Melissa Bailey Photo
Hartford— More money for New Haven? “You’re hurting me,” groaned state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, as he and two other insiders taste-tested City Hall’s new legislative agenda at the Capitol.
Holder-Winfield (pictured), who represents New Haven’s Newhallville and East Rock neighborhoods, was standing in the hallway of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford Tuesday as a new three-month legislative session got under way.
He was digesting a wish list from New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. detailing the city’s top priorities for gettings laws passed at the Capitol in the session.
Click here to view DeStefano’s wish list, also called a “blue book.”
The list identifies 21 priorities in five categories. Many are specific funding requests, while others call for broader changes to state law. New Haven tate Reps. Holder-Winfield and Roland Lemar and Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney were asked about the merits, and likelihood, of the various proposals. Lemar agreed to rank the bills into four categories: Dead on Arrival, Unlikely, Possible, and Slam Dunk. Read some highlights below.
Red Light Cameras
At the top of the mayor’s 2012 list is a red light camera bill, which the city and its delegation have been fighting for for years. The bill would allow a municipality to use cameras to catch red-light runners. It has been defeated year after year, in part due to privacy concerns from groups like the ACLU.
The bill to be proposed this year would allow cities to experiment with the cameras. Click here to read more about it.
Lemar’s prognosis: “Possible.”
Paul Bass Photo
Lemar said he met Thursday with a small group of people on both sides to “work through” some of the concerns. The transportation committee will introduce the bill, and Lemar is optimistic that the fears can be allayed. The bill has to go through three committees — transportation, judiciary, and planning and development.
Holder-Winfield: “It’s got a much better shot than it has in the past.” It’s become an “urban” bill shared by several cities — and Gov. Dannel Malloy — instead of just a New Haven bill. “I don’t like” the bill because New Haven needs to change a whole culture of lawless driving, not just install cameras, “but I’ll vote for it.”
Looney: “a reasonable possibility.” “Some of the objections have been satisfactorily handled.” For example, those caught on camera would get a ticket instead of having to appear in court. And this year, Senate Democrats propose lowering the fine, because some critics argued the fee should be lower if a driver is caught by a camera versus caught by a police officer. “I agree with that.” The new proposal would drop the fine from $125 to $75.
Looney said some critics dismiss the bill as a sly way for cities to drum up extra revenue, but “our focus is it’s really about public safety.” Municipalities would be required to put signs up alerting people to the cameras, so if drivers heed the warnings, the new law would have “diminishing returns” in revenue.
School Construction
DeStefano proposes changing the formula for state-funded school construction projects so that the state pays not only for construction but also for 20 years of maintenance on the buildings. In a briefing earlier this week, schools Chief Operating Officer Will Clark said the district has been underfunding its maintenance budget. An outside auditor recommended paying $29.5 million per year, whereas the district is only allocating $17.6 million.
In a memo introducing the concept, the city wrote that many of the new schools had to be built because “maintenance had been deferred or neglected at previous buildings. With tight budgets it is essential to protect these investments by adhering to a preventative maintenance schedule.”
Lemar’s prediction: “Unlikely.”
“It’s a reasonable request,” however, he said.. “The state’s investing in these buildings, and in order to protect our investment, we should make sure the cities have the money to properly maintain them.”
Holder-Winfield: “You’ve got a hard way to go with that one. Right now I don’t see how you do that.” Budgets may be tight for cities — but they’re tight for the state, too.
Looney: “It’s a new ask, and obviously it will be evaluated and looked at.” There are arguments on both sides. One one hand, note that the state already paid New Haven $1.2 billion for its schools — over 80 percent of construction costs. “On the other side, a huge state investment is involved. Some would say — should the state take on the funding because the city’s not capable?”
Union Station
The state has long planned to build a second garage at Union Station to alleviate a parking crunch. However, construction isn’t set to begin until 2013, and no money has been identified, according to the city. Even though the state has been promising to build it since the days of the Rowland Administration The city does not support a parking-only solution, and instead has pushed for a “transit-oriented development” that would incorporate other uses, such as offices and stores. DeStefano wants the state to authorize such a development as a “public-private partnership project” so the state can work with a private developer to make the development happen.
Holder-Winfield: Unlikely to pass this session if it has a pricetag. “If you want to talk about money, talk about it in the session where we’re building the budget.” The state passed a biennial budget last year; this year is meant only for adjustments to that budget.
Lemar: “Possible.” It wouldn’t cost anything this session. There needs to be “a rational development around Union Station that’s transit-oriented, and multi-use. No one wants just a parking garage there,” which has been what the state has promoted.
Looney: “The terms and conditions have to be negotiated first before you can put it on a list” or in a bill. The city is still negotiating with the state over the terms of the development. “The [Department of Transportation] is certainly interested in getting that resolved. “Parking is a great need there,” and it deters people from taking the train.
Looney said the project is no longer tied to a redevelopment of Church Street South, because plans there are taking longer than expected.
Youth @ Work
The city gets $300,000, or 9 percent, of a $3.5 million statewide grant to pay for its Youth@ Work teen summer jobs program. Federal stimulus money that funded the program dried up. The city’s asking the state to boost the amount of money allocated by the Department of Labor.
Lemar: “Somewhere between unlikely and possible.” The initiative is “a huge priority” for cities across the state.
