Governance

Project Citizen

Bridgeport Students fight for equality in their schools

In the search for equality, we often lean on established leaders in the community. Their commitment and experience help guide the general public through difficult decisions. But sometimes, our leaders come from students, like those in Bridgeport who are helping their fellow students celebrate holidays without getting behind.

Part of a program called “Project Citizen,” the goal is to get students more involved in the democratic process. Each year eighth grade students in Bridgeport come together to effect policy change by tackling local issues they feel have not been addressed.

From the Connecticut Post, this year they reviewed the proposals and whittled it down to focusing on the Eid holidays, which include Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Celebrated by Muslim students, the Eid holidays would cause a large amount of absences by students who would then become behind in their lessons and even have a day marked absent against them.

Considering the state already has day offs allotted for practitioners of other religions, there was room to make an argument that those same rights should be upheld not just for Muslim students in Bridgeport, but to prevent non-Muslim students from having to repeat a lesson due to a large number of classmates being out.

Research was done and presented to the board of education, including the fact that upwards of 11% of students in the Bridgeport system identified as Muslim. They also circulated a online letter which garnered more than 2000 signatures.

Because Eid follows the lunar calendar, it does not fall on the same day each year. Students gave the dates for the holiday for the next 30 years, some of which will take place during summer vacation.

This follows a pattern of schools becoming more inclusive of religious celebrations. School districts around the state have added Eid al-Fitr and the Hindu and Sikh celebration of Diwali to the calendar as day-off holidays.

This is in large part because the state is diversifying as whole. Although Christmas and Good Friday are already worked into the school schedule, many communities with large Mexican or Puerto Rican populations are adopting Three Kings Day as part of their school closures.

This includes Bridgeport where the Project Citizen helped students learn the civic process, getting involved, and doing the work that is required to affect change. These students presented their case and made a difference for their fellow students, as well as the general cause of equality in Connecticut.

Shoot Me A Line

Mayor Simmons makes case for Stamford

Caroline Simmons, Stamford’s new mayor, wants any businesses interested in the city to email her at mayorsoffice@stamfordct.gov.

Just four months into the job, Mayor Simmons has become the cities number one promoter. She joined the Municipal Voice to talk about what drew her to local government, what she was able to accomplish in her first 100 days, and what she has her eyes on for the future.

With Class A office space, a 30% commercial vacancy rate, and only $44 a square foot, she believes that companies should be following the people who left New York City for Connecticut.

Already Connecticut’s second biggest city after Bridgeport, many of the city’s projects revolve around growth in the region.

“It’s really important to coordinate with our surrounding towns, so we’re looking at everything from making improvements on Metro North to making our city more bike and walk friendly,” she said, noting the possibility of a walk/bike path throughout Fairfield County.

But there are pieces that need to be put in place to sustain that growth. For one, the city is short a considerable amount of affordable renting units – a problem that has plagued many cities in Connecticut – as well as affordable senior housing.

Like so many other cities, they are looking to take advantage of their public transit options by bringing in transit-oriented development, which is increasingly popular with individuals just starting out in their careers. But Stamford is also looking at programs to help transition individuals into home ownership.

But those just starting out in their careers are crucial to Stamford’s future.

“I think it’s important that we have young people at the table because millennials now make the largest voting bloc,” the mayor said, who is part of that generation.

She also spoke to Stamford’s diversity as a selling point, and how important that was to governance.

But she wants people to get involved in local politics like she has – for those that don’t know, Mayor Simmons started in the federal government and worked her way to state representative, eventually landing as mayor.

“When we’re in a representative democracy, our governments are supposed to look like the people they serve,” she said, stating that she started with her cabinet and mayor’s office to make sure they were properly reflective of Stamford’s culture.

To that end, she placed a call for anyone interested in serving on a board or commission to email her at her mayor’s office email.

There’s much to be optimistic about Stamford – with so much growth and potential, one gets the idea that there’s almost too much to concentrate on. Fortunately, Mayor Simmons realizes that the position can directly touch people’s lives.

“And the key is to really seize this moment and making sure that we’re building more equitable, inclusive, vibrant city for everyone,” Mayor Simmons said.

“That includes making sure everyone has access to a good paying job, making sure everyone has access to quality infrastructure, making sure that people have the opportunity to pursue their dreams here, raise a family here.”

All The Data That’s Fit To Print

Data Haven helps municipalities govern with equity reports

In order to govern, one must know a bit about what it is you are governing. At its very essence, data is the primary factor in many governing decisions – from planning and zoning to mill rates. Data Haven, in partnership with Sustainable CT, recently released the Connecticut Town Equity Reports that will help our local leaders govern.

Data Haven has been around for 25 years now, setting up reports like the CT Town Equity Reports. They are designed to “inform local-level efforts to improve community well-being and racial equity,” the Town Equity Reports cover topics like demographics, housing, education and more.

