Hi Folks:

We are in the swing of budget time and I just want to update you on where things are and would love to hear what you think.

Carl Goldfield (Ward 29) & I set up a Budget 101 workshop at Hillhouse for April 18th (you should have gotten an email and a notice was put in the New Haven Register and in New Haven Independent & thank you Peaches for the great idea). I figure that we had around 35 to 40 people that came out. Robert Smuts, the new CAO, gave the presentation. He went over the big line item increases as well as the reasons why the budget increase overall. (Thanks Rob!)

The people who came out were for the most part questioned how revaluation and the phase in would effect their taxes. There was a feeling that the city is not doing all it can to bring down costs, especially with regard to School Construction. Irv Stolberger said that it is very dangerous for a city or state government to have a debt service over 10% - ours is over 12.5%.

Thursday night there were some pretty heavy budget hearings you can read more about it at www.newhavenindependent.org. Please let me know what you think about the budget. Without input from you - the people who voted me in - I can't represent you! Post a comment here or email me at ward28 at snet.net (take out the spaces and the word "at" and replace it with a "@" symbol - have been getting SPAM in the past few day.

Yours truly