CPOA calls budget surplus “pure hogwash”

September 26, 2013, New Britain, CT -  Not mincing words the President of the Citizens Property Owners Association of New Britain, Nick Mercier, called the alleged $2.4 million “surplus” claimed by the O’Brien administration “pure hogwash.” “He was able to create a ‘surplus’ by essentially stealing from the past.” Mercier said.

Mercier claims that the Mayor is engaging in the age old practice of moving money to make the city look better off than it is. Citing a resolution passed April this year where the city took $6.6 million from the city’s self insurance fund to pay debts in the 2013 municipal budget the Mercier said the Mayor was stealing from Peter to pay Paul. “Earlier this year we were told that we were under budget, so the Mayor transferred around $6.5 million into the general fund from the self insurance fund. Now, a few months later, he has realized there is $2.9 million dollars left from that money and he’s putting it back.”

“That would be like me taking $20 from my kid’s piggy bank, spending half of it, and then claiming I had a $10 surplus and using it to pay my kid’s allowance.” Mercier added. The CPOA President, who has been highly critical of the Mayor’s budget practices for the past several years, says this claim just takes the cake. “I find it extremely suspicious that throughout the past 2 years the administration has been speaking of deficits every chance they get and then suddenly, less than a month before an election, they announce a surplus.”

Mercier said he plans on requesting a detailed report of the city’s financial state as well as the Mayor’s claims for an independent analysis.