Because of the partnership with Sustainable CT, they also include a section on Environment & Sustainability. The project notes that in addition to social factors, there are many environmental factors that will affect the lives of residents. Towns and cities can see were they rank on a risk scale for things like lead paint exposure, air cancer risk, or proximity to treatment facilities. For Sustainable CT, they write that environmental justice is “the idea that these factors of built and natural environments follow familiar patterns of socioeconomic disparities and segregation.”

Taking a look at the map for New Haven, for instance, one will see that lead paint exposure risk is highly concentrated in the city, petering out as you move outwardly towards inner-ring suburbs, outer-ring suburbs and beyond.

On the other hand, New Haven has excelled in creating a more walkable city than the average town or city in Connecticut. Only 54% of Connecticut residents have stores within walking distance, while 77% of New Haven residents have that privilege. The same trends follow for sidewalks, bikes, and even local recreational facilities. This is largely due to the denser neighborhoods and traffic that comes with living in a city.

Naturally, how each individual chooses to interpret and utilize this information is highly subjective. With limited resources, one might not be able to tackle every single issue. But if you live in an area where pollution is less concentrated in the air, but don’t have any sidewalks or safe places to bicycle, then you can choose where to most wisely spend your money.

Thanks to Data Haven and the support from Sustainable CT, all 169 towns and cities have access to this information to make those decisions on their own. Interested municipalities can visit www.ctdatahaven. org to find those reports and more.

High Time To Lower Property Taxes

Mayor Luke Bronin joins the Municipal Voice to talk governance

With the legislative session set to start next week, Connecticut towns and cities say it’s high time to help lower property taxes in a meaningful way.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, and also President of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities joined the Municipal Voice, a co-production of CCM and WNHH 103.5 FM, to talk about the legislative proposals set by towns and cities that they think the Governor and General Assembly should act on in 2022.

“Reducing overreliance on the property tax as the sole source of local government funding has been a longstanding priority for CCM,” Bronin said, “We are one of the most reliant on property taxes in the country.”

As part of the legislative proposals, towns and cities are asking the state to consider municipal revenue diversification and providing incentives for municipalities to expand shared and regional services.

For cities like Hartford and others, Bronin says that there is a need-capacity gap. This term refers to situations in which municipalities simply do not have enough capacity through taxable property to meet the needs of the community, while others have more than enough. This can create vast disparities in tax rates and outcomes between different communities.

In Hartford, there’s more than a fair share of non-taxable properties – state property, colleges, and hospitals – that even fully funding programs like the Payments in Lieu of Taxes would not overcome these gaps.

This is true also of education.

As part of the suite of proposals from towns and cities, they believe that the funding of the Special Education Excess Cost Formula should not be capped.

Bronin, said while this formula could use an update for the 21st century, small towns and big cities are hamstrung by insufficient state funding and volatility. Stating that these students with special needs deserve to have their needs met, but just one student can alter the budget in a small town, while there may be a concentration of need in a city.

The Mayor also spoke to proposals on Transit Oriented Development, Opioid Ombudsman, and the Transportation Climate Initiative saying that Connecticut is in a position to make big changes in a lot of areas that will help the everyday citizens of Connecticut by creating housing, stemming the opioid epidemic, and future proofing our infrastructure.

The will is there to make many of these changes, and on more than one occasion the mayor applauded efforts from the state to help with these issues. For municipalities, it’s a matter of having that voice at the capitol where decisions are being made.

“There are so many ways in which this pandemic has changed the game at the local level and raised the stakes,” Mayor Bronin said, “and we’re all dealing with unprecedented challenges, but we also have some unprecedented opportunities.”

Connecticut Towns A Beacon of Calm

Francis Pickering talks Western COG and COVID recovery

Western Connecticut has been home to much of the growth in the state over the past 10 years, clogging up infrastructure and tying up housing.

Spreading that wealth around, according to Francis Pickering, Executive Director of the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, is one way to relieve the pressure.

“What people were fleeing in New York City,” Pickering said, “they were not fleeing a shortage or deficiency of things to do.”

For him, this migration is part of a much longer pattern that exists between the big city and Western Connecticut. COVID hit at a time when many millennials were hitting an age where they wanted to settle down.

In New York City, they didn’t have backyards or access to parks in much the same way that Connecticut has – Pickering said that most people in Connecticut are within 15 minutes of being able to take a walk in the forest – so what’s going to keep them here is stability.

A home is “often the largest investment in their life, it becomes a source of savings and intergenerational wealth, and they work really hard to choose a home location that they believe will deliver a return on investment.”

Pickering notes that “What’s wrong with Connecticut?” Op-eds have largely died out as a theme lately, suggesting that the state has been a “beacon of calm in a gusty turbulent sea.”

With a budget surplus and ARP funding putting the wind in the sails, there’s the additional considerations of the likely infrastructure funding and a new federal rule that will make it easier for Connecticut to receive fund that are predicting smooth sailing at least in the short term.

Francis Pickering, Executive Director of the Western Connecticut Council of Governments joined the Municipal Voice podcast in August, to talk all things COG.

