Let’s move the Capitol back to New Haven and have co-capitol cities

For those of you who blinked and missed it, you just gave Hartford a $550-million-dollar bailout courtesy of Connecticut’s elected leadership. They refused to let our state’s Capitol go bankrupt. Instead, our governor and legislators established Connecticut’s Municipal Accountability Review Board and imbued it with superpowers to save key municipalities from self-destruction.

Therefore, since this is the recipe for success, there is only one thing that can be done. Let’s move the Capitol back to New Haven and have co-capitol cities as Connecticut did between 1701 and 1874.

Yes, move it back. The State Capitol originally resided on our Green and the legislature alternated between Hartford and New Haven to do its business. Where can we place the legislature in 2018 in order to get our $552 million and have our debt erased?

Alexion. Since the drug company is vacating floors in the brand spanking new building and they have yet to pay real estate taxes, what better place for our legislators to occupy? Imagine the views. Long Island, the vistas of East Rock and West Rock and areas as far away as Meriden. Perhaps, locating our legislators on these top floors will inspire their creativity, innovative spirit and vibrancy.

This is a real opportunity. The next governor of the state can have Alexion CEO’s suite and for good measure, the consitutional officers can occupy offices in the beautiful vacant Union Trust building on Church Street. Boom! Done!

Back in 1869, Trinity College outfoxed Yale by donating land and money that led to building and designating Hartford as our Capitol. Yale needs to redeem itself — and now it can! Yale can open up its underground tunnels to our legislators and others so they can safely get back and forth to the Green and Yale, enjoy our cultural spaces, and make their way to our buses and shops, hospital and eateries. Yale could sweeten the deal even more and give the governor a mansion on Hillhouse Avenue.

In bankruptcy, a municipality typically would have to first balance its budget and restructure its debt but now we have this amazing MARB, with a flourish of a pen, swoosh! Debts are gone.

Let’s use these new-found powers to wipe out West Haven’s debt — another applicant to MARB — but as a consequence, it must be annexed to New Haven and become a borough. In fact, Connecticut could lead the 169 towns to regionalization via annexation and debt forgiveness and result in East Haven, North Haven and Hamden also becoming boroughs of New Haven. This will position us much better for the next Amazon application!

Think of it. Tweed becomes a real regional airport. The Haven development gets built, Sleeping Giant State Park is added to New Haven’s park system and the property values of North Haven to the grand list. All the selectmen retain some powers and they continue to run as separate entities but we become one New Haven where we can streamline government and services, stop sprawl with real planning, be debtfree and drive the economic comeback for all of Connecticut!

Hey, I even hear a Bridgeport state representative wants in on the party. He wants his city to apply to the MARB so his’ city’s debt can be covered by the rest of the state, too.

Hmmm, this brings new meaning to a BridgeHaven (Bridgeport/New Haven). Just imagine everything we could bring together: a new casino, more money for rail, investment in our two ports, improvements along the I-95 corridor, extra money saved from debt service to spend on our schools … Oh the possibilities! Jason W. Bartlett is a New Haven resident.