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Hail the rails!

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

This editorial was written and published in the Record Journal on Tuesday August 24, 2010

Sean W. Moore, President of the Greater Meriden Chamber of Commerce, lauds Connecticut’s Bond Commission approval last week of $260 million for improvements on the New Haven-to-Springfield railroad line.

Moore called that decision, in his column which ran on our editorial page of Wednesday, August 18, one that would go down in economic development history. His point could be taken further: it will be held a significant day in the history of Connecticut.

For decades, rail transport was allowed to deteriorate as huge sums went to building a national Interstate Highway System. The effect of that system was of course to ease traffic flow (at least temporarily) and speed the transportation of goods from center to center.

Today, however, we find that traffic on our wonderful Interstates and other major highways, has become almost as congested as towns and cities became by 1950 or ’55. Building expansions of our highway system today would not only be impossibly expensive but would require condemnation of huge swathes of land which are now used for other purposes. Border to border highways is not really a desirable quality of life.

In what might be the pinnacle of poor policy, the second complete pair of railroad tracks was eliminated from the New Haven to Springfield line about 20 years ago, putting an effective cap on the number of trains which could be operated safely using the occasional sidings for passing trains.

During recent years, however, amid fluctuations of oil prices, a realization that oil supplies must eventually run dry and a growing economic drain of buying imported oil, anti-rail policies have given way to something of an enthusiasm for restoring the ways of rail.

This makes particular sense in Connecticut, a very small state where land is precious, where railroad lines already exist, where cities are close together, and where effective intercity travel is needed to allow our population to live in one town and work in another. Traffic jams are no fun, even if driving your own car is presently more convenient.

Sean Moore referred to benefits of high speed travel (New Haven to Springfield) as well as efficient and convenient commuter travel among 11 stops along that corridor, including Windsor Locks which will provide a crucial connection to Bradley Field.

Other benefits? As House Speaker Chris Donovan says in his commentary on today’s page, these include up to 4,000 jobs, a billion gallons of gasoline per year saved, 10,000 fewer tons of carbon emissions annually and 4,000 fewer cars a day clogging the highways.

Connecticut has been fortunate to have had a number of local legislators persevering in their support of rail. It is fortunate also to have had a governor willing to see helpful possibilities of revived rail service for Connecticut’s economy. Working together, they have provided not only a substantial share of funding needed to restore and reshape the New Haven to Springfield line (through North Haven, Wallingford, Meriden and Berlin) but also a demonstration of Connecticut’s willingness to provide a fair share to earn federal economic stimulus funds for High Speed and Inter-City Service.

This effort appears to be entirely on track.

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Commuter rail key to region’s economic future

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

As published in the Record Journal on Tuesday August 24, 2010

This op-ed piece was written by Christopher G. Donovan, Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives and a Democratic State Representative from Meriden.

After years of advocating, planning, studying, delays, and growing momentum, Connecticut will open an inland commuter rail service running the length of the state.

In a matter of years, we will have commuter and high-speed rail service between New Haven and Springfield. Riders can choose among 25 trains a day and stops every half-hour during the rush hours. The new trains will grow jobs, clean our environment and build our economy. According to Department of Transportation estimates, the project is expected to create up to 4,000 jobs, reduce gasoline usage by one billion gallons per year, lower carbon emissions by over 10,000 tons annually and remove 4,000 cars a day from our roads.

The rail line will span a total of 62 miles from New Haven to Springfield, with station service that will include Wallingford, Meriden, Hartford and Windsor Locks. The Windsor Locks stop will improve access and better connect travelers and businesses to Bradley International Airport, which is an important economic hub in our state.

Meriden’s station is particularly important due to its close proximity to major highways – I-91, Route 5 and 15, I-691 and I-84. Station improvements and development of the Hub area will surely revitalize Meriden’s downtown and the city’s economy.

As a new state representative back in 1995, I first began pushing legislation to establish commuter rail service from New Haven to Hartford that would include stops in Meriden, Berlin, Wallingford and North Haven. Why did Meriden residents have to pay Amtrak rates to travel north or south or to New York City? The only other option to the south is to drive to New Haven, pay parking fees and get a reduced rate on Metro North. The ride from New Haven to New York via Metro North is $18.50 peak. The same route on Amtrak is $83.00. Why couldn’t we use the tracks in our backyard, actually in the center of our city, and provide a much needed alternative to our highways. We could reduce cars on the road, use less fuel, energy and reduce carbon pollution.

