Slifka's State Of The Town Address

Obama had his State of the Union; Slifka had his State of the Town.
Thank goodness West Hartford's Mayor is no Barack Obama.
At least this Democrat, Slifka, has some vision that includes fiscal responsibility and business growth.

West Hartford News reported that Slifka spoke about "controlled spending, the second-coming of Blue Back Square and a commuter rail to mark West Hartford as the new regional hub of the state .... by the year 2020".

Slifka addressed about 40 members of the West Hartford Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 26, and he outlined his ideas to take West Hartford through tough economic times and continue its progress.

"The state of our town is strong, but we are operating in a highly dysfunctional environment"

Last year, the town worked through a $10 million deficit while losing $6 million in revenue. We can all remember that some services. like leaf collection, took a hit - but all in all we didn't close any libraries or pools or firehouses. This year might bode differently, as we now face a $12.5 million deficit, due to lower revenues and less money coming from the State, along with higher expenses in the area of employee benefits, as well as other items in the budget. The West Hartford Taxpayers Association recently posted the Town forecast up on their website. The report was created by Town management.

Mayor Slifka spoke about the strength of business in town, and that:

"We're now known as an entertainment and dining destination,"

Slifka shared his plans for West Hartford's future in four parts: the budget, entrepreneurial regionalism, development and transportation.

"We are going to continue our focus on controlling spending," Slifka said. West Hartford wants to avoid the "GM Problem," he said, meaning a circumstance in which a company starts to fail because it had to pay for pension and health benefits for all its retired employees. "It was no longer focused on producing its product, but instead trying to figure out a way to pay out benefits," said Slifka. The town provides a service too, and the people in the community are investors who look for low taxes, good housing and education for their families, Slifka said.

To reduce the growing pension liability for the town, which Slifka said this year increased $2.5 million from $7.5 to $10 million, the town has switched from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. The Security Union and the West Hartford Public School Nurses Association have recently had their pension and health insurance benefits renegotiated under the new defined contribution plan, where the town matches a certain amount of money into an employee's 403(b) or 457 plan.

With regard to Entrepreneurial Regionalism, the Mayor very wisely did not endorse state-mandated regionalism. He did not seem to want to get involved in sharing costs and services between towns, or having town services performed by a regional organization. Instead, Slifka felt that we can achieve the best results by having the town perform services itself. He stated that services like payroll, information technology and engineering, can be done on our own and without state assistance.

The Mayor also outlined some ideas for further development of business in town, including building a hotel on the Raymond Road and Farmington Ave. (Well, that's been talked about like forever)

The Mayor also voiced his support for the rail line which would link Connecticut to major metropolitan areas like Boston and New York and which would make our town the new regional hub of the state. Slifka believes that establishing a commuter rail out of Elmwood would spur growth in and around the area - especially given that we have so many residents who work in those metropolitan areas and already commute.

As an interesting side-note Mayor Slifka, also stated that he was ruling out any possibility of running for higher office.

"I don't want anyone in town to be distracted," Slifka said of all the work that the town has ahead of it. "Most people forget I'm a volunteer."

All in all, Mayor Slifka seems to have fiscal constraint and business development foremost in his mind, and in good or bad economic times that's a very good thing for West Hartford. Now let's see what he can do to get the Town Council, and most especially the Board of Education, to get on board with fiscal constraint.