A chart, ye gads, now I have something to rant about! And let’s start with this 1 through 6 listing of the 10 largest cities in Connecticut.
10 largest cities (2005 est.):
1. Bridgeport, 139,008
2. New Haven, 124,791
3. Hartford, 124,397
4. Stamford, 120,045
5. Waterbury, 107,902
6. Norwalk, 84,437
7. Danbury, 78,736
8. New Britain, 71,254
9. Bristol, 61,353
10. Meriden, 59,653
And now let’s look at the same list but by proposed 2009 “do nothing” budget spending from Hartford.
1. Bridgeport, $ 194,788,826
2. New Haven, $ 199,178,915
3. Hartford, $ 203,366,600
4. Stamford, $ 15,722,630
5. Waterbury, $ 137,443,519
6. Norwalk, $ 14,518,985
7. Danbury, $ 29,728,527
8. New Britain, $ 90,373,769
9. Bristol, $ 45,617,149
10. Meriden, $ 59,595,200
Hey guess what — it’s the state office holder election year. And we can look at the above and ask our delegation exactly what have they done for us lately? Now, we know there’s some dynamics out there that make it difficult for our delegation. Things like the pecking order of decades of service logged in by some the delegations from cities that rake in the cash. But, do we have to send Bruce Morris back? A legit question because when you pull up his legislative profile you can see he’s been busy supporting New Haven’s delegation instead of Norwalk’s. We do love government transparency over here for a reason.
Next in the series: The Fighting 4445 leader, is 4.45 cents on the dollar enough bacon bits?
source: Courant, Net Total Town-by-Town State Budget Comparisons chart, April 30, 2008
