NOTED ECONOMIST ON TYER BUDGET: ‘THE SPENDING IS TURNING PITTSFIELD INTO A GHOST TOWN’
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 8, 2016) — Doctor Charles Trzcinka, professor of finance at the Kelly School of Business at the University of Indiana, has an impeccable track record in his field, economics. He is a frequently quoted and sought after economist. He also grew up in Pittsfield.
Like any intelligent person who “escaped” from the city, he loves his hometown. Like any intelligent person who has been around and “seen the world,” he knows Pittsfield’s turn into the gutter didn’t have to happen. From such a person, the most sincere expression of love and loyalty comes in the form of constructive criticism.
Going Back A Long Way
THE PLANET has known, respected, and loved this man since we first met him, as incoming freshmen at St. Joseph’s High School in September 1965. Today, we remain in close touch, from afar, two successes in our respective fields, he from Bloomington, IN, and we from Stockbridge, MA, and both products of what used to be a great small city of 58,000.
When Chuck comes to Pittsfield to visit family, both of us make sure to set time aside for coffee, breakfast, or lunch. We discuss events as global as the implications of world debt and as personal as past loves and losses. Our gatherings include a good deal of fun and laughter, but when it comes to Pittsfield the tone is dutifully somber.
We have the privilege of picking from Dr. Trzcinka’s vast and encyclopedic knowledge of economics, finances, and budgets, and THE PLANET inevitably leave the conversations more cognitive and conscious, particularly of the underlying “drivers” that affect money and its matters. After our latest breakfast last week, we invited him to send us his informal thoughts in the mayor’s FY17 spending plan.
Chuck sent this to THE PLANET Sunday afternoon. Councilors, particularly, take notes:
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2. The schools need to be focused intensely on results (output) not inputs like the number of teachers or the teacher student ratio. The key question is what works? I imagine that the school administrators refuse to cut programs or teachers and focus entirely on student-teacher ratios.
On the specifics of the budget:
A. the actual budget is $158, 518,355 which includes (as I understand it ) grants from the State and revenue give-backs (that’s what the “Cherry Sheet items are). Note that this has grown by about $3 million which means the state is actually funding less.
B. The property tax revenue needs to go up from $76.785 million to $81.345 which is an increase of 5.9%. This means that either assessments must increase or tax rates increase or both. Either way that is an increased amount of cash that residents and business (not the Beacon though) will pay. Why is this city demanding $4.56 million more in taxes from the residents? What increased services or benefits does my Dad get for paying more?
THE PLANET thanks Dr. Trzcinka for his insights. The sooner official Pittsfield admits the grim reality, the better the city’s future chances. As of now — with the mayor, school department, school committee, and finance directors leading the way — official Pittsfield continues the “All is great” lie. It does so for the occasional tourists who may get fooled by the hype. For the locals, it’s more of, “Nothing to see here. Trust us. You go home now.”
The locals know better.
The council will soon review the mayor’s budget.
Get pissed, folks. Get super pissed.
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“It’s a recession when a neighbor loses his job. It’s a depression when you lose your own.” — Harry Truman
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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One doesn’t have to be Milton Freidman,Friedrich Hayek or Chuck Trczinka to see that Pittsfield is in the crapper.
The test for any community is an affirmative answer to the following question:
Is Pittsfield retaining and attracting middle class families and small businesses?
If the answer is “no”, then Pittsfield politics needs to change!
I believe an economist who focuses on public finances must look at the demographics in a community like Pittsfield. From what I understand, Pittsfield is one of the most inequal communities in the state and nation. There a few wealthy residents, while there are about 70 percent of residents who live in or near the poverty grouping. I would estimate that about 20% of local residents are middle class. Then you have the Senior Citizen grouping, who are the largest group of homeowners in Pittsfield. The elderly population in Pittsfield is bearing the biggest cost of the annual tax increases of about 5%. Then you have to look at the vested interests that are consuming the local taxpayers’ dollars in Pittsfield. They are the BIg 3: Public Schools, Police, and Fire Unions. They are the hundreds of not-for-profit organizations that rely on state and local tax dollars. Then you have to look at the ruling class in Pittsfield politics. They come from 2 groups (Del Gallo v Wojtkowski political factions) who both operate under the city and state Democratic Party Committee. The 2 ruling class groups alternate in and out of political power. Right now, the lovely Linda Tyer comes from the Del Gallo political faction.