Holder-Winfield: “How could you possibly be against it? Of course I’m for it. The problem is, how much is it?”
Community Center
The city is asking for a $250,000 planning grant to look into creating a community center at the abandoned Goffe Street amory, the Q House or another space. The grant would pay for an environmental review of the armory site and to “begin schematic plans for a new facility.”
Lemar: “Possible.” “There’s got to be a lot of buy-in from the state.” The proposal “fits onto the mayor’s agenda, the Board of Aldermen’s agenda, and delegation’s agenda.” Lemar got a request from Alderwoman Jackie James, president pro tempore of the board, to boost the grant to a half-million dollars. It might be possible to “unlock money” from the Department of Economic and Community Development for the grant.
Holder-Winfield: “How much are we up to now?” Asking for extra money in a short session year is difficult. The state is already struggling to stay under a spending cap. In such tough budget times, “it makes perfect sense that [a proposal like this] might not happen.”
Vo-Tech High School
The city is asking for a $750,000 planning grant for a partnership with Gateway Community College to launch a vocational technical high school at Gateway’s soon-to-be-abandoned campus on Long Wharf. Read more about that here.
Lemar: “Possible.” It’s “an exciting” initiative. The governor set vo-tech education as a focus during this session, which focuses on education reform. However, a $750,000 grant “is going to be tough this cycle,” because there are no new dollars. The proposed Gateway collaboration was not among three three vo-tech programs the governor has targeted for expansion this year. The project fits with the state’s priorities, but in a short session, “it’s a difficult ask.”
Holder-Winfield: “The problem, again, is the money.” However, even if the money isn’t available, “we probably should be pushing it even just to talk about it.”
Pre-School Funding
“While the State has begun to raise the bar to require higher standards for pre-school educators, funding for our Early Childhood programs has not increased to help to attract and maintain this more highly educated workforce,” reads the city’s narrative. The city is asking for an unspecified amount of extra funding to “adequately compensate” pre-school teachers, “enabling the recruitment and retention of a more talented workforce.”
Lemar: Increasing pre-school funding, more broadly, is “the closest thing I feel we’ve got to a slam dunk, because everybody seems to be on board.” Gov. Malloy has made pre-school a focus of his education reform goals. Malloy called for funding 500 extra seats across the state for priority school districts like New Haven. New Haven could use the extra seats — though the city strives to offer universal pre‑K, “I don’t think we have a universal pre‑K. It’s not true.” Too many parents are denied pre‑K seats by income requirements or confusing lotteries.
Holder-Winfield: “It’s going to be tough.” You can’t just talk about funding for New Haven; any solution has to be state-wide.
Early Literacy
The city’s asking the state to restore cuts to an Early Reading Success program that occurred when stimulus money dried up, and increase overall funding for the program. The program offers small-group tutoring for kids who struggled in reading.
Holder-Winfield: “I’m supportive of the concept,” but the system needs broader reforms.
Holder-Winfield has taken leadership on this issue: Last session, he pushed through a bill that allowed five districts to stop measuring reading with the traditional DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) to what he called a more useful tool. He called for using that tool to test third-graders’ reading, require schools to offer interventions and summer school for struggling readers, and to make sure teachers are qualified to teach reading.
“Cities Should Be Very Grateful”
Overall, Lemar called the agenda “ambitious,” with a lot of good ideas.
Holder-Winfield said there’s a decent chance for a handful of proposals to pass, the most promising of which is red light cameras.
“From there on, you’re hurting me,” Holder-Winfield said. “It’s funding, funding, funding — that’s it.” He said the state already worked hard to hold cities harmless last session.
Lemar noted that “in addition to the City ‘s 2012 legislative agenda, the Board of Aldermen’s agenda and individual constituent agendas,” state legislators have their work cut out for them playing defense. “The city also needs us to protect the massive New Haven grants and programs already in existence that are the targets of other legislators across the state; attempting to replenish the tremendous cuts that the governor has recommended to our non-profit and arts communities; improving state processes and programs to foster more job growth,” not to mention school reform and taking another swing at repealing the death penalty.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Looney (pictured) said that in a three-month session, there’s a huge time crunch for passing new bills. In an interview in his office, he declined to rate the likelihood of specific points on DeStefano’s agenda. As for requests with price tags, “We deal with it on a case-by-case basis as we go along.”
The powerful Appropriations Committee, which holds the purse strings, is ruled by two New Haven legislators, Toni Walker and Toni Harp. They were tied up in budget hearings for most of Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Looney said New Haven will likely benefit from a range of education reform proposals, including an extra $3.8 million in education cost sharing money (about half of which is going to charter schools). And New Haveners will benefit from some items passed last session — including a statewide Earned Income Tax Credit, which gives money to the working poor. Ten thousand families in New Haven alone qualify for EITC, which means there should be “a huge surge of new revenue coming into families in the city” in the next few months.
Looney said in the upcoming session, he aims to expand a jobs bill passed in October. Under the STEP Up program, the state will now pay part of the salaries for new employees at businesses with fewer than 50 employees. (Read details here.) Looney said this session, he aims to expand the program to include businesses with up to 100 workers.
Last year, Looney noted, Connecticut was one of just a few states that didn’t cut municipal aid. (Click here to read his overall take on that session, and how New Haven fared.) “We preserved major grant programs to municipalities intact,” he said. “The cities should be very grateful for that fact.”