work we’ve done to help the Housing Authority of New Haven create a pilot supportive housing program for formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. Joe Burgeson, the man profiled in the article about the program, earned straight A’s in the fall semester and a spot on the Dean’s List at Gateway.

Please keep in mind that the Initiative is wholly funded through federal grant money, which allows us to do our work at no additional cost to the city’s budget.

If you want to learn more about the work the Reentry Initiative does, feel free to call me at 203-946-7658.

Amy Meek
Coordinator, City of New Haven’s Reentry Initiative

P.S. Your point is well taken about the name; it was set before I started, and we generally call ourselves just the “Reentry Initiative” anyway. But with 25 people returning to New Haven from incarceration every week, we’ve got much bigger things to focus on than the name.

posted by: Noteworthy on February 21, 2011 11:11am

Amy Meek:

There is a long and storied history of federal or state funded initiatives migrating to city taxpayers’ tab. That is not to say some of these ideas are not good things to do. But that is also one of the reasons why we have such high property taxes and city budgets and why, critical core services like storm water, transfer station, water and sewage have been shunted off into off budget stand alone authorities that fee the same taxpayers to death.

Whil I hope the program is successful, I’m equally hopeful you will not be seeking more money from me when and if your funding dries up.

posted by: Cedarhillresident on February 21, 2011 11:52am

Here is an interesting fact sheet from Connecticut Voice for Children.
http://www.ctkidslink.org/publications/bud11progincometax.pdf

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