We passed legislation to study the project and the Department of Transportation determined the rail service would enable economic growth, promote energy efficiency, reduce automobile, truck and air congestion and improve mobility and connectivity in the New England area.

This project reflects the goals of President Obama for a national network of high-speed and intercity rail. His administration has made mass transit a priority and is working with our congressional delegation, especially Senator Dodd and Representatives DeLauro, Larson and Murphy.

This April we met with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to discuss the costs and benefits of rail service. Thanks to this partnership that also includes the cooperation of Amtrak and support of the Obama administration through federal stimulus funds, we are now on the fast track.

Last week, the State Bond Commission allocated $260 million toward a New Haven-Hartford-Springfield high speed rail line. This puts Connecticut in a very strong position for matching federal funds of $220 million. We are working together – State Legislators, the Governor and Congress. We’re all on board.

In just a few years, we will be able to walk to the Meriden rail station or park in the station parking lot and take a commuter or high-speed train, at commuter prices to New Haven, the shoreline, New York, Hartford, Springfield or connect to the Bradley Airport.

During the Great Depression, our state and federal government built the Merritt Parkway as a means to rebuild the economy. Today, commuter high-speed rail service is an investment that will energize economic development along a transportation corridor that is critical to our state’s economy. It will help Meriden grow. It will help Connecticut grow. It will create jobs, conserve energy, and make for a cleaner environment. Our future is riding on it. All aboard!

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FROM WALLINGFORD – Appreciate the normality

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

As printed in the Record Journal Sunday August 8, 2010

This week’s FROM WALLINGFORD was written by my counterpart on the column – Stephen Knight

V-Knight_S

Municipal government in Wallingford CT is, on a day-to-day basis, a pretty routine and, well, unexciting enterprise. Politics can have its food-fight moments, but by and large there is a predictability about it all that we take for granted. But I would like to discuss a recent news event that graphically illustrates why we might come to really appreciate this normality.

I refer to Bell, California, a 2.64 square mile city of 38,000 near Los Angeles. Since July 15th, it has become the poster city for “government gone wild.” On this date, an investigative story was published by the Los Angeles Times bringing to light that: the annual salary paid to the City Manager was $787,000, to the Assistant City Manager was $376,000, and to the police chief was $457,000. As if that weren’t jaw-dropping enough, it was also revealed that four of the five City Councilors each hauled in $96,999 annually for their part-time positions. And as a final affront, it was noted that the City Manager and Police Chief would be receiving $600K and $450K pensions upon retirement.

As a student of government and former elected official, I am captivated by this story, much as others might watch a train wreck on YouTube. These guys didn’t embezzle the money or take bribes. They voted themselves this money. Now that this looting spree has come to light, the three administrative employees have resigned, the Council has voted to reduce their incomes by 90 percent, and the Attorney General of California has subpoenaed thousands of documents. The investigations are ongoing and the results will be very interesting.

So could this happen in our fair burg? I say confidently: absolutely not. Why? Reasons abound: the kind of people we attract to government service, the healthy two-party rivalry, strong freedom-of-information statutes and a local paper whose reporters actually attend all these public meetings. But above all, this public pillaging will not occur in Wallingford for two reasons: we have a carefully-written and scrupulously followed Town Charter and hundreds if not thousands of residents in this town take an interest in their local government.

Town Charter: The political and administrative structure outlined in this document is designed for and results in real government transparency. And its tenets are rigorously adhered to. There are strict timelines for the presentation of an annual budget, published copies of the Mayor’s proposed budget in mind-numbing detail, public hearings to solicit input from residents, and open meetings where every line item of the budget is scrutinized. Important boards and commissions are made up of members of the public whose meetings are held in open forum. The public does have the power of initiative and referendum. It has an entire chapter entitled Ethics and Conflict of Interest. It is fifty pages of codified, common sense, open government practices.

Public interest in government: While a carefully written foundational government document is a critical element in successful self-government, far and away the most important element is an electorate that informs itself, knows its local officials, and participates in the public conversation. It encourages in government an unspoken standard of professionalism, competence and, frankly, pride that makes all the difference. A culture of real public service results from the public actually demanding good service and participating in boards and commissions to make that happen. Where the public is uninvolved or indifferent, the result is a government that separates itself from the people they are supposed to serve and a culture of entitlement and self-dealing. Here in Wallingford, hundreds of us serve on boards, commissions and committees doing our part to preserve the special sense of community we have.