Why are the demographics important to economics and finance? The reason is that you have to understand the structure of the community before you can change the status quo from the proverbial gutter or ditch to a community that attracts middle class families and small businesses.
Great points, Jonathan.
This is another black mark on the lovely Linda Tyer’s public record. As Pittsfield politics’ new Mayor, she had human services organizations go through the process of applying for municipal funding, but then she decided to eliminate their funding in her first municipal budget proposal.
– Jonathan Melle
News Article –
“Pittsfield human service organizations take hit under mayor’s budget”
By Jim Therrien, The Berkshire Eagle, 6/7/2016
PITTSFIELD – Mayor Linda M. Tyer’s fiscal 2017 budget eliminates city funding for up to 17 human service organizations, some of which have received support for a number of years.
The move apparently reallocated to other areas of the budget $123,000 being considered for the organizations, which had gone through the city’s review process this spring under the Human Services Advisory Council and the Community Development office.
The city contributions were cut during late budget changes that included adding funding for the Police Department in light of a rash of shooting incidents and to address other fiscal pressures facing the city.
A total of $154,500 in federal Community Development Block Grant funding to the city is expected to be distributed among about eight organizations, pending final federal Department of Housing and Urban Development approval, but the city’s typical annual supplemental funding for the nonprofits was eliminated.
“There are two pools of human services money,” said Community Development Director Janis Akerstrom. She said that only about eight organizations or programs were determined eligible for funding under the CDBG guidelines, while other programs were in line to possibly receive a total of about $123,000 in city funds. The latter allocations were cut.
Akerstrom said she has contacted each of the affected organizations to explain the situation or has left messages. The final decisions concerning the city funding, she added, won’t be determined until the City Council approves the fiscal 2017 spending plan.
Tyer could not be reached for comment on the human services funding.
Hilary Greene, who directs the Berkshire Immigrant Center, was informed by Akerstrom of the cuts. The center had requested $10,000 for next year, Greene said, up from $8,000 received for fiscal 2016.
She said the organization has received city funding since 1997. The center expected to use the funds for legal costs associated with helping recent immigrants obtain green cards, she said, and apply for U.S. citizenship and related services.
Under the city’s budget process, organizations seeking human services funding submit proposals to the Human Services Advisory Council in February for review prior to the next July-to-June fiscal year.
Green said all of the organizations applying for support went through the application process, including meetings before the advisory council, before being notified last week of the reductions.
“Normally, about now we would hear how much we would be receiving,” she said.
The city received funding proposals this spring totalling $515,765, according to an email sent to the organizations shortly before the public meeting process began. The city last year budgeted $276,000 in city and CDBG funding to organizations providing services in Pittsfield.
Greene said she plans to attend the City Council’s hearing on the Community Development Department budget on June 13 to lobby for reinstatement of the city funding, and she expects representatives from other organizations that applied will attend as well.
“I’m sort of holding some hope the funds will be restored during the [June 13] hearing,” she said.
Contact Jim Therrien at 413-496-6247. jtherrien@berkshireeagle.com @BE_therrien on Twitter.
Tens of thousands of municipal taxpayer dollars in tax breaks for the multimillionaire Beacon Cinema owner Mr. Stanley, while the neediest and poorest Pittsfield residents who depend on municipal funding to human services agencies get to pound sand!
I hope someone says to the following to the lovely Linda Tyer: “Double Standard!”
– Jonathan Melle
Until now I was willing to give the mayor benefit of my growing doubt. Not now. She funds the wealthy Richard Stanley with 14 years tax breaks. She spits all over human services. Tyer should be hung in effigy I am so mad.
What was the Pittsfield city budget 15 years ago? I think it has pretty much tripled. How in the hell could that have happened without malfeasance or just plain stupidity?
Whos been in charge? Former Mayor Amuso and current Mayor Yon are the reasons.They added 97 jobs to the schools while cutting janitors and paraprofessionals .
