The support for a measure to allow for a new kind of oversight to the city of Hartford's finances, appears to be losing support before it gained much of any inside the State Capitol.
Rep. Minnie Gonzalez described the bill as, "muerto, muerto," to the Hartford Courant Wednesday. In Spanish, that means, "dead, dead."
The proposal which was drafted last week would create a board to oversee the sustainability of Hartford's finances. The city faces a $10 million shortfall to end the current fiscal year, and a projected shortfall of more than $30 million next year which is expected to grow.
Union leaders have also stood up to Bronin, saying they don't think he's been forthcoming with them.
"I don’t believe the mayor is truthful when it comes to negotiating with the unions," said Vincent Fusco, the President of the Hartford Firefighters Association said during an interview with NBC Connecticut.
Fusco said the part of the proposal that allows Bronin to appoint members to a board that could reopen collective bargaining is wrong.
“That is not collective bargaining. That is not negotiations. That is dictatorship. Us organizations, we’re all banding together because it negatively impacts all of us the same way," Fusco said.
Bronin said he's trying to get the city on a solid fiscal path and that includes the unions, not going against them.
“I have an enormous amount of respect for them. I have an enormous amount of respect for them as a union and I have an enormous amount of respect for organized labor. We are in a extraordinary crisis," he said.
The mayor said new ideas are needed to fix the city's problems and that includes the proposal before lawmakers.
“We have to face the fact that we can’t keep doing things the way we’ve always done them. We need to make some extraordinary changes because we are facing an extraordinary crisis.”
