Mayor Pavia Gives State of the City Address to Chamber of Commerce

Mayor Michael Pavia and members of his administration joined the Stamford Chamber of Commerce Wednesday afternoon for a luncheon where he presented his annual State of the City address.

Held at the , Pavia gave attendees a rundown of how the city is looking in terms of economic viability, public health and safety, social services, arts and culture, and education.

Pavia began his presentation by outlining the difficult fiscal challenges the city is currently facing, including a 7.6 percent unemployment rate, a 23 percent commercial vacancy rate, a soft housing market and increasing structural costs. And while the city has maintained a "strong and diverse" tax base, Pavia said, that base has declined by $20 million since 2008.

"The risks to our budget lie in decreased tax revenue, overtime costs and operational execution," he said. "The upsides that we're looking at and we feel are achievable are additional cost reductions, labor contract negotiations and grants."

Pavia then briefly outlined the budget proposal that he presented to the Board of Finance, which calls for a 2.9 percent tax rate increase, which he described as the "lowest back-to-back tax increase in years."

He further stressed that the rate could fall to below 2 percent if the Board of Education were to cut 4/10 of one percent of its $229 million budget.

"We're not telling them where to cut," he said. "We're simply asking them to cut 4/10 of one percent by combing line-by-line each of the cost centers in the Education department and find ways — like the city did — to save money."

Pavia then highlighted some of the city's accomplishments over the past year, including efforts by and to keep their doors open despite budget cuts, the completion of the Phase I of the Stamford Urban Transitway and the beginning of Phase II, the continued revitalization of the South End, and the continued efforts of non-profit organizations such as , the , and .

Pavia was particularly proud of the city's efforts to keep the streets clean during a harsh winter that dumped 80 inches of snow and cost the city $1.6 million."The aftermath of this severe winter is potholes and I'm happy to report that all of the potholes except for seven have been filled, and those seven are the ones that you hit on the way over here," he joked.

During a brief Q&A session following Pavia's address, Eugene Campbell, executive director of the Yerwood Center, encouraged the city's business owners to align themselves with the non-profits that continue to help those in need despite budget cuts.

"I would like to offer a challenge to other businesses to take a look at non-profits," he said. "Seventy percent of the families that we work with are working families and with all of the budget cuts, we may not be there... 30 percent of the families are not going to be able to pay the fees for our services and we have to figure out how to address the short form. But I do think, Mr. Mayor, it can be an opportunity for non-profits and businesses to come together to find out how can we have a greater dialogue, so that we can better articulate the impact that we have because we hire people too and they also support the local economy."

Pavia embraced Campbell's idea and praised the city's non profits for the work they continue to do. "In this recession, it's those organizations that provide immediate assistance and care to people that are suffering the most, so we really need to address them and we will."