The real lesson of the Bell CA scandal is that, alas, it is true that we do ultimately get the government we ask for. Or, better stated, the government we get is in direct proportion to the effort we put into its creation and maintenance.

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Mexican guest workers, laid off, want BP’s help

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Seriously? With total nonfarm unemployment rate at 9.5 percent according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (and that is the number of people laid off and receiving benefits – the U3 number, he U6 number of all those unemployed is higher at 16.5 percent) why do we have ANY guest workers?

Honor the existing H-2B visas AND DO NOT GRANT ANYMORE. At the very least not until unemployment goes down to below 5%.

Here is the link to the United States Department of Labor Statistics alternative measures of labor underutilization that shows the U3 unemployment number (the one most cited in the news) and the U6 number of all the unemployed.

It is slightly improved but still pretty bad.

Here is the New York Times News Service story -  Mexican guest workers, laid off, want BP’s help

NEW ORLEANS — Soon after the oil from the Deepwater Horizon began gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, business at the Ramada Plaza Beach Resort in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., dried up — and so did the jobs of five Mexican housekeepers who were guest workers at the hotel under contracts guaranteeing them work until Nov. 1.

“On June 30, they told us our jobs were over, and that we had to leave our housing and go back to Mexico,” Salvador Luna Espinoza, one of the housekeepers, said in a telephone interview conducted with a translator. “I’m staying with friends now, but I don’t know how long they’ll put up with me.”

While thousands have lost their jobs as a result of the oil spill, the layoffs present special hardships for guest workers, mostly hotel workers and those working in shellfish processing.

Under their H-2B visas, they are allowed to work only for the employer who arranged their visa, and they must leave the United States within 10 days of losing their job.

Most took on debt of $1,000 or more to pay for the trip to the United States, planning to pay it back with their earnings.

Mr. Luna Espinoza, who has a wife and five children at home in El Tizate, Mexico, said that without the $7.75-an-hour hotel job, he had no hope of repaying his debt — and unless he could do so, no one would back him in arranging another visa or another job.

So he is still in the United States, awaiting compensation.

“What they face is basically a guillotine the moment they’re laid off,” said Saket Soni, executive director of the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity, a grass-roots New Orleans organization that is helping the laid-off housekeepers, and other guest workers laid off from a Baton Rouge seafood processor, file claims with BP. “We would like to see them treated not as disposable workers, but as people who deserve relief in a disaster.”

In theory, guest workers have the same rights to compensation from BP as anyone else who lost income due to the oil spill. But as a practical matter, getting that compensation is far more difficult for workers from another county, who speak little English and may not understand the claims process or have the documentation from employers to file a claim.

With the help of Mr. Soni’s alliance, Mr. Luna Espinoza filed a BP claim for lost wages of $5,498.63, backed up by a letter from Ramada saying that his layoff was due to the oil spill. He has not yet received compensation, though. On July 9, the alliance filed a petition with the Labor Department, asking that it issue a formal policy directing those in the spill zone who employ guest workers to pay all the wages due under the contract, as well as the guest workers’ fare home.

“It shouldn’t be on the guest workers’ shoulders to bear the costs of the spill,” Mr. Soni said. “The employers are in a much better position to get BP to reimburse them.”

Indeed, guest workers are in a tenuous position, usually living in labor camps or other housing run by their employers, with little connection to the surrounding community, and little understanding of their legal rights. Many fear retaliation from employers or immigration authorities if they make complaints. And when their jobs end suddenly, many have no idea where to turn, and, like Mr. Luna Espinoza, drift off to stay with someone from their home country.

The alliance petition said many guest workers would no longer be in the United States when any compensation was issued. If BP does issue Mr. Luna Espinoza a check, it will be sent to the alliance, since he has no fixed address.

At the Labor Department, a spokeswoman for Nancy Leppink, deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, would say only that the division would “respond appropriately” to the alliance’s petition.

At the Ramada, business is still depressed, said Joseph Guidry, the general manager. Mr. Guidry declined to comment on the petition or the issue of requiring employers to pay out the contract and then await reimbursement from BP.

Mr. Luna Espinoza said he had been a guest worker before, working on a tobacco farm in Virginia. So which did he prefer?

“It was much better in tobacco,” he said. “They had more hours of work for me.”

