Mayor Ben Blake Travels to Hartford to Fight Major Reductions in State Funds For Milford

MILFORD, CT — As you're aware if Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's budget proposal is enacted by the Legislature Milford taxpayers could lose $11 million in state aid, which is the second most amount in the state.

Milford Mayor Ben Blake made the 60-minute trip to Hartford recently to protest any cuts to Milford's state funding. Blake, in a statement said he met last week with the Governor’s chief of staff and the Office of Policy and Management to "make the simple and direct case that the present State proposal is upside down and sends a dangerous message to towns and cities."

"The attempt to balance Connecticut’s budget on the backs of fiscally responsible, working class towns is a recipe for disaster," the Mayor said in a news release.

Blake is working closely with Milford’s delegation and meeting with other affected mayors and first selectmen to rally support for a Connecticut budget that makes sense, the statement reads.

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Below is the testimony Blake provided at last week’s Appropriations Committee Public Hearing:

Testimony of

Benjamin Blake, Mayor

City of Milford

Appropriations Committee

On behalf of the City of Milford, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to provide comments regarding the Governor’s Proposed FY 2018-2019 Budget.

As a political science major my freshman year in college, I studied David Osborne and Ted Gaebler’s book Reinventing Government. This 1992 work made many in the public sector sit up and take notice. Osborne and Gaebler introduced the “new” concept of citizens as customers and argued that this customer-service model should be applied to better deliver government services.

This approach focused on results and looked to promote competition within government in order to meet the needs of the customer/taxpayers most expediently. Many of the positions advanced in Reinventing Government have been debated over the years, but one in particular sticks with me - that state and local budgeting has, for too long, discouraged success and rewarded failure.

When a state or municipal department develops cost-effective ways to deliver services for less, the budget process has traditionally imposed a penalty, namely cutting that budget rather than rewarding the entrepreneurial spirit or favoring the beneficial measure. Rarely is an improvement used as a means to further invest in behavior that might be shared across departments. This budgeting model discourages innovation and encourages bad management by incentivizing departments to “use up” allocated dollars or face a budget reduction.

As I review the Governor’s recommendations, his budget appears to reward poor management while penalizing the successes of prudent local budgeting. The proposal sends a loud and unambiguous message that if a municipality works hard and makes tough choices, if it innovates and finds new revenue streams to offset growing costs, if the city sacrifices and carefully prioritizes its resources, and if it responsibly cultivates an efficient operation, then the State of Connecticut will come down on said city like a ton of bricks.

Milford is a blue collar, working class community where 32.72% of our households are low and moderate-income. We do not have the disposable income of some of the wealthy Connecticut towns. Up until now, we have managed the very real needs of our diverse city through careful planning and fiscal thrift. While other communities frittered away money on frills and short-term fixes, Milford chose to fund substantive projects that grow our public infrastructure and encourage investment in our tax base.

It now appears we have been victimized by our many years of conservatism and prudent management. More than any other middle-class town in the State, Milford is punished by the Governor’s budget proposal. The suggested cuts to Milford would strike a major blow to our seniors and students, who have already sacrificed for so many years.

If adopted, the proposal would bring draconian cuts in services and an unimaginably huge tax increase upon unsuspecting Milford residents. Therefore, I humbly and respectfully ask that this Committee review the local impact on our residents and consider a proposal that better serves all of Connecticut. A philosophy which rewards bad behavior and punishes good would not be tolerated in our own homes and should not be a model for state budgeting.

Thank you for your courtesy and consideration. I appreciate the good work of this Committee and I encourage you to adopt a budget that moves all towns in Connecticut forward.

Benjamin G. Blake, Mayor

Article written by Brian McCready (Patch National Staff)

(Editor's Note: This story first ran previously but here it is again in case you missed it.)