City bioscience corridor made possible by state law.

The City of New Britain is taking economic development steps made possible by state legislation I voted to approve this year. As reported in the Herald:

The Common Council moved Wednesday to create a bioscience corridor within the city as a way of attracting new businesses.

The resolution follows Connecticut Public Act 10-104, which allows the zoning changes, based on census data, that the city hopes will bring high paying, long-term jobs, development of under-utilized properties and the chance for major infrastructure investment by interested businesses.

I would point out Sen. DeFronzo's strong leadership on this issue. And, at a time when some Republicans are throwing partisan darts at New Britain's state legislators, it was nice to see the words of one Republican City Council member, pointing out the work of the state legislators in approving this very pro-business and pro-jobs legislation (also from the Herald):

Alderman Mark Bernacki made a resolution to adopt, which was seconded by Alderman Louis Salvio.

“I want to commend the legislature, including Sen. DeFronzo, for including these properties in our hospitals that will allow businesses to come in,” Bernacki said. Bernacki called the use of properties for these kinds of purposes a “plus for the city.”

This legislation, as I pointed out in a previous post, is an investment in a high-tech future for New Britain and our region:

The legislation recently approved to enhance the UConn Health Center will ensure good paying jobs for New Britain and Newington residents who work at that facility. But this legislation does much more than this for New Britain:

• It requires $5 million investment in the creation of a cutting-edge cancer treatment facility in the City of New Britain.
• It creates a new Enterprise Zone in the New Britain to encourage the growth of biotech and other high-technology manufacturing in the city.

I would add that I would still like to see enhancements to the biotech Enterprise Zone in New Britain to provide additional advantages for New Britain over locations in the direct vicinity of the Health Center in Farmington. But the legislation still provides real opportunities for our city to grow economically and create new, high tech manufacturing and jobs.

This legislation shows the kind of leadership we have in New Britain's state legislative delegation to build our economy and create jobs. At a time when we need a new direction to create new jobs, I am happy to have approved this important legislation.

Aquinas School blight action - finally.

New Britain City Hall has finally done the right thing by acquiring control of the Saint Thomas Aquinas School building at the corner of East and Kelsey Street. Taking control of the building from the absentee owners who have left it in a deteriorating condition should have been done long ago, but it is good that action is finally being taken.

This school building has been in a blighted condition for quite some time. Its deteriorating state has not just been harmful to the quality of life of East Side residents - it has been a painful sight for many people who attended Aquinas. Many people, including me, have been urging action on the part of the city for a long time, now. I pressed for action, as well, during my campaign for Mayor last year. So I am happy that this pressure has finally yielded some movement, by City Hall, in the right direction.

While it is always best for the city to work with property owners to assist, urge and pressure them to do the right thing by putting the buildings in our community to good, and properly maintained use, it is important for the city to be able to take strong action against absentee property owners who simply do not. And, when an absentee owner refuses or simply does not address blighted conditions, the city must aggressively apply fines and fees until they add up to more than the value of the property. Then the city is in a position to take the property in order to allow for a new use of the building and/or a new  owner who will properly maintain it.

While it is a good thing that the most recent absentee owner of the Aquinas School building has voluntarily relinquished control of this building, it is not a good thing that it took so long - long years - for City Hall to accomplish this. Our City Hall has, unfortunately, not been using all the legal tools it has to address chronic blighted buildings. Mayor Stewart argued against using foreclosure as a means for the city to take control of this building. But state law, for example, also allows the city to take blighted buildings by eminent domain. If the city used a strong anti-blight ordinance to aggressively levy fines and fees for all of the many, many blighted conditions on a chronic blighted property, it would not take long for these fines and fees to add up to more than the value of the property. The city would then be owed more by the property owner than the city would be required to pay in taking the property by eminent domain. So the city would then, very quickly, have control of the property and be in a position make it a part of positive change for its neighborhood and the city as a whole.

