More than four months ago, Toni Harp -- whose husband, now
deceased, was the biggest tax scofflaw in New Haven – was elected mayor.
Governor Dannel Malloy, author of the largest tax increase in Connecticut’s
history, was present at her elbow encouraging a friendly crowd of union supporters
to work hard for Mrs. Harp’s election.
He was accosted by a woman, apparently a New Haven taxpayer, who demanded to know why the governor was throwing his support to the
wife of the city’s most irresponsible taxpayer. The woman, a mere fly speck, was hastily brushed off. Other notables in the Democratic Party, including the
state’s two Democratic U.S. Senators, Dick Blumenthal and Chris Murphy,
dutifully made appearances in New Haven to support the wife of the city’s
biggest tax scofflaw.
Mrs. Harp explained, both during her campaign and after her
election, that a Berlin Wall had been erected between herself and her husband
in the matter of tax payments. Neither the husband nor his wife had been a responsible
tax payer, the husband because he didn’t pay the taxes he owed, and the wife
because she did not know her husband didn’t pay his taxes, even though Mrs. Harp
had been a State Senator for 20 years, serving for five terms as the leader of
the budget-writing Appropriations Committee.
As Alderwoman for the Second Ward in New Haven, Mrs. Harp has for five years
served as Chairwoman of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. In both
positions, Mrs. Harp would have acquired more than a nodding acquaintance with
tax receipts and computations.
New Haven being a one party town, Mrs. Harp was easily
elected mayor. Following the election, her husband’s name disappeared from the tax
scofflaw list. No one knows exactly why. Had the Harp tax debt been paid?
Certainly that was one possibility. Reporters were unable to confirm a tax
payment. Had the debt been forgiven?
Occasionally the state will write off uncollectable debts. No answer was
forthcoming from the deceased Mr. Harp, his son – who had inherited the assets
and debts of the Harp family – Mayor Harp, Governor Malloy or Senators
Blumenthal and Murphy.
As is the case with other large cities in Connecticut, New Haven
finds itself under a damoclean sword of debt. Bridgeport, according to a recent
report, now has the distinction of being the highest taxed city in the nation.
Most large debt infested cities in Connecticut have been run from time
immemorial by Democrats, and it is not too far a stretch to say that these
cities are mired in Democratic debt.
There are two ways of confronting debt: You may pay off your
debt through your assets or you may ignore the debt, as did Mr. Harp and his
inattentive wife. But ignorance is not bliss; eventually the tax man will be
knocking at your door.
Mayors of large cities, however, cannot afford such reckless
indifference; when debt looms, they must either cut spending, if they are
conservative in their habits, or increase revenue to pay the debt, if they are
progressive in their orientation.
Mrs. Harp – no Tea Party Patriot she – is a progressive. And
so, when she was asked at a media availability recently whether she might resort to selling tax liens to discharge part of “cash
strapped” New Haven’s debt, Mrs. Harp strongly hinted that she would rather
raise taxes: “Before selling tax liens, I would look at raising taxes,” she
said. “I know that is something people don’t want to do. I don’t want to do
it.”
Mrs. Harp pointed out that selling tax liens would be
problematic and perhaps even pointless because, according to a New Haven
Independent report, “The city’s tax collection rate for the fiscal year ending
July 1, 2012 was 97.84, according to the city. So there’s a lot less money for
a private company, even the most aggressive, to make off of New Haven tax debt
than there was two decades ago.
“’It really is not something I would consider,’ Harp finally
said in reference to the lien recommendation.”
There is no indication in the news account whether reporters
present had asked the mayor if the Harp debt was among the tax collections she
cited, nor is there any indication that the new mayor’s contemplated tax
increase will be “fair shared” by equal reductions in spending.
A graduate of the Dannel P. Malloy School of governing, Mrs.
Harp answered the obvious question – Will she in her March 1st
budget increase taxes to discharge New Haven’s prospective debt and pay for her
ambitious contemplated reforms? – by putting off the answer to another day:
“I’m not going to say now. But you might be hearing soon.”
Mrs. Harp hastened to point out that mill rates are higher
in comparable cities. Those cities, evidently, are paying their “fair share” in
taxes.
