Fizzling fireworks?
Fourth of July event in jeopardy due to lack of funds
STAMFORD — The sparkle may be missing from the Fourth of July this year as Mayor David Martin considers cutting the popular fireworks show.
The annual Cummings Beach event is among a list of potential cuts Martin has compiled in response to the Board of Representatives reducing his discretionary spending by $1.4 million, said Libby Carlson, a special assistant to the mayor.
Carlson said the mayor requested potential cuts from each city department and plans to begin implementing some of them as early as this week.
“I know for a fact that he’s looking for all different areas to cut that will do the least amount of destruction to the way the city is working,” Carlson said.
She said it is necessary because the $8 million budget
increase for the next fiscal year is not enough.
Martin, a Democrat, requested $13 million more than last fiscal year’s allotment of $556 million. Carlson said the additional $8 million “for the most part” will only cover fixed increases in salaries and overtime, unfunded retirement benefits and contracted deals such as utilities for city hall.
“While he has received more money than he did last year, the amount we’re putting to unfunded liabilities is more than last year,” Carlson said.
But Martin’s math doesn’t jive with some city officials who say the mayor can find the money elsewhere — even in his own office.
“The money is there,” GOP Board of Finance member Sal Gabriele said. “Mayor Martin is just trying to play politics with this. He’s upset that the Democrats on the Board of Reps cut his budget, and this is just to send a message to everybody that he’s pissed.”
Fireworks — which cost $70,000 for the show, and that amount is roughly doubled by police and firefighter overtime expenses — have been a staple for decades, lighting the sky above Long Island Sound for some 25 minutes to crowds of about 50,000.
Kieran Ryan, another Republican Board of Finance member, said losing the fireworks would be “a shame.”
“In prior years, the mayor found the money to move the Hoyt Barnum House — $2 million, two miles up the road,” Ryan said. “If he wants to find savings, I think he can look to his cabinet and the overly generous compensation he’s paying himself and to his cabinet members.”
According to the mayor’s March budget presentation, set costs continue to rise. City salaries and overtime will cost roughly $5.4 million more next fiscal year, for example, and retirement benefits are up an additional $2.9 million.
Set costs comprise more than half of the mayor’s annual budget, Carlson said.
“You do all of that math,” Carlson said, “and there is between $25 and $30 million (in discretionary spending) that the mayor can find $1.4 million in savings from.”
However, the Board of Finance approved $1.6 million more than Martin requested for his contingency reserve.
Carlson said the increase to $6.5 million in the contingency account is mostly intended to cover areas where the state pulls back funding. Using contingency funds will also need approval from the Board of Finance and Board of Representatives.
Carlson said it was not yet known if the contingency funds could be an option to pay for the fireworks.
Ryan and Gabriele said they would be open to discussing the idea.
But Gabriele said Martin would need to prove he can’t find the money elsewhere.
“The mayor could find $70,000 to run the fireworks,” Gabriele said. “He could cut it from his chief of staff.”