The Common Council’s Committee on Planning, Zoning and Housing will take up the Stewart administration’s proposal to weaken the city’s anti-blight ordinance at a public hearing and meeting slated for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers. At issue is whether to maintain the local ordinance that exceeds the standards of a more general state statute. Other aspects of the proposal -- a provision on homesteading and creating a blight committee -- appear to have gained bipartisan support.
Also on the agenda is a proposal to terminate the lease the city has with the Hospital for Central Connecticut for the Quigley Garage located next to the hospital that was due to end in 2013. While parking receipts from the garage now boost city revenues by more than $600,000 annually, the Stewart administration favors ending the lease to gain a one-time income boost this year of an estimated $2 million. The one-shot revenue is needed to close a growing shortfall from the administration’s estimates sales of property for development recorded in prior years that have not materialized.
The full Common Council may take up the same issues at its regular meeting scheduled for Wednesday, August 9, at the Council Chambers.
State Budget: O’Brien, NB Delegation Instrumental In Preserving State Aid, Services To City
A $37.6 billion state budget, which took effect last week for the biennium ending in 2011, spared New Britain the loss of key resources and services—cuts that had been sought by Gov. Rell and Republicans. The Governor, critical of the two-year package, allowed the “compromise” plan to stand without signing it to end a two-month impasse over state revenue and expenditures.
“This budget cuts spending and lowers taxes for middle class and poor families while preserving important public services,” said Representative Tim O’Brien (D-24), the Democratic nominee for Mayor. “While I do not agree with everything this budget does, it is a reasonable compromise.”
According to legislators, the budget bill cuts approximately $3 billion in state spending over the biennium and raises $1.25 billion in new revenue to help balance an $8.56 billion deficit over the next two years. Focusing on New Britain the budget also:
• Preserves the state matching grant program for Dial-a-Ride services that benefit seniors and the disabled;
• Increases operating grants for area magnet schools to encourage increased enrollment;
• Restores cuts to the state’s Family Resource Centers and Head Start programs;
• Increases funding for adult daycare services;
• Rejects the governor’s proposed cuts to nursing homes;
• Rejects a proposed increase in bus fares;
• Makes no changes to the ConnPACE prescription drug program for seniors and the disabled;
• Preserves the state’s $500 property tax credit;
• Provides full funding for the Care4Kids program;
• Saves the New Britain Department of Motor Vehicles branch office;
• Protects municipal aid, including Town Aid Road and the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant.
“This budget represents a balance of cuts and revenues and it represents a shared sacrifice of everyone across the state of Connecticut while preserving vital service,” Representative John Geragosian (D-25), co-chair of the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee. “This budget represents the values of our state and protects our most vulnerable.”
“These are very difficult times,” said Senator Donald J. DeFronzo (D-6), “but these are the times when people need the services and programs that their government provides more than ever. This budget contains heavy cuts, but it saves those things that seniors, working parents, children, low-income families and the disabled need to survive, and it’s this support that will help to bring us out of this recession. This is a balanced approach, a compromise approach.”
A detailed analysis of the bill may be found at http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/BA/2009HB-06802-R01SS1-BA.htm
The Democratic Slate (One of A Series): Alderwoman Black Seeks New Term in Ward Three
City Alderwoman Shirley Black is seeking re-election to represent Ward 3 in 2009, citing her work on the Council’s planning, zoning and housing committee and efforts to improve neighborhoods in the center of the city over the last two years. The ward includes voting districts 5, 7 and 8.
Black says her priorities will be to continue to support the city’s anti-blight enforcement, a senior property tax relief program that the Stewart administration has failed to implement and effective public safety. A retired machinist long active in her union and its retiree group, Black is widowed and has three grown children, Charissa, Alfred, Jr. and Kevin. She serves on the Democratic Town Committee and is president of the Black Democratic Club. She was a 2004 Connecticut delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
“I am honored to represent the people of Ward 3 on the Common Council and strive to represent their best interests in the way I vote on the city budget and policies that come before the Council,” said Black. “I have worked to improve Ward 3 neighborhoods with support of the Willow Street park development; the re-establishment of a Building Commission and bringing sweat equity and home ownership to the area via Habitat for Humanity. I am accessible to constituents for any concerns they may have with City Hall and city services.”
Since charter change was adopted earlier in the decade this year marks the fourth city election in which 10 city councilors are elected from council districts or wards, two from each area. The other five aldermen are elected at large.
Photo Credit: The Hartford Courant, December 2008
Labor Pushing For Health Care Reform
Former DNC Chair Dean Counts Votes For Public Option In Senate
This Labor Day and on the eve of President Obama’s address to Congress, nothing is more critical to working families than seeing real progress on health care reform. According to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), every week that health insurance reform is delayed: 44,230 more people will lose their health insurance coverage; 16,653 more people will file for bankruptcy because they can't pay their medical bills and s many as 423 people will die because they lack health coverage. From: http://www.seiu.org/index.php
Here is a Democracy for America link on former DNC Chair Howard Dean’s Senate vote count for a public option http://standwithdrdean.com/whipcount-results
End Quote
In comparison with the casualties of industrial society in the past, unemployment today provokes new forms of economic marginalization, and the current crisis can only make this situation worse. Being out of work or dependent on public or private assistance for a prolonged period undermines the freedom and creativity of the person and his family and social relationships, causing great psychological and spiritual suffering. I would like to remind everyone, especially governments engaged in boosting the world's economic and social assets, that the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity.from the Pope’s ENCYCLICAL LETTERCARITAS IN VERITATE, June 29, 2009