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FROM WALLINGFORD – Pie in the sky?

Monday, April 12th, 2010

JASON ZANDRI

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For the second year now, Wallingford runs the risk of not having its annual fireworks display.

I remember being at the council meeting during these discussions last year. Numerous residents spoke about their desire to keep the celebration intact, suggesting that the Council and/or the administration approach local businesses to sponsor part of the event or the entire event.

The Town Council voted to shift $30,715 in savings from a renegotiated insurance contract to cover the cost in order to keep the event as scheduled.

The problem was solved for that year and the show would go on.

Anyone with a strong pulse knows that the economy continued to slide up to and through this point so it should be no surprise that anything saved by stop gap measures or “found” monies from the year prior would certainly be at risk again. So did we do any planning ahead of pending issues like this?

Nope. “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

We had an entire year to think about who we might approach for some or all of the funding. We had an entire year to possibly talk about fund raising events to collect the monies for the event. Maybe a donation bucket at Celebrate Wallingford so that even the residents might chip in by donating some spare change or a ziti dinner or something to that effect.

No one in a position of responsibility did anything at all and here we are again. Worse this time is that there is probably no more money sitting around to be found; the budget is tighter this year than it ever was and there is less support for using it even if it could be found.

Where was the planning?

Oh, that’s right; we don’t do that here in town for the most part. There is no real strategic planning at all.

Some would say, “The fireworks celebration, while a nice thing, should not be at the top of priorities with everything else going on.”

I disagree.

This is just one small example of the many things we do not plan on at all. Whether it is the “small, nice to have” things like the fireworks display to the larger “how are we going to address all the issues at the schools that were NOT addressed in the recent $75 million renovation,” we do not have a proactive plan of action to address these things.

We only react to them when they are inevitably forced upon us. When we are forced to react without a plan there are few, limited ways to handle costs and keep them more in line. When there is planning you can better and aggressively manage cost.

The past couple of council meetings have been very short (one was less than 10 minutes); we certainly could have discussed smaller items such as this and start discussions of tactical and proactive plans for the future when agendas are light like these recent ones were.

If the people in the position to handle the small things do not do this very well how can we expect them to handle the larger issues at all?

As for the fireworks, I take no comfort in the fact that Southington and Cheshire do not sponsor fireworks for the 4th. Whether I think they should or shouldn’t has no bearing. I live here in Wallingford where we always had (over my entire life in this town) a display. I think we should continue to do so. If we need to take a cue from Meriden (and solicit larger businesses for sponsorship) or handle some smaller fundraising we should find a way to get it done.

That task I place on the administration and our elected officials.

I challenge Wallingford citizens with the task to dig into their pockets to help sponsor the event.

Are you up to the challenge?

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FROM WALLINGFORD – Budget time: get the details!

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

As published in the Record Journal on Sunday March 14, 2010

JASON ZANDRI

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Budget season is effectively upon us; don’t let the fact that the recent Town Council meeting ran a record short 10 minutes or so — there’s plenty to discuss in the upcoming weeks.

Traditionally, budget sessions are not recorded and televised. Historically, these meetings have been held on separate dates from the normal Town Council meetings and the Wallingford Government Television staff has not been tapped to work.

It is possible that the budget sessions will be recorded and televised; we do have the new camera setup that allows the sessions to be recorded with fewer personnel. This cuts down on one of the chief arguments for not televising them in the past which was the de­sire to not overwork / over leverage the GTV staff.

The most logical answer to this would be to incorporate the budget meetings on regu­lar council nights as they did the past couple of years.

It doesn’t make sense to have compara­tively short council meetings (the past two were less than two hours combined total time) and then have all nine councilors and the mayor show up on additional evenings to discuss the budget separately when this all could be accomplished on the regular evenings.

We will have to see what decisions are made.

In consideration of what’s at stake this year — the grand list shrinking, property revalua­tion, and the school board looking for an in­crease in their budget in the four percent range— it’s probably more important than ever for people to get tuned in and involved.

One way to do this is to get to the budget meetings. This is not always possible for many of us, myself included these days.

If you can’t make the meetings then you should try to find other ways to get the de­tails.

I do not know if the budget details are go­ing to be made available ahead of time on the town website but I’ll make it a point to get them and scan them and get them online my­self if necessary.

