Brooks charges Bissonnette's budget figures as 'scare tactics'

Date: 7/14/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE -- City Councilor and mayoral candidate Shane Brooks believes that Mayor Michael Bissonnette has sensationalized state budget cut figures.

Brooks told Reminder Publications last week that he doesn't believe the state cut $6 million in state aid this year and the real figure is about $3 million.

Brooks charged that Bissonnette is "running the big numbers out there as a scare tactic."

Having worked on the city's new budget as a councilor, Brooks said he understands how budget cuts were offset by the use of federal stimulus money. He noted the Police Department has half of the amount of over-time as it did last year -- something which Brooks predicted the department "can't live with."

With state revenues on the decline, Brooks wondered if the city would have to use more of its $7 million stabilization account to offset the "difficult fiscal outlook."

He also disagreed with a published statement by Bissonnette that the Legislature "stole" the city's funding from the state lottery.

"I think there is a pattern of over-stating things," Brooks said.

He used the recent request to use city funding to help purchase the proposed Chapin Conservation area as an example. He said that Bissonnette did not get a second appraisal of the property, but instead relied on one that critics believed inflated the value of the parcel.

Brooks is also concerned there is no state mechanism currently in place to reimburse the city for a third of the coast of a new senior center. The plan is that one third will be paid by the city, while another third will be raised by the seniors themselves.

"We owe the taxpayers a detailed list of projects needed to be bonded," he added.

Brooks said the list of projects he has seen needs more detail and should be prioritized. Although he acknowledged the involvement of City Council President William Zaskey in the creation of the city budget, he said, "Now is the time to involve [the City Council] in projects."

Brooks, whose wife is the chief of staff for State Rep. Joseph Wagner -- who has often been at odds with Bissonnette -- discounted criticism that he is carrying political water for Wagner.

"Shane Brooks is running for Mayor. Eileen Brooks is not running for mayor. Joe Wagner is not running for mayor. It would be a stretch to draw any other conclusion," Brooks said.