Months After Hartford Bailout, Rival Mayors Blast Extra Help For Capital City

The Harford Courant reports:

Mayors from across the political spectrum and map — several of them candidates for governor — are howling over the final terms of the state’s already-approved bailout of Hartford.

Two of the most notable critics of the deal, which calls for the state to pay off about $550 million of Hartford’s general obligation debt over the next two decades, are Bridgeport’s Joe Ganim and New Haven’s Toni Harp.


The pair issued a joint statement Friday questioning the fairness of the bailout and intensifying the rivalry between Ganim and his Hartford counterpart, Luke Bronin, who could wind up facing each other in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

“It seems the state continues to shortchange New Haven and Bridgeport — its two largest cities, with comparatively stable finances, while rewarding the past practices of other cities that put them on the edge of financial collapse,” Ganim and Harp said.

The struggle of Blue America....