Gov. Dannel Malloy’s administration moved forward last week with $300,000 in proposed taxpayer funding for the New Haven People’s Center, a non-profit run by officials in the Connecticut chapter of the Communist Party USA, by putting it on the agenda of the State Bond Commission, despite criticism of the proposal.
The money will go toward a new roof and other repairs at the historical building occupied by the center and owned by its parent organization, Progressive Education and Research Associates.
The Department of Social Services, the agency responsible for the grant, and the Office of Policy and Management, which oversees the bond commission, have no documentation supporting the grant to the People’s Center because it is a legislative earmark sponsored by Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven.
CTNewsJunkie has Harp’s defense of the project:
“The building is an official part of Connecticut’s African American Freedom Trail because of its contributions toward breaking down racial segregation in Connecticut in the 1940s and the 1950s. No one denies the value of preserving that link to Connecticut’s past as a reminder of the closed-minded, repressive way of thinking that perpetuated racism and segregation in our country,” she said.
The building has been home to New Haven’s first interracial theater group, first interracial basketball team, and also to the first campaign to end employment segregation, Harp said.
The structure now houses the New Haven Peoples Center, which Harp said is an all-volunteer organization that strives to improve the lives of others in the community.
“Today this building, a time-honored testament to so much rich history in our town, needs a facelift,” she said.
The Connecticut Mirror has OPM Secretary Ben Barnes’ take:
“They clearly have a community mission,” Barnes said, adding that state government routinely finances capital improvements for private, nonprofits with a community-based mission, such as Progressive Education and Research Associates, which runs the New Haven center at 37 Howe St.
Former DSS employee Mary Plaskonka first warned the administration about the inappropriateness of state funding for the center just days before the bond commission was first scheduled to vote on the proposal.
Instead of voting on it, the administration removed the item from the April 27 agenda.
“I have no doubt that the people who run it are good people, but this is not a state project,” Rep. Sean Williams, R-Watertown, told the Mirror. “It is the epitome of earmarks, and that it’s one for a group with political ties particularly concerns me.”
The political affiliations of an organization getting a state grant are “irrelevant,” state budget director Ben Barnes insists. Nonsense. The Communist Party’s purpose is to destroy the private economy and political liberty. If respect for history requires renovating the party’s building, the Communists should be happy to donate it to a less political organization, which could apply for the state grant. Let the expropriators themselves be the first to accept expropriation.
The commission’s next meeting is June 4.
There are numerous reasons this governor should be subject to recall and this is an excellent one but (correct me if I’m wrong) I do not believe that there are any provisions in the Connecticut constitution for recalling an governor. The next step would be impeachment but we’d need legislative cooperation and they have by and large served as his lap dogs providing no effective checks and balances in our system.
IT was the Family Workers party who helped vote in Malloy. The communist party votes were counted with democrats votes. He never would have gotten to be gov without commie votes!
That said, the communists work against American ideals and should be thrown out of Cponnecticut. It is an insult for AMERICAN TAXPAYING CITIZENS TO SUPPORT THIS GROUP IN ANY WAY. I do believe would should start recall procedures against Communist Malloy!
I see CT is now getting as STUPID as the Obama government!! Malloy, you better get your priories fixed!!
If there are any way to develope new homes, I agree with the plan. Especially if these
new developements can be purchased. The youth will must have dreams of owning
their own residence.
King Malloy couldn’t care less what “We the People” want. As far as he’s concerned we can shut up and pay our taxes. His actions have effectively shown that he couldn’t possibly care less what’s going on outside his Socialist causes and labor unions that help to bankroll his gubernatorial campaign.
This is a man who not only signed the biggest tax increase in state history but made the payroll tax increase retroactive to January when the increase was enacted in August. Our situation was so dire that he found it necessary to garnish people Christmas money yet whether we like it or not we the people of Connecticut are going to foot a supposed roof repair bill in an amount that exceeds the assessed value of the building…. and while there is no money to repair and maintain the existing infrastructure our oh-so-wise government has bonded out over half a billion taxpayer dollars to build a union contract laden busway whose revenue generated by people actually using it will not even meet annual maintenance costs let alone reimburse the people ROBBED of their hard earned income by a state government that REFUSES to make any meaningful cuts to its own expenses.
Oh, and the job-killing minimum wage increase is most likely a backdoor raise for public sector unions that piously claim wage freezes but whose pay scale is formulated off a baseline which is most likely the state minimum wage. He has further serviced unions via executive order to force policy changes that even his legislature wouldn’t support because they were so unpopular with the constituents… the forced unionization of PCAs and private daycare providers… people who get absolutely ZERO benefit from their new found collective bargaining “rights” but who now have the “honor” of funneling two million dollars annually to the SEIU via union dues- likely deducted by the state from state money that is supposed to help defray the costs of providing care but is now being funneled directly into union coffers… in exchange for ZERO service rendered.
This governor couldn’t care less about the people struggling to make ends meet in the state. he is beholding to special interest groups like labor unions who helped bankroll his campaign. The drop in unemployment is a politically convenient lie made possible by more people giving up looking for work that those of us who were fortunate enough to find a job.
Like Obama spending the US off a cliff, Malloy is navigating the state into the abyss of bankruptcy. Neither has shown the slightest bit of concern what the people want so don’t expect any message about what “We the People” to have any impact beyond the slight possibility of altering the populist rhetoric spewed to convince us the poison pills being shoved down our throats are motivated by concern for our state of affairs and are for our own good.
WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO GO OUT TO BID WITH THIS STUPID PLAN TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH IT WILL COST. LET HIM GO BACK TO FAIRFIELD COUNTY WHERE HE
CAME FROM. START USING NAMES AND TITLES TO THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BURY US. LET THE VOTERS KNOW WHO IS STABBING THEM IN THE BACK. iF YOU CAN’T GET MAD THEN DONT RUN FOR THE OFFIICE.
Protect our country and state, Mr. Malloy. We the People don’t want you giving our money and freedom to your pet causes. Do you think this is Russia?
Every day Danel P. gets worse and worse. He has already spent us into bankruptcy, taxed us into oblivion and is sending people out of the state. Look at the marker plates on cars leaving for Fla. Most have Ct plates. Vote him out. If it weren’t for the lack of ballots in Bridgeport and the substitutes addressed to empty lots he would never be gov. Out with Malloy. Joan Brod
Let Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven and Gov. Dannel Malloy fund this project with their own personal finances. Now let’s see if they think that it’s important enough. I don’t think so. Or, Sen. Toni Harp and Gov. l Malloy, request funding from the NAACP. They can probably afford such projects. Given the financial state of affairs in CT, I can’t fathom how our representatives can have the audacity to even consider this type of funding. Our govt. representatives should be seeking out financially bloated projects such as this and eliminating rather than promoting them
Yes it is. It’s at the Legislative Office Building at 10:30 a.m.
Good idea. Someone should look up their Charter and stick it in front of the Commission. I’m wondering if the Commission mtg is open to the public June 4th?
Malloy supports communists? if so remove Malloy from office!
for violating his sworn oath. The communists plan violate our freedoms and will destroy our constitution.