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Toni Harp And The Dannel Malloy School Of Governing


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.


Comments

peter brush said…
It's mysterious to me, but I'm a Constitutional conservative; i.e., a yahoo and tea-bagger. On the back of my truck the bumper sticker says, "2+2=4."

Down in New Haven it's my understanding that there are a lot of people associated with an Ivy League College of Knowledge. I'm sure the higher math involved in fixing the city's balance sheet is no problem for the bachelors of arts, masters of science, and doctors of philosophy that populate the Elm City. The municipal government of New Haven is an inspiration, not because it's made New Haven a better place to live and work, but because of that marvelous 97.84 tax collection rate.

Who said that government is the problem? Not when you have honest and selfless servicers of the public like Toni Harp. By the way, she is the first woman mayor New Haven has ever had. Let's hope against hope she's as entertaining as the Mad Hatter who "governed" here in Hartford some time ago.
----
The sides have different ideas about why the council spent so much time battling.

Milward and her faction say the mayor repeatedly tried to force the council to pass actions that would benefit her political friends. Perry's allies would go to bat for her, resulting in a nasty floor fight, they said.

"We were always trying to react and counter anything the minority was trying to put in place," Milward said. "It was never a thing of `Let's get together and do something for the city.' "

Essential to their differences was the Perry team's pursuit of an agenda that was more liberal than Milward, DiPentima and others on the council felt comfortable with.

"We had a bunch of radicals," Milward said, referring to initiatives Perry's supporters sponsored on topics such as insurance redlining, a single-payer system of national health care and workplace rights. "We kept having to fight off that liberal crap, when the real issues are: How do you make Hartford strong? How do you create jobs?" she said.

Fusco and members of the council minority defended the economic development loan proposals and other items put forward by Perry and her ally, City Manager Stanback, saying the initiatives were legitimate and unfairly rejected by the power-hungry Gang of Five.
http://articles.courant.com/1993-12-07/news/0000001016_1_council-members-council-s-energy-city-hall
Don Pesci said…
Perennial problem for progressives: How do you divide half of nothing? New Haven is a success largely because Yale is well endowed. Millionaires and well-endowed liberal collages can afford to flirt with progressives. Also, Yale isn’t going anywhere, however toxic the local political atmosphere. Hartford has no Yale – only a capitol building full of progressive Democrats. They aren't going anywhere either. What passes for governing in one party towns might be ameliorated by a robust two party system, but we both know that won’t happen. It took a village to create Toni Harp and other urban Democratic leaders. So, maybe it’s the village that’s the problem.

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