The meetings themselves are televised on GTV on cable. I believe they are now on U­verse as well. If you are a satellite owner or if you miss the scheduled showings I do pro­vide the meetings online for streaming at http://wallingford.blip.tv/ Dave Moran and the Record Journal report right from the council chambers.

You can also go to the Wallingford Town website and get the minutes of the meetings; they are generally available a week or so after the meetings.

You can get in touch with any of the coun­cilors and ask them for any of the details you might have questions or concerns about. You should consider doing this now, ahead of the budget meetings themselves.

If I can instill in anyone just one thing I would hope that it would be that your voice does matter and it does make a difference. Make sure you’re heard.

It’s easy to not say anything and then later say “see — I’m glad I didn’t waste my time and energy, no one voted the way I thought anyway.” If you don’t offer your comments then the councilors have no way of knowing which way to go other than following their own thoughts on the matter.

They may still do that if they feel passion­ate about something or if your thoughts and opinions about items are in the minority of what towns people are communicating.

You change that by getting together people with similar opinions and becoming a driv­ing force for change. This cannot be a one ­item topic like this particular budget or one particular line item in the budget. It has to be a sustained and organized continual effort.

Else, you and others like you become mar­ginalized as another fly by night group of dis­senters that are to be dismissed out of hand.
Get informed, get involved and stay en­gaged.

People like that cannot be ignored.

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Let’s talk socialism

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

by C­hris P­owell, managing e­ditor o­f t­he J­ournal I­nquirer i­n Manchester.

Published in the Record Journal, Monday March 22, 2010.

On his provocative talk show on WTIC­AM1080 in Hartford the other day, Jim Vice­vich and his callers complained that the na­tional medical insurance legislation advocated by President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress is a scheme to tax young people, who are less likely to need medical care, for the benefit of old people, who tend to spend their declin­ing years shuttling among doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and nursing homes. The insur­ance legislation, it was said, is socialism.

Vicevich and his callers were right. But they still did not have much of an argument against the legislation. For as faulty and bu­reaucratic as the legislation may be, the country long ago settled the two principles underlying it.

The first principle is: T­he g­enerations t­ake c­are o­f e­ach o­ther i­n t­urn.

Older people whose children are grown or who never had children pay taxes for schools, even if some old folks vote against school appropriations for selfish reasons. Forty-five years ago the country decided to guarantee basic medical care to the elderly, and in fits and starts since then the country has decided to do the same for the non-el­derly poor. For some reason the country has not yet decided to guarantee basic medical care to the non-elderly non-poor. But the non-elderly non-poor, including the young people the talk show host portrayed as vic­tims of the legislation pending in Congress, sometimes do suffer catastrophic illness and need care they can’t pay for, and thus they could benefit from the pending legislation too. And the country already does guarantee some medical care to everyone, having set­tled the second principle: We­’re not going to let people die in the s­treet.

The law requires public hospitals to treat everyone who shows up with an emergency condition, without regard to ability to pay. Expenses incurred by hospitals on behalf of those who can’t or won’t pay are passed along to patients who do pay, directly or through insurance.

Creaky as all this can be, it is a social in­surance system, and it is socialism only in the sense that any service to the public by government — from national defense to road maintenance to police protection— is socialism. It is not socialism in the sense of government ownership of the means of pro­duction, in which the federal government has engaged lately, as with General Motors and AIG. To the contrary, this social insur­ance system is based on a sound idea and sound morality — the idea of insurance it­self, the sharing of financial risk, which was practically invented in Connecticut, and the morality of personal and social responsibil­ity. That is, people should carry insurance for their own good and society’s, and gov­ernment, the great teacher, should push them in that direction.

And the main element of the established social insurance system — Social Security — provides not just modest pensions for re­tirees but also crucial income for widows, orphans, and people who cannot support themselves because of physical or mental disability. If the government did not require universal participation in this system, many people would not insure themselves at all, would meet great misfortune, and would be left to the street. Would even the most ardent social Darwinist want that?

There are various ways of achieving a sys­tem in which all are insured medically, but in essence either the government becomes the big single insurer or medical insurance companies are so regulated as to be turned into public utilities. Each system has advan­tages and disadvantages, sensitivity and in­difference, and efficiencies and sodden bloat. Gradual and incremental change into universality almost certainly would be best, less disruptive and less controversial.

It’s too bad that Republicans in Congress won’t help save the country from the Demo­cratic majority’s megalomaniacal impulses by supporting any compromise legislation that would get everyone covered.

