Well there certainly is a lot to talk about as we head into the foist week of October, honeybunch. Things have been percolating around here for days, and it is jest a matter of time before the fan gits going and something hits it.
The biggest story of the week was a bit in the local papyrus that the city is hoping to git an $8 million earmark from the state when and if it ever figgers out what the budget is gonna be for the current fiscal year. As of this writing, the boys and girls in Hartford are back to the drawing board after His Excellency the Governor stamped the budget passed last week with a big “VETO.”
Tennyrate, in these parts hizzoner, the current and hopes-to-be-future mayor of our fair municipality is ready to sign onto an offer drawn up by the city’s legislative delegation, and would give the city the same terms as the City of Hartford, which has its own fiscal quagmire to contend with.
The long and short of it is that we would git the $8 million and then be under “review” by a committee that would advise the city on financial matters. There is a quick rejoinder to say that this “review” committee ain’t the same as the “oversight” committee that ran the city for three years in the 1990s after we almost went belly up. This “review” committee would be the same as what the city goes through now with the Municipal Finance Assistance Committee (MFAC) with its regular reviews.
Of course, in the parlance of the barrister community, critics are saying this is a distinction without a difference cuz with the state having 8 million reasons to be interested in how we spend our money, the “review” of the committee would have a bit more weight. Natchurly, one of those saying setch a thing is the Democratic endorsed candidate Nancy Rossi.
She’s doing an “I told you so,” saying (and she has) that the city has been running deficit budgets for the past three years – witch it has – and there is no guarantee that the current budget is balanced, thus putting us behind the eight-ball for next year.
What really is going on here, is that no matter who gits elected, effen hizzoner – the current hizzoner – signs on the dotted line with the state (if and when a new budget is passed), whomever sits in the mayor’s chair come the foist Sunday in December is gonna hafta live with it. That is the backstory of this caper.
~~~
Sammy Bluejay came in and told Cobina that whilst the story that appeared in the local papyrus only came out days ago, the entire thing has been on the docket for weeks, in fact since before the primary. Sammy sez there are some who are calling it old news.
Here’s the problem with that: old news or not, many people didn’t know about it, so it’s new news to them. With an election coming up in five weeks, this doesn’t help the write-in prospects of the incumbent. A lotta people were talking about this over the week, and old news or not, they thought it was new and not a good thing. The problem with these types of deals is lost in the conversation is the tidbit that the state is covering those dollars earmarked in our budget as coming from the state. The fack the state can’t git its act together is lost on most people. All they see is a review board or advisory board and they have flashbacks to the 1990s.
~~~
Meanwhile, Nelly Nuthatch called me over the weekend and asked a very pernted query: Who is wrong? By that she wanted to know which of the Demmies is wrong on the matter of the mayor going write-in, whilst he professes his fealty to the party. I guess that depends on which side of the Democratic fence yew sit.
To those who support the incumbent, this is a last-ditch effort to save the city from worse than death: a mayoralty by someone other than the current sitter in the chair. To those on the other side, it’s a betrayal of what was promised on Primary Night, vowing to support the endorsed candidate. Objectively, there is only one answer. But since politics has lit’le to do with objectivity, it would be perntless to make the pernt.
No dear, I’m not wading into that quicksand bog. Effen the Demmies wanna go there, that’s their prerogative. People like me, who just watch the goings-on aren’t gonna git involved.
I will tell yew this, though. Effen yew were looking for unity on the slate, there ain’t much. The O’Brien people Iyam told have perty much gone with the write-in candidate, and the Rossi people are siding with their candidate. A couple candidates are trying to stay above the fray and run their own campaigns, which ain’t settling well with some.
I told yew this is starting to shake out like 1989, and I still stand by that. A bunch of disaffected Demmies can decide to put their eggs in the GOP basket, or stay at home. Neither is good for either the incumbent or the endorsed candidate – and they both know it.
~~~
On a happier note, the Apple Festival was perty successful this past weekend, and Mother Nature, tho’ she huffed and puffed, she din’t let any rain come down so that helped keep the crowds coming. This next weekend the city is the spotlight o’ the county as the New Haven Columbus Day Parade makes its foist appearance in six years. Over the last few, the committee has moved it around to various communities.
Of course, there are some who’ve been trying to tear down ole Chris, and they are the usual types who’d be witnesses to Eden and have a complaint. The one thing I can say about the current situation: it ain’t suffering from a dearth of complainer, social-justice nags and downright ornery people who are only happy when they’re miserable – and they are very happy.
~~~
Now will yew look at that: Iva Lootey told me about this a few weeks ago, and sometimes real life is better than fiction. It seems Yale-New Haven Health is buying the property near the Maltby Lakes off Derby Avenue, and gonna make its operations facility there. This is some 33 years after another hospital facility, Sursum Corda, was announced for that self-same property.
Oh, honeybuch. I remember that announcement at the Italian-American Club. Everyone who was anyone was there – and even a few nobodies. The announcement was made for a big rehab center for heart patients and it was gonna put the city at the forefront of what was then the new and upcoming outpatient residence clinic.
For years the thing languished, and there were some that the connections it had were of a seedier nature, before it finally was taken off the table and shelved. The land has just sat there, and the Water Control Authority has since opened up the lake to hikers and fishers who pay a nominal fee for the pleasure to go there.
Dave Beckerman, who owned the land, once wanted to put a new UNH campus on the land, but the college decided to pass on the offer.
When Cobina hoid about the new development, her thoughts were back to that day a third of a century ago, when we were all younger and foolish. We ain’t “younger” anymore.
~~~
With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,