{"id":1009,"date":"2020-02-14T18:24:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T18:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2020\/02\/14\/2020214hamden-residential-financial-meeting-brings-about-community-discussion\/"},"modified":"2021-04-13T14:45:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T14:45:52","slug":"2020214hamden-residential-financial-meeting-brings-about-community-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2020\/02\/14\/2020214hamden-residential-financial-meeting-brings-about-community-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamden residential financial meeting brings about community discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Christian McNamara presents his multi-slide presentation on the climbing expenses of Hamden. McNamara spent months compiling data from audits and financial reports. Courtesy: Peter O\u2019Neill<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Hosted by Yale lecturer Christian McNamara, concerned Hamden residents gathered at Books & Company late Tuesday evening to discuss the drastic financial debt Hamden has found itself in.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few fellow Hamden residents and I have put together a presentation on our town\u2019s precarious financial condition,\u201d Christian McNamara said in a mass email.<\/p>\n

Other Hamden residents like McNamara that are taking action are Judy and Stockton \u2018Stocky\u2019 Clark. McNamara and the Clarks, along with others, started the months-long project of compiling data into a multi-sheet pamphlet to illustrate the scope of Hamden\u2019s financial debt. It includes graphs and projection charts using older data received from Hamden\u2019s audits and financial reports already available to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent hours and hours reading everything I could get my hands on about the town’s financial situation,\u201d McNamara said. \u201cIt was an enormous amount of work, but work that we felt was very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group simplified pages of numbers and figures into a series of straight-forward graphs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charts are meant to show people, graphically, what is going on,\u201d Stocky Clark said.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the presentation makes obvious the immense financial debt taken by Hamden. Despite being the sixth most taxed town in the state as of 2017, Hamden is having severe difficulty making ends meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owe $1.1 billion…that\u2019s how much the town of Hamden owes right now,\u201d\u00a0 Stocky said.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Hamden\u2019s Moody’s municipal credit score lowered down to Baa3 status, neighboring with Sprague and West Haven. This rating is just one notch above the worst municipal score, Ba1, referred to as \u2018junk status.\u2019 The term refers to junk bonds, a bond which borrowers take when they have no other option, and are taken when the borrower is subject to substantial credit risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder junk bond status, it is going to be extremely expensive to take out bonds,\u201d Hamden Legislative Council Member Brad Macdowall said.<\/p>\n

There is skepticism that with Baa3 status comes the possibility of the Municipal Accountability Review Board (MARB) taking over financially. The board provides\u00a0 financial accountability for municipalities experiencing various levels of fiscal distress.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the MARB did come in, we would see slashed and gutted services, and no benefits to taxpayers for it,\u201d Macdowall said.<\/p>\n

The big picture, however, is lost to many Hamden residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften times when we point out these challenges, people say, \u2018Well okay it’s one thing to point out that we have a problem but what’s your solution?\u2019 To me it’s difficult to have a conversation about it until you\u2019ve defined the scope of the problem,\u201d McNamara said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we hoped to do tonight,\u201d he continued. \u201c[We are] getting the information out there, so that we can collectively define the full scale of the problem. And then use that as the basis for fostering a community-wide discussion about what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Over 40 Hamden community members were present for McNamara\u2019s presentation. This has been the largest number as of yet, for residents to attend a residential meeting assembled by McNamara and the Clarks. Courtesy: Peter O\u2019Neill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

McNamara has reached out to legislative council members and the mayor\u2019s office in hopes of his presentation creating a town-wide dialogue.<\/p>\n

Of the Hamden Legislative council, three members were present at the meeting. Council members encouraged attendees to speak up about their concerns, sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to make the best decision, we need you all to make your opinion known to help us better serve you,\u201d Hamden Legislative Council Member Justin Farmer said.<\/p>\n

An average of 40 community members showed up to Books & Company for the presentation that evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a good number of people there tonight,\u201d Macdowall said. \u201cIt\u2019s a low number, but it’s a bigger number than we\u2019ve ever had before. I\u2019m glad this conversation is beginning, and gaining traction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents need to be aware, and they need to be involved in the conversation,\u201d he continued. \u201cOtherwise, it allows people to keep doing the same reckless things, just to kick the can down the road. I do not believe the average voter, or the average resident, is aware of how difficult a situation we are in. People are starting to wake up and see it, but it\u2019s still early.\u201d
\nTo read Christian McNamara\u2019s full financial presentation, click here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Books & Company held a meeting Tuesday evening, Feb.11, to discuss the depth of Hamden\u2019s lesser-known financial crisis with bond-debt. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":1010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hamden","category-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3488,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/3488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}