The Republicans say the country can’t af­ford universality and that the new system will grow and never save any money on bal­ance. They’re right. The performance of any medical insurance system will depend largely on how much money is put into it. More always will be wanted.

But maybe the unnoticed virtue of enact­ing a new system now is that its vast ex­pense, pushing the country deeper into in­solvency, may force reconsideration of the socialism the country really cannot afford— like stupid imperial wars, corporate bailouts, and excessive public employee salaries and pensions, grotesqueries that already have cost far more than a universal medical in­surance system would.

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FROM WALLINGFORD Teacher layoffs – paradigm shift

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

This week’s edition of FROM WALLINGFORD was written by my counterpart Stephen Knight

As published in the Record Journal – Sunday March 21, 2010

V-Knight_S

“We must hang together, gentlemen … else, we shall most assuredly hang sepa­rately.” — Benjamin Franklin

If the Connecticut Education Associa­tion (aka: teacher’s union) had that as its credo, the substantial layoffs in the Wallingford school system that are loom­ing might be avoided, But, alas, layoffs are being touted as the only possible way to address the town’s budget shortfall for the coming year. The suggestion to reopen the contract between the CEA and the BOE, and thus avoid these devastating dislocations to so many lives, has been dismissed by union leadership. They will have none of it.

Why is that? Well, there are two reasons that they are unable to bring themselves to doing so: 1) they have never had to, and 2) there is too much else at stake. This is not, mind you, a condemnation of the CEA. Far from it. This is just a picture of the reality that has been constructed over a long period of time, a pathway that they walk that has been built stone by stone over many decades.

First of all, neither the union nor the government has ever faced quite so stark a situation. It has become obvious to most of us that the taxpayer base is plain tapped out. Up until now, for as long as any of us can remember, contract negotia­tions have gone like this: The two sides meet. The town says “We have no money.” The union says “You’ll find it.” They talk. They come to an agreement. The union goes to its members and says “we fought hard and got you this.” The town goes to the taxpayers and says “you’re lucky it wasn’t more.” Everybody stays put. Taxes go up. Everybody moves on. Today negotiations are like this: The two sides meet. The town says “We’re $4 million short. We can’t raise taxes. The state is cutting our funds. We need to talk.” The union responds “You always say that. We have a contract.” The town says “But really. Something has to give.” The union responds “We feel your pain, but we have a contract and we aren’t touching it.” The town says “But people will lose their jobs.” The union responds “If we re­open the contract once, we’ll be doing it forever. No can do.” In other words, they have no idea of how to surmount this ob­stacle, and even their legal advisers are telling them: better to throw forty teach­ers under the bus than to risk setting a precedent you will have to live with in the future. It seems counterintuitive to the stated goals of unionism, but that is the re­ality.

Which brings me to my second point: Unions are no different from any other or­ganization. While the mission statement may say otherwise, the number one goal of the union is survival of the organiza­tion, the same as it is for The March of Dimes, the Red Cross, the US Army or Microsoft. In this case, the union has made a choice that its bargaining position for the future will be irreparably harmed if it concedes to renegotiate its contract with the town. As much as they regret it — and I truly believe that their leadership does regret it — they see these laid off members as casualties that have to be borne for the long term protection of the union’s position.

There will be more dislocation to fol­low. There is a paradigm shift taking place in our economy here in the 21st century, and our comfortable and familiar 20th century methods of coping with these shocks to our system are obviously inade­quate. These forty are a testament to that fact.

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The FROM WALLINGFORD that wasn’t – Choate and a piece of the town budget

Friday, February 12th, 2010

by Jason Zandri

NOTE – This was my submission for this weeks FROM WALLINGFORD article. The Record Journal could not use it the way I had submitted it so I have presented it below as originally submitted and in its entirety.

They explained the reasons to me and I understand their position and their decision.

Since there’s not enough time for me to create a new submission ahead of the publication deadline I believe the paper is going to run something else in the place of FROM WALLINGFORD this week.

With all the discussion lately regarding the Board of Education budget, reconfiguration, and what the Council and the Mayor will or will not approve there had been a number of different questions that have come up in the different discussions at some of the meetings and online.

Should we fire all torpedoes and raise the taxes?

Should we cut here and fund there?

Should we tap the rainy day fund and if so how much?

What are we planning to do about next fiscal year’s costs?

