nothin Paca Blasts City Budget | New Haven Independent

Paca Blasts City Budget

Marcus Paca, who is seeking the Democratic mayoral nomination against incumbent Toni Harp, Thursday night blasted her proposed $554.5 million operating budget for the coming fiscal year, for increasing spending rather than cutting it.

Paca offered a sweeping indictment of the proposed budget in remarks delivered at a public hearing of the Board of Alders Finance Committee held at Hillhouse High School.

The text of his statement follows:

I’m Marcus Paca and I am running to become the next mayor of the City of New Haven. Right now, too many New Haveners are suffering. Far too many folks in our communities cannot afford high city property taxes, our senior centers aren’t well-maintained and there are students without textbooks or supplies in their classrooms. Many New Haveners are also out of work or not earning livable wages. The State of CT is anticipating a $2B shortfall and the city learned yesterday that the US Attorney General intends to hold up $200K in justice funding for the city. Millions more in cuts to New Haven have been proposed by the Trump Administration.
This situation is a travesty and the city’s economic conditions speak directly to the mismanagement and priorities of the Harp administration. During these very difficult financial times, where every dollar must be budgeted and spent with the upmost respect for taxpayers, the Harp administration has chosen for the fourth consecutive year to present a budget that proposes more spending, places even greater reliance on shrinking state and federal aid, sets aside funding for pet projects and political patronage, and proposes no spending cuts. This fiscal irresponsibility needs to stop now. That is why I’m running for mayor.
I attended the city budget hearing yesterday evening and was alarmed by what I heard. Every department that presented its budget asked for additional funding from taxpayers, yet almost no city administrator could provide a project plan, budget or timeline for the work proposed. None could explain why there were millions of dollars in unspent capital funds from projects that were funded in previous years, but never got off of the ground. This lack of preparation and planning was unexcepted from the stewards of the taxpayers’ money during these hard times. It is painfully clear that New Haven does not have a revenue problem, New Haven has a spending problem.
Last night’s budget meeting ran over 6 hours and I posted most of the testimony on my Facebook page – Marcus Paca for Mayor of New Haven. I would not want New Haveners to rely on my word alone, so I’ve given people the opportunity to watch the testimony for themselves. Here are a few of the highlights:
• There were no relevant spending cuts proposed by the Harp Administration to offset status quo and/or increased spending. True, despite declining external funding. In fact, some New Haven homeowners will see property taxes increase by more than 150% this year.
• The year over year increase in Mayor Harp’s proposed budget is more than $30m or a 6% increase, while the state budget looms at $2b. We cannot count on the state to bail us out of our spending problems!
• Because of mismanagement and lack of planning, millions of capital fund dollars have not been utilized during this administration, yet every year department heads request millions more of taxpayers’ money.
• The city continues to borrow more funds and increase its debt with no reasonable plan to pay it down in future years. We continue borrowing from our children’s futures. These actions have also lowered the city’s bond rating.
• $400k has been spent on a teen center, yet city officials couldn’t explain anything about progress to date nor articulate a plan of action going forward. At the same, City Hall is asking taxpayers to foot the bill for more spending on the project in perpetuity. At least $200K more has been requested. There is still no project plan, budget or timeline to complete the center. Meanwhile, we have $1B in new schools that sit largely unused after 3PM.

• The City’s Economic Development Administrator confessed to lying to the Board of Alders about the illegal destruction of City Commission on Equal Opportunity records last year. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent on litigation, termination and unemployment hearings, and state arbitrations against Nichole Jefferson and other CEO staff. That number continues to grow with no plan to stop the bleeding. To date no evidence has been produced by the Harp administration to support the allegations that were made against CEO staff. In fact, the FBI, IRS, States Attorney Office and State unemployment agency have all universally exonerated Nichole Jefferson. How much longer will we to have to pay for the mayor and city corporation counsel’s personal political wars??
• An interim CEO Director, Angel Fernando-Chavero, was hired six months ago for $92k per year. Last night he stated that no work” has been done since he was hired; he has not made one on-site construction visit to ensure small, women and minority contractors are being hired; and his board has met zero times since his tenure began! We can no longer afford to put our city’s construction workforce compliance in jeopardy for political reasons. Taxpayers also cannot afford to pay salaries for little or no work output.

• Additionally, we learned that the City’s Economic Development Administrator has continued to outsource the work of unionized employees to private organizations. This needs to stop! It is a slap in the face to disregard our collective bargaining agreements in this manner and unilaterally take work from city staff. It lowers morale and causes unnecessary labor litigation. Additionally, it costs taxpayers double when we pay outside contractors to perform work that city employees are already compensated to do.

• The City is asking for a nearly $2M IT slush fund, yet no specific IT Strategic Plan has been presented and no explanation has been given for why there’s been no progress on major IT issues such as revamping the city’s very out-of-date website to make it more user-friendly and informative for residents and closing the digital divide.

• Pension rates of return for the Fire and Police and the City Employees Retirement Fund (CERF) was dropped to 7.75%. Are we enlisting skilled market professionals to manage these funds? What are entities like Yale University that see year-over-year market increases doing? Why aren’t we doing the same?

We do not have to accept these conditions as inevitable neighbors. New Haveners have a choice, an option, and an alternative way to doing business. Instead of administrators, the majority of whom do not live in New Haven or have lived here for fewer than 5 years, loosely spending taxpayer money, those of us invested in this city can fight to tighten the reigns. My fiscal responsibility plan is comprehensive, detailed and always places New Haven and its taxpayers and residents first. I am from New Haven so I feel obligated to be a conscientious steward of the city’s resources. As Mayor of New Haven I would: 
• Develop a cost savings plan that spans across city departments.
• I would cut spending on projects that can’t be justified, get rid of duplicative city programs set up by the Harp Administration that compete with New Haven’s hundreds of great nonprofits; and reduce waste such as excessive travel and 24/7 mayoral chauffeuring and security.
• I will introduce a Program Performance Evaluation system to evaluate the costs and benefits of city programs, including those at the BOE, with an eye towards reducing and eliminating waste. Every dollar spent must be one that is well spent.
• I also plan on restoring New Haven’s bond rating, as it was down- graded by Moody’s in late 2016 due to, I quote, a narrow financial standing and reliance on debt restructuring to address the city’s financial challenges”. This administration’s precedent of balancing multiple budgets on the backs of our children and grandchildren is no way to show that we care about our city’s future.

Please go to my website www.marcuspaca2017.com and my Facebook page, Marcus Paca for Mayor of New Haven, for more details on my plans for constituting a more fiscally sound and responsible government because we cannot continue to tax or spend our way out of these problems. We have to think smarter and be more strategic when it comes to the taxpayer’s dollars. We need to begin to plan, before planning to spend”. Repeat.
I thank the Finance Committee and the Board of Alders for your service. I want you to know that there are many New Haveners who are looking to you to ask the tough questions and make the hard-financial choices that are ahead of us.

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