It happens because Curtis and Behnke are lightweight hires.Behnke s assistant got a 20k raise and Joe Curtis spends all day looking up data for 125 k after destroying Morningside school.
.We are the Pittsfield peter principle at work.
And yet the beat goes on…. No pressure…..No recalls…. The public is Numb.
It’s crazy. In today’s BB Berkshire Bank employees had 75 volunteers painting school halls. Really? With that huge school budget they had to rely on volunteers to paint the schools? Is there even a preventive routine maintenance plan for the schools? Or do we keep building new $121mil ++ schools? Thanks Berkshire Bank!
uh, does the city borrow any money from this bank?
City buiding department is responsible for painting schools and they mostly only use prisoners.This is the problem of a new 120 million dollar high school…they under Guyer wont be able to keep it up….previous mayors got rid of all the painters
Really?
I’m glad Tyer cut the human service agencies funds. Why should taxpayers subsidize nonprofits?
We bitch on this site that nonprofits get a free ride on property taxes. Tyer cuts their free lunch from us, the taxpayers, and now Melle is bitching?
How much more would our taxes have gone up if the funding was left in? Let them raise the money themselves from people who support their causes.
(Sarcasm): Oh yeah, I am the one who is wrong here!
First of all, if the lovely Linda Tyer wanted to eliminate municipal funding for human services agencies then she should have campaigned on that issue. BUT, she did not!
Secondly, the lovely Linda Tyer had these not-for-profits go through the application and review process to receive municipal funds. Then, she eliminated the funds in her budget proposal. Why did she have these people waste their time and efforts?
Thirdly, the lovely Linda Tyer doesn’t mind using municipal funds to help politically connected multimillionaires like Mr. Stanley, but when it comes to the most needy and poor in her community, they can starve on the streets of Pittsfield.
(Sarcasm): But, according to my critics, I am the one who is off base because I advocate for sustainable financial management benchmarks for Pittsfield politics.
– Jonathan Melle
Behnke,Yon,Amuso,Mazzeo,Tyer,Taylor,Ferrin,Farley-bouvier,Elias,White,……You can only imagine what their home checkbook paying skills are.Part of the problem here is a discipline to not pull out their debit card.
I see them as teenagers at college and telling their roommate there is nothing they cant do because they have a debit card and daddy wont find out today .They all lack financial disipline.There is a disconnect between spending daddies money and paying the bill.
You have to ask yourself what happened to these people.
The Good Doctor was-is on the same page as Gaetani, cut and slash not increase. Mayor Tyer and Cufflinks apparently disagree with their philosophy.
Every time the budget comes up the people of Pittsfield tell the council not to approve it and what happens they don’t listen and do it anyway . I don’t know when they will ever listen to the people who put them in office if ever.
The Mayor has decided to Cut Human Services but give out pay raise. This is typical of politician.
Take from the people who least can afford it but make sure other people in the schools and working for the city get a good raise. The Mayor was unnamable for comment.
The vested interests always wins in the China-like one political party system of Pittsfield politics. The Public School Department got their 18% pay raise package, while the poor and needy got their human services funding eliminated by the lovely Linda Tyer.
Really?
Jonathan, you think we should be taxed so that our money can be given out to a nonprofit not of my choosing?
I disagree with you 100%. Put the money towards cops, which it appears she did. Help the poor by keeping them safe.
how do we know which nonprofits would have received the money? How do we know they would have helped the poor with it?
Maybe they would have given it to the executive director as a bonus. Have you ever seen the salaries of the CEO’s of these nonprofits?
I guarantee they make more than you or me. Maybe not you, you live on government handouts
The unblemished truth is that Mayor Tyer is generally inaccesssible, to all but a select few and those who are in a position to stymie the public. Several active citizens have been denied a mayoral appointment or unduly procrastinated by the well trained and dutiful Catherine Van Bramer.
Transparency, Accessibility, even all inclusive “collaboration” is empty, hollow, rhetoric. BS !
Is it Mayor Bianchi with a Linda Tyer mask on?
No, he wasn’t a crook and a home wrecker
Really?
No, he was a crook, liar and thief, IMHO.