Councils of Government, or COGs, are the closest thing that Connecticut has to county level government. In a state so small, the extra layer might seem extraneous and costly, but it has also prevented Connecticut from receiving federal funds.

“This has happened to me personally,” Pickering said, “When we’ve applied for a grant, and they say I love your application, but you’re not eligible.”

A new designation called County Equivalency from the Census Bureau will prevent that from happening – making COGs eligible for geographically determined moneys that would go to county-level government in other states.

As far as transportation – Pickering says that we still exist in a traffic pattern that was first laid out in the 1950s – everyone goes one way to work and back the other way home, creating the traffic that is so common on 95. Worse is the infrastructure on Metro North which harkens back to the 19th century.

So to fix this, to bring it up to the 21st century, Pickering argues that we’re going to need much more investment than what the current bill offers.

Most importantly though, Broadband can offer opportunities that asphalt roads cannot. By containing all the jobs to one area, you constrain the resources. Work from home policies can open up the state so that it evens out pressure and perhaps takes some vehicles off the road.

“What’s good for our regions is good for the rest of the state,” he states, “We should all be enjoying economic growth.”

A Very Young Century

Connecticut’s Youngest City Is Officially Old

Connecticut is getting old! Our oldest town was incorporated over 150 years before the United States became a thing. So it’s a milestone that our state’s youngest incorporated city – West Haven – is just celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2021.

Being located next to New Haven, the area that is known as West Haven has been home to settlers going back to the original colony, as well as being the ancestral home to many Native American tribes much longer than that.

And in a way, the city has taken a tortuous path to incorporation. It was part of New Haven, then part of Orange, before officially incorporating as a town in 1921 and as a city in 1961.

On June 24, Westies as they are colloquially known, young and old, joined together at the Old Grove Park to commemorate the event. This event was not only the blowing out of the “figurative candles” for its 100th birthday, but the first event in six-month series of celebrations.

In July, the city brought back the Savin Rock Festival, a two-day affair that includes fireworks, local party rock bands, games & rides, as well as a slew of local eateries.

Future events include a suite of fireworks billed as “They Will Be Heard on the 3rd,” taking place in September. A $10 lawn sign is being sold at the Savin Rock Festival as part of a raffle to push the “start button” on the fireworks.

In addition to the lawn sign, they are selling shirts, sweatshirts, tumblers, wine glasses, sunglasses, tote bags and much more.

Portions of the vendors’ merchandise proceeds are going to support the centennial events according to the city’s press release.

Throughout the rest of the summer and into fall, there will be all sorts of concerts, bocce tournaments, a sandcastle contest, and a Salute to Veterans of the Last 100 Years at the West Haven Veterans Museum.

One of the most interesting plans that they are working on is a reenactment of a spirited town meeting discussing West Haven’s separation from Orange in 1921 and starring leaders from both communities, according to the website.

Not that there hasn’t been any changes to Connecticut’s landscape in the last 100 years, it’s interesting to think of our state as settled – we are the Land of Steady Habits after all. Happy 100th to West Haven, and we look forward to seeing what the next 100 hold for them and the rest of our wonderful towns and cities.

A Down Payment On The Future

West Hartford Pension Plan is 100% funded

The old saying is that there are only two things you can be sure of in life – death and taxes. For many municipalities, you can add pension liabilities to that list. West Hartford just completed a historic sale of bonds to deal with just that issue.

West Hartford, as in so many other municipalities, saw unfunded pension liabilities become the largest driver of budget increases. For years, pensions had not been adequately funded for, which for a myriad of reasons, saw their expenses explode all over the state.

Cited in the West Hartford News, Town Manager Matt Hart said that the unfunded portion of the pension was around $315 million and about 41% funded. The bond sale covered about $365 million dollars worth of bonds that had funded the pension plan to 100%.

The remaining funds raised by the bond sale were used to establish a Pension Bond Reserve Fund, which will be used to help in ties when there was a “significantly adverse market performance of pension assets.” According to a Patch article on the successful sale of bonds, the town sold “$324.3 million in pension bonds at a 2.539 percent ‘all-in true interest cost,’ which is 46 basis points less than the anticipated target rate of 3 percent.

“The town’s consulting actuary projects a savings of more than $140 million in future pension costs on a present value basis, officials said.”

This figure, as astounding as it is, is based on a presumption of performance from future investments and could change based on the actual performance of markets. Hart said in the News article that oftentimes the pension obligation bonds are sold by distressed communities that cannot make payments, but using the low interest rates available right now was an innovative way to get the town to a fully-funded pension plan.

Of course, this does not mean that the town is free from pension payments, but that those payments would be significantly less than if they had not done the sale – with figures of $7 to $12 million annually cited in the News article.

While there was some risk to this kind of plan, the argument was that it was better to have a healthy pension plan than it was to not.

This idea is growing in popularity as a revolutionary way to fully fund pension obligations, with Norwich presenting a similar plan around the same time that West Hartford was completing its sale. In a world where pension liabilities are as sure as death and taxes, it makes sense to take advantage of ways to lower that obligation in a sensible, low-risk way.