Fwd: East Rock News
Lisa Siedlarz
Also, if you are receiving double emails from me, can you let me know. Seems there is a glitch with the new listserv.
Lisa
53 Pearl
(203)623-0857
WWW.SoHuNewHaven.org
From: Elicker, Justin <justin....@yale.edu>
Date: Wed, May 16, 2012 at 5:18 PM
Subject: East Rock News
To: "justin....@gmail.com" <justin....@gmail.com>
Hi everyone,
I encourage you to attend the budget deliberations tomorrow evening at City Hall. I also have included some updates below on revaluation, redistricting, and two fun events. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or stop by Lulu’s coffeehouse every Tuesday from 8:30-9:30am.
Justin
Budget Deliberations – Tomorrow (Thursday, May 17), 6pm, City Hall (165 Church Street.)
Tomorrow night the Finance Committee will deliberate, amend and approve the city’s budget. While it is not a public hearing, I encourage you to attend if you feel an issue is important to you or wish to listen in. So far there have been four amendments proposed to the budget. Alongside Doug Hausladen, I have proposed three of them (click here for more info.) The fourth has been proposed by Jeanette Morrison (click here for more info). I have received many emails and phone calls about the budget – most supporting the amendment I proposed that would stop new school construction and start to reduce the city’s debt, and some emails and calls in support of New Haven Academy, one of the newly proposed school construction projects.
New Haven Academy explanation: I am proposing not to fund the $40 million “renovate like new” proposal for New Haven Academy. The proposal in the Mayor’s budget is asking the board to approve the $40 million project of which $10.4 million would be funded by the city and $29.6 million would be funded by the state. New Haven Academy is in poor shape – its roof needs repairs, the wiring is inadequate, the heating system has issues. However, there are options on the table other than the $40 million “renovate like new” project. The first option is to utilize vacant space in the 38 new schools we have built throughout the city over the past decade and a half. A second option is to simply fix the things that are broken in New Haven Academy rather than virtually rebuilding the building. While fixing these things would certainly be costly, the cost would pale in comparison to the $40 million project that the city is proposing or the city’s $10.4 million share of that $40 million.
If we do not take on additional debt, we will have additional money each year for the next twenty years (because we wont have to pay the debt service) for things like teachers’ salaries, books in schools, police officers, and so on. It is difficult when you work at or know someone who works at a school to imagine them using a different building or maybe even splitting up the school. However, these are very difficult times and we have to make difficult decisions. (In this year’s budget we will be spending $65.7 million paying for debts we have issued in the past.) I am always happy to talk with you more about this issue and if you haven’t yet, I encourage you to watch the video I made which gives a more in-depth explanation of the budget and debt issues. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmziGgNFl9A
Property Revaluation - Homeowner Fairness Proposal fails
As many of you have now seen, the homeowner fairness proposal that would have allowed some short-term property tax relief to owner occupied residential properties unfortunately has failed at the state. I’d like to express my sincere thanks to all of those individuals, particularly folks in the Ronan-Edgehill Neighborhood Association, and Roland Lemar, for working so hard to try to make the proposal pass. Several state representatives were unwilling to support the initiative and unfortunately weren’t willing to come up with a meaningful compromise. See this article for more details: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/reval_relief_plan_fizzles/
Budget Amendment Requiring Revaluation in Two Years: In a last attempt to provide some hope for property owners in East Rock and some other neighborhoods who are facing significant tax increases, I have proposed a budget amendment requiring the city to conduct a statistical revaluation in two years. The finance committee will vote on the amendment tomorrow night. During this past revaluation, for a short period of time the housing market was in a particularly irregular scenario where banks were not lending for property purchases in most neighborhoods in New Haven except a few, such as East Rock. As such, East Rock saw a disproportionate increase in the housing valuations. Recognizing this unique market irregularity and an (albeit) slow improvement to the economy, My proposal will require another revaluation in two years to update property valuations and bring property values back into check. While East Rock property values will not likely go down significantly in two years, I am confident they will balance out some when compared to the rest of the city and resulting tax rates will balance out.
Redistricting
Thank you to those who came to the redistricting meeting last weekend. As we explained in the meeting, the redistricting situation is a difficult one where we are constrained by population shifts in the city making the forcing wards in the middle of the city including East Rock to change boundaries. One of the suggestions that was raised during the meeting was creating a 31st ward on the East Shore where population increases have made it challenging for all the ward maps to remain the same. The idea was that if an additional ward was created to absord that population increase, the wards throughout the rest of the city would not have to change as much to even out the populations. Unfortunately, due to the significant changes that would have to be made to several of the wards on the eastern side of the city, this option appears to be politically unfeasible. I have been working with the other alderpeople in the East Rock and surrounding areas to try and address some of the requests that have come up – particularly regarding people living on Livingston Street who wish to remain in Ward 10. I will do my best to address those concerns, but unfortunately much is out of my hands. The full board will vote on the final map this coming Monday. I will let you know what the final map is. The new wards will take effect on January 1st, 2013. Whatever happens and wherever you live, I’m always happy to help you out with any issue that may come up.
Red Light Camera Legislation Fails Again
Unfortunately State Legislators have rejected Red Light Camera legislation again this year. I am a strong supporter of Red Light Cameras as a practical way to address dangerous driving and red light running in our city. Our State Representative Roland Lemar and State Senator Marty Looney were strong advocates for the legislation, but unfortunately some of the remaining legislators were unwilling to pass legislation that would simply give the cities the option to install the cameras if the city’s municipal body approved. See here for more details: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/senate_oks_reval_fix/
Young Friends of Save the Sound – Fundraiser for Save the Sound – Tomorrow, Thursday, 6:30-9:30pm, 360 State Street, Library Lounge and Terrace, tickets $30.
Join the party with Save the Sound at the fabulous and hip library lounge at 360 State Street. The Young Friends of Save the Sound will be gathering there from 6:30-9:30pm in the lounge and (weather permitting) outside on the pool deck. DJ Dave Coon (who also spins at Café 9) will be providing tunes. Join like-minded folks to hear more about what Save the Sound is doing to protect the New Haven area watershed! Cool door prizes will also be given to a few lucky folks.
Purchase tickets now by clicking here: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=8uYm0pTgWjVz6DPU-SGSPd3qQdhjoDRtXgJPov8qLkSd6Nqgm6Pbc0bzkxm&dispatch=50a222a57771920b6a3d7b606239e4d529b525e0b7e69bf0224adecfb0124e9b61f737ba21b081989d37bd8af37ad97044704c4bc4311ce7 or purchase tickets at the door.
Leila Day Annual Spring Fair –this Saturday, May 19th, 10am-2pm. (rain date: Sunday), 100 Cold Spring Street across from East Rock Park
Stop by Leila Day this weekend and enjoy lots of fun attractions geared toward children ages three to six including games, pony rides, a tag sale, live music, great food, a plant sale, crafts, a zip-line and more. Your child will certainly thank you!
Justin Elicker
Ward 10 Alderman
203-500-2969 (cell)
justin....@gmail.com
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