One of the questions that came up from one of the parents that I found interesting and that I followed up on personally was with respect to the number of students that are housed on the Choate campus and attend schools in the Wallingford Public School system.

I thought there was a logical question in this topic.

There are some housing units (a few) on the campus that ARE taxed and ARE feeding into the town’s tax base, so the families that live there and are using the school services are, in effect, paying in (regardless of who is footing the actual tax bill).

There are also other housing units to consider. These are other buildings on the Choate campus that also house Choate students and their families where that real estate is not assessed for tax purposes. In some of these other housing units there are younger siblings and they are students that go to the elementary schools in town.

In an effort to find out what the cost impact was to Wallingford’s bottom line with respect to this situation, I decided to contact Superintendent Menzo to see if he had these numbers or perhaps just the number of students that attended Wallingford public schools that lived in these untaxed housing units. As it turned out I needed to follow up with Headmaster Shanahan at Choate to get this information as Superintendent Menzo did not have this data.

I emailed Headmaster Shanahan and asked: how many students attend Wallingford Public Schools and live in housing belonging to Choate that are not assessed for tax purposes?

I didn’t expect the number to be really high (I was figuring about 20 to 24 students – guessing off the top of my head).

I thought it was a simple sounding question but it really wasn’t because there is a little more to it than just what I was asking.

Here is the response that I received.

OUR RECORDS INDICATE THAT WE CURRENTLY HAVE 12 CHILDREN FROM 7 TAX-EXEMPT HOUSES ATTENDING WALLINGFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

BUT CHOATE IS CURRENTLY PROVIDING A HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION FOR SOME 56* WALLINGFORD CHILDREN, 50% OF WHOM  RECEIVE SUBSTANTIAL (I.E. $2.4 MILLION) OF SCHOOL FINANCIAL AID.

[ONLY 30% OF NON-WALLINGFORD CHILDREN RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID.]

*CHOATE THEREBY IS RELIEVING WALLINGFORD PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE COST OF EDUCATING THESE 56 STUDENTS EACH YEAR.

This just goes to show you that sometimes there is a little more to a simple question than what meets the eye.

Where some felt there was a burden (and I admit at face value I initially thought there was too) there was actually a benefit.

Wallingford may be footing the bill for 12 additional children but we do not have to carry the burden for an additional 56 high school students. That is a net savings of whatever the cost burden is of 44 students.

I am sure that raising these points is going to have some of the nit-picky crowd coming up with a bunch of counterpoints. Some of the comments may well have some justification but the way I see things in this instance and with specific regard to the Board of Education budget, Wallingford is coming "ahead" of the game with a cost savings with respect to the net additional students.

For me, that is a little ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak and overcast budget forecast.

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Editorial – Wallingford budget

Friday, February 12th, 2010

As published in the Record Journal Thursday February 11, 2010

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Wallingford’s school board and superintendent have tentatively agreed to go forward with a budget request that seeks a 4.7 per­cent increase but, signifi­cantly, does not mess with the traditional K-5 alignment of the eight elemen­tary schools.

There will, of course, be serious cuts in personnel – in certified staff, as they say, in paraprofessional staff and in other administrative staff, though not, we sus­pect, in its upper levels. This now seems to strike the public as an acceptable route to pursue, even though everyone expects the mayor to knock off a couple of million or a cou­ple of percentage points from the total sought or re­quested. That has been the pattern for a number of years.

And, strikingly, it now seems to be okay if such cuts result in increased class sizes.

Many people have com­plained for years about the Wallingford school sys­tem’s budget practices. Each year it submitted a budget destined to be trimmed; each year it would muddle by through the habit of carrying for­ward unused funds from the previous year. Yet this year’s effort, an interesting departure in principle, could best be described as worse.

Its chief plank was the re­alignment of elementary schools. This division of grades, in and of itself, is not necessarily a good or bad idea — or good or bad for Wallingford. It was, however, dumped suddenly in the lap of the school board with several new members just discovering their education legs. It was presented as an alternative to deeper staff cuts, to in­creased class size, and to higher total costs of the system.

It’s interesting how ideas that seem unthinkable one week – class size has been a mantra not only in Walling­ford but in many communi­ties for years now – can suddenly seem fair and log­ical when compared to something radical like mov­ing school assignments around.

We hope the realignment idea comes back for an­other visit, for it has its own merits and has been found helpful in a number of com­munities. For now, Walling­ford will see where the tra­ditional budget process will lead its school system this year.

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