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A Deal's a Deal
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Business New Haven
4/3/2000
By: BNH
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In 1992, City Hall cut a deal with the U.S. Repeating Arms Co. It was a shotgun arrangement: USRAC threatened to move to greener pastures unless the city offered generous tax subsidies - almost $10 million worth, as it turned out - to keep the gun manufacturer in Newhallville. To help the city save public face, USRAC pledged not to permit employment levels to fall beneath 400 - or else the tax subsidy would be withdrawn.
Guess what happened? USRAC broke its word. Today it employs just 354 workers. And the city hasn't raised a finger.
Recently, under considerable public (if not political pressure), Mayor John DeStefano finally raised his pinkie, at least a little. He wrote to aldermanic president Jorge Perez and recommended that, in lieu of revoking the tax abatement entirely, it reduce it only by an amount equivalent to the percentage the USRAC workforce has fallen below 400 (11.5 percent).
In failing to abide by the deal, the city has surrendered whatever moral advantage it may have enjoyed over the gunmaker. In an increasingly virtual world, this is virtual deal-making - a deal that's not a deal at all.
For most small and mid-sized businesses in New Haven - that is, almost all of them - the city is a tough place to make a living. The Board of Aldermen tries to tell you what to pay unskilled workers. The Board of Ed doesn't turn out enough graduates with the skills to work in the global economy.
But at City Hall, the bigger the company, the sweeter the candy. We say a deal's a deal, and USRAC ought either to employ the number of workers it promised, or give taxpayers their money back.
Disgraceful Conduct
You might easily have missed an item in the March 28 New Haven Register (page 6), "Crowd Assails Advocate Reporter." It detailed a March 27 protest by "a group of about 100 Fair Haven residents" outside the offices of the weekly New Haven Advocate on Long Wharf Drive.
The group rallied to express anger over a March 9 story in the Advocate penned by Associate Editor Paul Bass. The article asserted that New Haven's Latino community has lacked leadership since the death of Gumersindo (Gumpy) DelRio died in 1986. "There is no question that the city's Latinos have suffered a lack of effective advocates, particularly in Fair Haven," Bass wrote.
This obviously touched some sort of nerve among those with an ax to grind. Some of the protesters said Bass was trying to "divide and conquer" the Latino community. According to the Register, one protester, Menen Osorio, told Bass "she was so angry she wanted to hit him with a baseball bat."
This brand of physical intimidation and thuggery would be bad enough without the participation, and indeed, leadership, of present and former public officials. Former aldermanic president Tomas Reyes Jr. - whose questionable financial dealings Bass has reported on extensively - was on hand, reportedly "shouting" and accusing Bass of having "an agenda."
Current members of the P.C. Politburo - that is, the Board of Aldermen - including Raul Avila, Kevin Diaz, Robin Kroogman and Shirley Ellis-West came out to play as well at the protest.
Here's your First Amendment in action: Reyes, Diaz, Avila, Kroogman and Ellis-West ought to have their mouths washed out with soap. And the latter four ought to be recalled from the board for their participation in this disgraceful exercise, which ought not to go unremarked by any and all members of the Fourth Estate.
Reyes was right about one thing: Bass does have an agenda. It's the same as ours. And that is to ensure that the media cover government and government officials as the media see fit, not as the government sees fit.
And if you don't like something someone in the media says about you? Write a letter to the editor. Or go start your own newspaper.
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