Mayor’s tax cut proposal rejected
BRIDGEPORT — The city’s plan to reduce taxes by .25 mills was rejected by a unanimous vote of the City Council’s seven- member Budget and Appropriations Committee Saturday.
Instead they recommended returning the $ 1.4 million difference to the budget as they began working their way to a final product that will be presented to the full 20- member City Council Monday night.
As of late Saturday afternoon, the committee was in agreement that the Board of Education’s $ 434,000 contribution to help pay for nine school resource officers instead will be picked up in the Police Department’s budget. They were still working on plans to cover a portion, if not all, of the school’s $ 1.4 million transportation expenses as well. That would be added to the $ 2 million Mayor Joe Ganim’s budget proposed giving to the school board.
“The Board of Education does what it will with the money we give them,” Scott Burns, who cochairs the Budget and Appropriations committee, told his fellow members. “We can offer opinions on what they should do but they have no legal obligations to follow them.”
Additionally, state statue requires that whatever amount a municipality adds to its Board of Education budget cannot be reduced the following fiscal year. So if Bridgeport decides to increase the Board of Education budget by $ 3.834 million this fiscal year ( Ganim’s $ 2 million, plus $ 1.4 million for transportation and $ 434,000 for the SROs), they have to continue giving at least that amount every future fiscal year.
The Rev. Mary A. McBride- Lee, one of two council members from the 135th district, warned about that.
“If we give them a trillion dollars, they’ll ask for a trillion and one,” she said.
During a committee meeting Thursday night, Acting Superintendent of Schools Michael Testani advised the committee he expects to receive $ 9 million in CARES funding. However, he said the money from the coronavirus aid bill has to be used specifically to deal with issues created by the pandemic and school closings.
“In an ideal world we we’d afford education for students like they do in Westport and Greenwich but we’re not there yet,” Burns said.
The committee also agreed to fund two additional full- time mechanics to work on the 400 public facilities vehicles and four roadway maintenance employees — two of which apparently will be transferred to the Parks Department. The latter four have been hired already, the committee was told. They were funding the positions by reducing overtime, off- site vehicle repairs and diesel fuel consumption costs.
They also decided to fund an additional electrician position to work on traffic light maintenance.
The committee acknowledged the city will probably see a revenue reduction of $ 200,000 from parking violations, $ 100,000 from parking meter collections, $ 50,000 from collections at Beardsley and Seaside parks and $ 200,000 from the Fairchild Wheeler Golf Course because of closings and stay- at- home restrictions put in place during the coronavirus pandemic.
Saturday’s session is the latest of 15, all of which were conducted using digital conferencing platforms involving the internet and telephones as opposed to meeting in person. This too was the result of social distancing requirements.
No matter what is agreed on, a balanced budget has to be produced and the mayor has the authority to veto it.