Something like this should have been done, years ago, with the Aquinas building. It may be water under the bridge, now, with this particular building, but there are a good number more such buildings in New Britain for which strong action of the kind I am urging is certainly in order - including a good number that have also been in blighted and deteriorating condition for years. Like the Aquinas building, those buildings bring down the quality of life in neighborhoods - needlessly.

This is problem that our City Hall has a lot of power to deal with. I and other state legislators have been and will continue to approve even more powers for municipalities to address blighted and abandoned buildings. But our efforts will not help unless the city, itself, uses those powers as it should for the benefit of our community.

In the meantime, I sincerely hope that the city listens to the concerns of the residents in the East Side and the city as a whole when considering the future use of the Aquinas building, and that it is open to creative solutions that can truly benefit our community for the future.

Thanks to Democrats for helping New Britain schools.

I would like to offer my sincere thanks to President Obama, Congressman Murphy and others for their courageous decision to approve what, for New Britain, will mean $4.3 million that will class sizes down by calling back teachers who were to be laid-off.

Their decision to approve the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act was against the backdrop of very ugly, partisan attacks, so Obama, Murphy and others deserve credit for sticking to their principles and doing what is right for New Britain, Newington and our communities' children.

As I said in my follow-up to my earlier post, the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act does not allow the state to retain this increased funding in the state budget - something I was advocating against, in any case. However, this law did place in the Governor the sole power to decide how this increased education funding is to be distributed among the state's school districts.

The law gave Gov. Rell two choices: using the same formula as the Education Cost Sharing Grant (ECS) or the federal Title I grant formula. The ECS and Title I grant systems have different missions and, as it turned out, using the Title I formula to distribute the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act education funding would have been much better for New Britain. If Gov. Rell chose to use this formula, New Britain would be receiving around $5.7 million in increased education funding. While all school districts are struggling, New Britain's is in a desperate position, so using the Title I formula was just the right thing to do.

However, Gov. Rell, instead, chose to use the formula that set the funding for New Britain at $4.3 million, $1.4 million less. Rell's decision also negatively affects New Britain kids by denying the state vocational-technical high schools, which includes Goodwin Tech in New Britain, $2 million, and by denying the Capital Region Education Council (CREC) almost $700,000 that would have been used to operate inter-district magnet schools that New Britain kids attend.

New Britain is not alone in being disadvantaged by Gov. Rell's decision. All of Connecticut's major cities took a hit (rough estimates):

Hartford	-$7,897,080.24
New Haven	-$3,993,381.15
Waterbury	-$3,497,923.42
Bridgeport	-$2,861,758.38
Stamford	-$1,884,272.46
New Britain	-$1,431,451.33
Norwalk	-$1,214,856.11

Meanwhile, her action appears to have provided more funding for some of the wealthiest towns in the state.

It is not surprising that Gov. Rell would choose to send less funding to the cities, since she has consistently opposed funding for the PILOT (Payment In-Lieu of Taxes). PILOT provides funding to municipalities, like New Britain (and Newington), that have a lot of hospital, college and state facilities that are exempt from property taxes. Because PILOT funding is important property tax relief for cities like New Britain, I have advocated for increasing it, while Gov. Rell has insisted that it be cut.

That said, the $4.3 million increase won by Congressman Murphy and President Obama will go along way to averting a crisis in New Britain's schools. They and others deserve a lot of credit and thanks.

Of course, there is still a lot more to do to ensure New Britain's kids a quality education.  As I wrote in a previous post, better policies are needed at the state level...

even after having increased state education aid to New Britain by 27% over the years, this year, I have been advocating both for reforms that would increase support for local schools and for using last year's budget surplus to increase state education funding for distressed municipalities like New Britain

...and in New Britain City Hall...

New Britain schools are in an especially bad position - mostly because of years in which City Hall has refused to provide much, if any, over the barest possible minimum and has refused to accept increased state support under the state inter-district magnet school program

...to bring the improvements that are needed. We need to come together as a community to get this done.

In the meantime, much thanks are in order for the leadership of President Obama, Congressman Murphy and others for what the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act does for our local schools and kids.