Fabrizi said twice this week, Gov. M. Jodi Rell spoke with him to reassure her commitment to the long-delayed billion-dollar development.Apparently that was not good enough for State Senators Bill Finch, Edwin A. Gomes and State Rep. Robert T. Keeley, Jr., who claimed that Rell has been slow in reacting and not pushing the project forward.
Robert L. Genuario, secretary of the state's Office of Policy and Management, said Friday the governor fully supports Steel Point, but does not want to release more money until the city needs it to conclude a purchase.
"This project's in trouble," Finch said of Steel Point. "These are big developers, and if the state is going to nickel and dime this and it fails, it'll be the governor's fault." Finch said the project needs more "upfront" money.Of course the State should not be writing blank checks for projects without setting some standards of accountability.
Genuario said last year the state committed $20 million, and this year it's more than $13 million.Exactly. Maybe the urgency of an election. Rell is right to insist that any state money authorizations come after a deal is made to acquire the remaining properties.
"The mayor is a good advocate for the Steel Point project," Genuario said. "I think he's satisfied that the state is supportive."
Genuario said he also spoke this week with representatives of Midtown Equities LLC, the designated developers.
"It's not unusual for us to provide funds as they are needed," Genuario said, adding the city has yet to access the $8.5 million approved earlier this year. "The urgency may be more perceived than real."
Connecticut Post Development moves inexorably forward, by Ken Dixon 9/30/2006.
9 comments:
TG... good post... not just simply slamming Ned or various Rs. Has fabrizi said anything publicly?
I admittedly don't know much about this project, but my gut reaction is, why aren't private developers developing this with their own money, and taking the incumbent risks therefrom?
It seems like every development project in the state involves some sort of transfer payments to the developer, or reduced taxes for the developer. I think that's a big problem.
What specifically is the state funding here? Are they funding some sort of municipal building? Why should the state subsidize a private developer?
I love private development: I think it's great when it happens. However, I'm not in favor of having the state intervene and get forced into giving various incentives. That totally distorts the economic decision making process. Why has Connecticut gotten to the point where the state government really needs to be involved in providing incentives every time someone wants to build a building?
(My wife wants to put new countertops in our kitchen: can I get some sort of economic kickback from the state?).
anyone who think a self-selected sample is going to reflect acutal public opion is deluded.
Rell and Lieberman will crush their opponents among the less politically interested
OK. Here are the facts regarding this issue according to the stories and this post(which is very well done): the State (our tax dollars) committed $20 million last year and another $13 million this year to the Bridgeport project; the Governor said she is committed to the project; money given earlier this year has not been used yet; and the OPM Secretary is working with the developer.
So what in god's name are Senator Finch and the rest of the do-nothing legislators in Bridgeport whining about?
$33 million over 2 years and Finch says that the State is "nickel and diming" the project. Senator Finch sounds like an idiot to me.
Perhaps he can tell us why more tax dollars should go to Bridgeport without any accountability. How much money did we lose with the corruption from Ganim and Newton and others? What the heck was Finch doing when that was happening? Taking poor people's homes through emminent domain because he has a fake job with economic development?
Finch's comments are a joke. He's lucky the Governor cares about the city. In the old days, you call the Governor who gives your city millions a joke and your city gets zip.
Time to get rid of Finch!
bc what is so difficult to understand from his comment. The zogby polls regarding the CT races for Governor and Senate have been done by on-line subscribers and are simply not accurate. The primary results bare that fact out. Obviously, this is not the only type of polling zogby does; he is a leading national pollster. Since you did not pick up the phone you have no idea why zogby called. It is not unusual for zogby to do what disgruntled said. BTW, why wouldn't you trust disgruntled anyways?
bluecoat - pollsters are supposed to comment on what the poll means. There is a type of science to polling and reviewing polling data (i.e. crosstabs). BTW, it is called political science. I think the better way to handle you objection, which is valid, is to prohibit non-partisan polls within 30 days of an election. While Schwartz is using his professional expertise, it does tend to have unintended consequences that may not be fair to a candidate.
Schwartz is out of his mind because os all the attention he's gotten lately.
One of the callers fo the Q-poll attended a fundraiser I was at this week and said the press coverage and attention Schwartz has gotten has gone to his head and he's been pestering the callers.
She said his bias for Lieberman and Rell is obvious to all those doing the calling so they gave him what he wanted.
"Why has Connecticut gotten to the point where the state government really needs to be involved in providing incentives every time someone wants to build a building?"
GMR - I think you're absolutely right. I don't know the answer to your questions, but let me suggest one possibility.
In these Connecticut cities such as New Haven and Bridgeport, city government has gotten so large and overbearing that its difficult to get anything done. Every development needs to be carefully reviewed by the city government, and if someone doesn't like the way it looks, or thinks it will cause traffic, or wants them to use more union labor, they'll stall the project. That's probably why its become so expensive to build here, and why the cities need to ask for outside funding. Maybe if we had stronger property rights this wouldn't be as much of a problem.
Turfgrrl:
For brownfields, yes, I agree, they need to be cleaned up, and if the company that did the messing up is out of business, the state or the feds are going to be the ones that need to clean it up.
I just don't see why in most cases -- and maybe this Steel Point place is an exception -- the state or local government should be providing tax incentives or outright grants to certain developers. Let the market decide where companies should develop, not on which companies have which connections with which politicians.
I think if you took a step back, and asked, why don't companies want to develop in Bridgeport without big tax incentives, you'd see that Bridgeport has made it very difficult to do business there. But instead of simplifying these things -- taxes, zoning, permitting, other regulations -- they layer it up even more with various grants and such.
As far as affordable housing goes, I think again, we need to ask ourselves why, when there is obvious demand for affordable housing, there's so little supply. Is there something Bridgeport and other neighboring towns could do with regards to permitting, zoning, etc? Also, there may be the case that there simply isn't enough land available. And when the state gets involved in affordable housing such as this, doesn't it just become another who-knowns-who scheme? In other words, this new housing isn't going to bring down market rates, it's simply going to allow certain people with connections or who get on some list or whatever, to get below market housing, while people without connections or who are too far down the list won't get it.
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