Alderman Salvio corrects Alderman DeFronzo’s comments in his letter to the editor.

 

This letter is a personal response to one that appeared in The Herald on Friday, 5/30/14 from David DeFronzo. Some facts need to be made clear before getting to the main thrust of this letter: Mr. DeFronzo is currently an Alderman serving on the New Britain Common Council. a position he held all throughout the Administration of Tim O’Brien  and one he holds today; when O’Brien took over as Mayor in 2011 New Britain’s mil rate was 36.63, when he left two years later, it was 44.?? ; some people realized a reduction in their real estate taxes because of a statewide/ordered Revaluation that lowered most property values - while most personal property taxes increased. Mr. DeFronzo carefully obfuscates these facts by asserting that Mayor Stewart has “opted” to hit taxpayers with an 11% increase to balance the budget. Does everyone see how sly and underhanded is his wording? What Mr. DeFronzo intimates is that  Mayor Stewart should be held responsible to taxpayers for all of O’Brien’s feckless administrative practices, practices he (DeFronzo) proudly supported along with other Council Democrats. It’s important to mention here that before the 2011 municipal election, Herald writer, Robert Storace wrote profiles of all the candidates; in DeFronzo’s profile it was reported that he said, he “strongly supported” that O’Brien budget.

At the public hearing on the budget, 18 people spoke about Youth Services a few on education, taxes  and one fire department cuts. But, Mr. DeFronzo says that cuts in these areas are significantly high; what he doesn’t say is that that there are other negotiations still going and that there is still time before final reconciliations on the 2014-2015 need to be completed. Now Mr. DeFronzo knows all this but he’s trying to scare people into thinking that doomsday is here and that our Mayor is responsible.

Mr. DeFronzo tries to demonstrate what a forward thinker he is but fails to acknowledge that what he attempts to credit as his thinking/ideas are things that are already being done. DeFronzo uses “weasel words” such as there need to be “real concessions” and “real discussions”.  One can infer from these remarks that any discussions that have gone on and any concessions made are FAKE !

Near the end of his “Treatise” on how to balance a budget and run a government DeFronzo cites the need for accurate revenue projections and the need to find sustainable revenue sources. WOW! Recently, Common Council members received a document showing the PHONY REVENUE PROJECTIONS of the 2013-2014 O’Brien budget. Now, a few paragraphs ago , I cited that Robert Storace reported in his profile on Mr. DeFronzo, that DeFronzo said in 2011, that he “strongly supported the 2013-2014 O’Brien  Budget ! This entire letter by Mr. DeFronzo to me, is simply an attempt to pull the wool over taxpayers’ eyes about what O’Brien did to New Britain and to place the blame on the current Mayor.  It won’t work !

 

Lou Salvio, Alderman