Worse mayor in Pittsfield’s history, so far…
I have been told that individuals serving on her committees have tried to meet with her and Ms VanBramer tells the same story to each one, upon arrival, “she is using the bathroom.” One would think she could come up with something a little better than that!
Well she sure is dumping on the taxpayers.
Does Tyer rhyme with Fiber?
How about CRONY?
http://www.drugs.com/symptom/frequent-urination-in-women-2.html
What rhymes with fibber?
Women’s libber.
What rhymes with phony?
Rich Dahony
Nice one! Another one: “Baloney.”
Is it Dr. Trczinka
or
Is it Dr. Trzcinka?
It’s easy to screw up. When I lived in New York somebody told me to “go buy a vowel”. I guess you can buy anything in NYC
At the end of the day the mayor is pushing the envelope below the glass ceiling. It is was it is.
I guess us seniors better be careful about our bitching lest the mayor and council close the senior center. She seems to be going after the less fortunate first rather than her millionaire friends.
Who will show seniors how to open e-mail without the senior center?
Maybe all the politicians who go there to seek votes?
Disagree, SHH. Froio has been a godsend to my family with their dementia day program. If the lovely Linda Lyer goes after Froio, I personally will begin the petitioning to impeach her.
You raise a valid point, but should a private industry care provider offer this service rather than using scarce public funding? I have two grandparents with severe dementia. We have to pay private providers for assistance. This is really just another public subsidy for a private need. I don’t want to seem without compassion, but we all have to make tough decisions with Heath and dependent care.
Dr. Charles Trczinka Is as much of an expert in municipal operations as I am an expert in international market liquidity. Not to say there may not be valuable, but those topics are not in our “wheelhouse”.
Please give us a tutorial on how you would manage Pittsfield politics’ municipal finances.
Every fiscal year, the Mayor of Pittsfield proposes a municipal operating budget that raises spending by between $4 to $6-plus million dollars, or about a 5% tax hike. Then there is the capital budget, which increases the municipality’s debt load by about $10 to $12 million each fiscal year. Then, the debt financing of the new Taconic High School project has yet to be included in the lovely Linda Tyer’s pending budget proposal. This project will add millions of dollars to her operating budget, or a tax increase of 1% to 2% per year.
How would you do things differently?
You criticize Dr. Charles Trczinka about his level of knowledge of municipal financial management, but what is he missing out on here?
– Jonathan Melle
Don’t expect an answer from SHH. He just criticizes
Right on Steve about Shakes.
He needs more fiber in his diet
I’m because I do this for a living I don’t know what I’m talking about? If you actually read my comment, I’m pointing out that the Dr. suggests valid points. I’m sure give some study time I could also rationally discuss his expertise.
You want to learn? Go read this:
http://icma.org/m/en/press/print/management_policies_in_local_government_finance
No SHH you don’t say that at all. And j doubt you are an expert
Doctor T is an expert on money, its uses and how to spend,budget, raise or borrow it. As for your ability in int’l market liquidiy, you have that right sir.
This is all about Tyree. Quite honestly a recall should be in order, just the fact that it is the biggest increase in the History of the City with the current economic climate is making it impossible for folks to maintain their investments and quality of life. Let’s call it IRRESPONSIBLE?
Tyree is who killed the Patriots ass
If memories is all ya have … Lessee, is dese da same Midgets who have failed to make the playawwfs fer da last 5 years? Dem Midgets?
What is the increase next year,year after that and the year after that I get the impression she is not going to get by on 120 k per year and if her financial management skills are to force people out of their homes you can imagine she will spend 130 k a year at home.
We should mandate all councilors and the Mayor take a simple arithmatic class in 5th grade just teach them addition and subtraction.
I dont think Caccamo owns a home.
Im told Kroll has a high paid do nothing job similar to what Mayor Joe Curtis and Mayor Christian Behnke have….word is if Mayor Curtis and Mayor Behnke come out of their office and see their shadow there will be 6 more janitors layed off…who will clean this new 240,000 square foot building with 5 janitors.Curtis and Behnke are incompetent and will do great in Pittsfield .
If you can remember the maytag repairmen commercial that is what Curtis and Behnke do
They wear funny hats too.Nobody calls them because they dont have anything to offer.Im dying to see more of Joe Curtis data.