Well honeybunch, before yew know it, the kiddies are gonna be back in school. As we git toward the middle o’ the month, we’re getting more and more indications that the unofficial end of summer is coming near. Whilst the calendar might indicate that ther are about six weeks left to the summer season, once school gits back inta session everything gets into the fall swing o’ things. Organizations are picking up their schedules, even the politicos, who have been meeting sporadically over the last couple o’ months go back into more normal rountines.
Of course, for school kids, the excitement of June gives way to the realization that things will be changing perty quickly. Bedtimes will be earlier, it’ll git darker soon, and the early to bed, early to rise school day will be back in swing.
We don’t need to know about that so much as to know that with the primary that is scheduled for next week, the Silly Season will be officially underway. Being that there is a federal election this time ‘round, the primary is moved up to August, making the Silly Season about three weeks longer. In the old days everything kicked off after Labor Day, but politicos say that those in primaries are at a disadvantage, so the newer schedule.
I don’t know who’s gonna win, but I will say that lawn signs have popped up all over the place, — like mushrooms after a thunderstorm. Yew can’t go a couple o’ blocks without seeing one candidate or t’other’s sign. It’s even got that they are in grass dividers along Capt. Kangaroo Boulevard. Signs are all up and down for the mile or so that the grass dividers go.
Of course, the airwaves are filled with ad after ad for this candidate or that one. And they all are gonna change what Gov. Dannel Malloy is gonna do – even the Demmies. I’ll believe that when I see it. So, the long and the short of it is, we’re getting back into the regular schedule around here – whether we want it or not.
I asked Sammy Bluejay effen anybody is having pizza parties or snacks for the seniors at the various senior venues around town – that’s a sure sign that campaigns are underway. The best he could do was say that we probably won’t see that until the general election as the assembly candidates try to woo senior voters.
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The wag came in t’other afternoon and made mention of the fack that Moody’s gave the city a “negative” outlook in its recent update to investors. Of course, nobody is surprised by that bit of news, who would be? The cause, of course, is the city trying to figger out how to get outta the 30-year downturn it’s been in, whilst balancing its books.
As yew saw last week, the much anticipated audit from last year’s budget came in at a strong $1.4 million deficit. That was a lot higher than the O’Brien administration either knew about or admitted to, probably a bit of both.
The city is working out a five-year plan wherein the city will somehow get its way to solvency. A lotta ink, many trees, and even the Internet has been fixed on this isshew. The city is in the Catch-22 of all Catch-22’s. Effen it does what the Municipal Accountability Review Board really wants it to do – raise taxes bigly – the For Sale signs we’ve seen will be nothing compared to what they will be. That means fewer people to pay the bigger taxes and we have another deficit in the making.
This is the elephant in the room that the MARB doesn’t wanna acknowledge. Where people in the real world see a cause and effeck, the MARB sees what the politicos like to call “stasis.” That is a Latin word for “standing” or “static.” In other words, they ack as if things are gonna stay the same. They ain’t, and they never had. The city has seen an exodus over the last 20 years of many people, and the replacements have been poorer, not richer. There’s a reason we have financial problems, and that’s one o’ them.
So, the wag sees we get a negative from Moody’s, but they don’t change the bond rating – to witch he reminds Cobina that it can’t git much lower. He’s right. It’s anybody’s guess – including the MARBs – effen we git outta this rut we’re in, but as the wag notes, nothing coming outta anybody’s mouth is new or innovative, just the same raise taxes or bond mantra we’ve heard for years. One wonders effen we’d have been better off continuing with the deficit, rather than paying it off, and having outsiders come in.
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On that same note, Nelly Nuthatch is saying that politicos behind the scenes are beginning to reconcile themselves to the strong possibility MARB is gonna put the city into Tier IV status. Effen it happens, it is expected it will happen sometime during the fall – probably either just before or just after the general election.
The reason, according to Nelly, is that MARB might wanna have a hand in the new budget-making cycle, which as yew know begins after the foist of the year. Soooo, effen the boys and girls from Hartford are gonna downgrade the city into penal servitude status, it will be in time to begin making the budget for Fiscal Year 2020, beginning July 1 of 2019.
Effen Cobina was a bettin’ wommin, which she ain’t, she’d say that the chances of MARB putting us in Tier IV got a bit closer with the Moody’s report, and kind o’ give ‘em the rationale needed to make the move. It’s all about how you justify things.
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Whilst the city is contending with financial strings that are unraveling as we speak, the recent canceling of the bulk trash pick-up for the summer has moved into the Theater of the Absurd. When Cobina got to her domicile one day last week, she was greeted with a telephone message that spoke of dire consequences effen people put their bulk trash out.
The funny thing is, whilst these messages were being freely erased before they were listened to, people were putting out the bulk trash. Heck Cobina was out in the gassamobuggy, and tree branches were out – all cut to specks, of course, and some people had furniture and other thing out.
The whole episode is kind of a metaphor for the problems were in. Life is supposed to be normal, but it is anything but normal, and, in fack, it’s getting more un-normal by the day. And it ain’t jest little things, it’s a bunch of things that make it a big pain in the posterior regions.
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Iva Lootey came by and asked Cobina about Beach Street, something she’s been complaining about for years. One wonders, sez Iva, effen the city can get developers to do something over there. It might help boost the city. Of course, with the recent economic news mentioned above, one wonders further effen any developer has the intestinal fortitude to try to go into a berg like ours. Jest think what the possibilities are on Beach Street. Right now, all we have are three or four vacant buildings and lots that are prime for commercial development.
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With the bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,