My Comments to Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin

January 3, 2017

I take issue with the fact that Mayor Bronin feels that Simsbury taxpayers will bail Hartford out when they made poor choices with their taxpayer’s money.

The governing body in Hartford, the FAT CATS and political insiders have done nothing to revitalize the inner city but spent their capital on an illusion that the Yard Goats will be a good bet for Hartford. There are consequences for bad judgment leaving a black hole with expenditures exceeding revenues.

Mayor Bronin volunteered for the job knowing what he was inheriting. Now it is up to Mayor Bronin to fix the problem. The budget failures were created in Hartford and now it is time for the Fat CATS and political insiders to take ownership of their failures. Don’t ask Simsbury residents to bail you out.

The Yard Goats development was promoted as a playground for the FAT CATS and political insiders to wine and dine their constituency at taxpayers’ expense. They were forewarned by many people that this was fiscally irresponsible. However the FAT CATS did not heed their call. The governing body, the FAT CATS, continued on the journey of putting more money into a failed development.

Now we know that this experiment was a total failure and money drained for this project has caused Hartford to be on the brink of bankruptcy.

Major Bronin, when you ran for Mayor, you knew you inherited a broken system. Now it is you who must fix it. You are not “TOO BIG TO FAIL.” Why not ask your FAT CATS to underwrite your failed experiment that they promoted and make your budget whole.

Hartford should not be “kicking the can down the road,” with a band-aid solution for an institutional failure. Asking for hand-outs doesn’t solve the problem.

Major Bronin, you were elected to manage Hartford’s budget, it is up to you to fix the problem.

Since the large institutions in Hartford will be the beneficiaries of a viable Hartford they should be included in the long-term solution to a fiscally responsible government.

Mayor Bronin, if your only solution to balance your budget is to pan-handle for money from other towns, you will fail with continual instability and less viability in the future.