Thomas MacMillan Photo
(Updated with a response from Harp.) With the city’s bond ratings tanking and its “rainy day fund” drying up, mayoral candidate Justin Elicker vowed to sit down with all city department heads and find ways to trim the budget.
Elicker made the pledge at an afternoon press conference outside of Board of Ed headquarters at 54 Meadow St., where he was joined by about 20 campaign supporters. He said he’s the candidate who’s best equipped to right the city’s fiscal ship. He pointed to his record as an alderman who has repeatedly sought cuts to the city budget.
The East Rock alderman began by laying out the problem: The city is headed toward a negative fund balance; it has over $500 million in debt; debt service comprises 13 percent of the budget; pension costs have tripled; and ratings agencies are appraising the city accordingly.
“Are we Detroit?” Elicker asked, referring to that city’s recent bankruptcy filing. “Yes. We are the Detroit of 10 years ago.”
“Who is prepared to handle this situation?” Elicker asked. He offered two options: himself or mayoral candidate Toni Harp. He didn’t mention the other two candidates in the race, Kermit Carolina and Henry Fernandez. All four are competing in a Sept. 10 Democratic primary.
Elicker said Harp’s 20-year record as a state senator shows she is not prepared: State debt has ballooned to the point where Connecticut has the highest public debt per capita of any state in the nation. Elicker said ratings agencies have downgraded state bonds citing high debt and an inability to rebuild the state’s fund balance.
“Does this sound familiar?” Elicker said. Those are the same reasons cited by agencies downgrading the city’s bonds, he said.
“Toni doesn’t have a plan,” he said.
In a press release Tuesday evening, Harp responded to Elicker’s comments.
“It took hard work, negotiations and an extensive knowledge of budgeting to right the state’s fiscal ship,” Harp said in the release. “Justin is dangerously unaware of how budgeting works. His so-called ‘plan’ is to meet with every city department head. He says he will cut but he doesn’t say where. I have publicly stated I will introduce cost savings through the elimination of duplication of services as well as consolidations and spending cuts where possible.”
Elicker said he fought parking meter monetization, has repeatedly offered amendments to trim city budgets, and has tried to stop the city from relying on one-time revenues to balance budgets, such as the sale of city streets to Yale.
He seized on a Harp quote in which she said she hasn’t “been able to get [her] hands on the budget in an in-depth way.”
Elicker held up a copy of the city budget. “I have my hands all over this budget,” he proclaimed. He said he knows it so well he makes YouTube videos to explain it.
In Tuesday evening’s release from the Harp campaign, she leaped on Elicker’s “hands” comment. “On the one hand he is bemoaning the drop in the bond rating — which we are all concerned about,” Harp said in the release. “But in the same breath he says he was a big part of the budget that is the problem. That should concern voters. We have a serious budget problem and we need someone with experience in handling the worst possible problems not more empty platitudes.”
Elicker said the city needs to focus on short-term and long-term solutions to the current budget crunch. “I’ll reach out to department heads,” he said. Elicker said he would sit down with department heads and find out where they could find savings or increase revenue.
Like other candidates, Elicker said he would look to cut administrators in the Board of Ed.
“The difference is I’ve shown I’m willing to cut things,” Elicker said later.
Elicker didn’t say specifically where he would cut. Instead, he offered examples of how he would approach the task. He said he would, for instance, take a look at the office of the corporation counsel and see if it’s more efficient to hire contract attorneys or have them in house. If he were looking at the traffic department, for instance, he wouldn’t cut parking enforcement officials (formerly known as “meter maids”), since they generate revenue. He would instead look at the department’s administrators. Elicker said he would have all departments do cost-benefit analyses on leasing vs. buying when it comes to expenditures.
Elicker offered a couple of ways the city could increase revenue: Rent out the Lighthouse Park carousel building for functions more often, regionalize the city’s 911 call center, and, as Chief Dean Esserman discussed Monday night, determine which police department positions could be filled by civilians, to put more cops on the street and cut down on overtime.
Elicker said he’d also change the way the city borrows money, by putting a cap on annual borrowing. “If we stick to issuing around $20 to 25 million in debt each year, out debt service payments will quickly reduce, which will free up more in the general fund budget.”