Remembering Senator Joe Harper: “One Of A Kind”
By John McNamara Joe Harper, New Britain’s former state senator and a local Democratic Party leader for a generation, died May 20th at the age of 69. Harper’s public service — mayoral aide, state representative, state senator — is being remembered as “iconic” and legendary by former colleagues and state Capitol observers. Mark Pazniokas in […]
Martin Luther King: Remembering April 4, 1968
by John McNamara Contributing Columnist I remember exactly where I was on April 4, 1968. That sunny and warm Thursday, like many others in my senior year in high school, I drove to Bradlee’s Department store on the Lynnway in Lynn, Massachusetts after school to punch in for the evening shift, earning some money before entering […]
City Taps Patton Brook Well For Water After Calling Off Bargain Basement Sale, Hiking Rates To Pay For MDC Water.
By John McNamara More than a year after the Stewart administration and Common Council sought to sell off the Patton Brook Well at an undervalued price of $1 million the unused well is replenishing the Shuttle Meadow reservoir. Mayor Stewart and her Council majority authorized the sale in August 2016, seeking to give up the […]
Numbers Don’t Back Mayor Stewart’s Claim That State Budget Caused City’s Negative Credit Rating
By John McNamara Contributing Columnist Mayor Erin Stewart has blamed this year’s state budget crisis for the city’s negative credit rating in response to a November 2nd report of an “escalating” debt and her administration’s own budget that shows interest payments will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars over the next four years. “We were downgraded […]
New Britain’s Bond Rating Drops From Stable To Negative: Huge Spike In Debt Through 2021 Cited By Moody’s
By John McNamara Contributing Columnist Republican incumbent Mayor Erin Stewart, in her re-election campaign this year and throughout her second term, has touted improving municipal bond ratings for New Britain’s fiscal solvency, claiming credit for budget surpluses of $15 million and pushing spending up at City Hall with no need for an election year tax […]
Will Erin Stewart Get Another Off The Books Push From An Absentee Landlord in 2017?
By John McNamara Contributing Columnist On the eve of the 2015 municipal election scores of tenants in New Britain got a notice about a possible rent increase from their landlord. It wasn’t an official increase but a not so subtle endorsement of Mayor Erin Stewart who at the time was cruising to re-election for a […]
Did Stewart Get A Prohibited Campaign Freebie In Mailing Of Car Tax Bills?
By John McNamara Contributing Columnist New Britain motor vehicle owners finally got their bills on September 1 along with a glowing missive from Mayor Erin Stewart that makes the case for her re-election. The city held up auto tax notices this year, blaming the state budget impasse for the two month delay. Uncertain was whether […]
GOP Alderman Hits School Board On Salaries But Rubber Stamps Pay Hikes, More Spending At City Hall
By John McNamara The sometimes fragile relations between City Hall and the Board of Education took a backward step this week over complaints from Ward 2 Republican Alderman Kristian Rosado appearing in the New Britain City Journal. Rosado, in a front-page story in the City Journal, derided a unanimous BOE move on salary increases for […]
Rep. Lopes Bill Requires Fair Market Value For City To Sell Wells, Watershed Land
By John McNamara State Rep. Rick Lopes (D-24) has filed a bill requiring municipalities or water companies to “complete a fair market appraisal of any property encompassing a watershed, well or reservoir before such property may be sold, and to make such appraisal public at least 90 days prior to such sale.” The legislation (6481) […]
City Hall Watch: Deferring Municipal Debt Payment Means Cash Now, Higher Interest Next Year
By John McNamara The Stewart administration is shifting $6 million from a scheduled payment on the city’s rising municipal debt— creating an election year windfall to avert yet another tax increase. The Common Council approved what representatives of William Blair & Company, the city’s bond counsel, called a “re-structuring” of a $28 million bond at […]