By Edward M. O’Brien
Former Mayor of West Haven
As State of Connecticut residents, we all pay taxes to the state. As the mayor, my job was, and I hope Nancy agrees, is to fight for a larger piece of the pie and to get as much state tax revenue to flow back to West Haven as humanly possible. The idea that my administration budgeted $8 million that we were not sure we were getting is ludicrous!
In fact, it probably was the firmest number we had from the state at the time we were putting the budget together.
West Haven also gets $45 million for our students’ education from the state, an amount that has increased due to my lobbying on behalf of our residents. If the CPA does not accept the $45 million from the state then is that to say I created a 45-million-dollar deficit? I fought hard to get the $8 million to flow back to West Haven, money our residents paid in state taxes and I would contend that if the current mayor doesn’t accept it then she and she alone created an $8 million deficit.
If her plan is to blame me and my administration and/or hide behind the state and institute a large tax increase, that is not leadership and it does nothing to solve the problems facing West Haven. During the campaign, after she told everyone she was a CPA, she would tell everyone if I was re-elected, I was going to raise taxes, and as a CPA she knew more than any other finance professional, and my efforts to raise revenues by increased economic development was wrong. Standing firm in your beliefs and doing the right thing is hard but it is what is expected of our mayor.
It also must be pointed out that my entire financial team, the people I trusted to make every financial decision is still her entire team, so how bad were they really? The only difference is the old mayor took their advice and the new one knows more than them.
On another note, the Tuesday before my term ended, we had a deficit of $100,000 projected for FY17. The rating agencies even noted our financial improvement under my leadership, what changed? She is using the same auditor, finance director, finance advisor and bond counsel. Were they lying to me or is she lying to the people she was elected to serve?