Acting Controller Mike Gormany and Mayor Elicker: "Remarkable progress" on city's financial front.
Higher than expected property tax collections, building inspection revenue, interest rates, and city employee vacancies helped New Haven’s budget end last fiscal year more than $22 million in the black.
After the city sends roughly $15 million of that surplus towards a record police-misconduct settlement, that means the city can bank another $7 million-plus for a rainy day.
Clockwise from top left: Mayoral candidates Shafiq Abdussabur, Liam Brennan, Wendy Hamilton, and Tom Goldenberg at Tuesday's debate.
A network of green spaces linking every public park in New Haven. A larger role for people of color and women in building the city’s physical landscape. A pedestrian walkway connecting Union Station to Downtown. A ban on new parking lots and garages in favor of playgrounds.
Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand, rising in support of the new $662.7M FY24 budget.
City of New Haven data
Assessor's office estimates of FY24 tax bill bumps.
Tax bills are heading up next fiscal year — even as the tax rate drops — thanks to the Board of Alders’ unanimous approval of a final budget that preserves the mayor’s top-line expenditure, revenue, and mill rate numbers.
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Thomas Breen |
May 10, 2023 3:04 pm
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Rick Woods contributing to city coffers outside Affinity.
City government picked up extra cash for cleaner streets and other state-allowed public service programs as local sales rack up for legal pot and mini-liquor-bottle “nips.”
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Thomas Breen |
Apr 24, 2023 2:44 pm
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On the job at a Chapel Street construction site.
A city plumbing inspector is rising the ranks to become New Haven’s next top building official — as the department he’ll run continues to struggle to hire enough inspectors to meet the demands of the city’s construction boom for sub-suburban pay.
The Board of Alders Finance Committee heard over 50 last-minute pitches for more funding for these critical needs as they wrap up their review of next year’s city budget.
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Laura Glesby and Thomas Breen |
Apr 21, 2023 3:37 pm
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Laura Glesby Photos
Myra Smith: "Even those who have affordable housing are living in deplorable conditions."
Around a hundred education, climate, library, transit, and housing advocates sat through hours of public testimony on Thursday night.
A resounding call for more affordable housing and better housing code enforcement filled the Board of Alders’ chambers, as roughly 100 community members gathered for a final round of public testimony on next fiscal year’s proposed city budget.
Brennan (right) with Fabian Menges, Max Choulideer, and Dave Cruz-Bustamante.
Don’t rely just on bashing Yale and begging the state when it comes to raising enough money to fill city budget gaps.
Liam Brennan offered those words of caution as he pitched his mayoral campaign’s vision for how best to craft a “fair share,” pro-housing budget that rethinks the bounds of permissible local government action.
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Amanda Watts, Jessica Stamp and Luke Melonakos-Harrison |
Apr 18, 2023 2:18 pm
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LCI's Javier Ortiz on a recent housing code inspection.
If Mayor Elicker wants to improve public health and safety in New Haven, he must invest in stronger housing code enforcement in this year’s budget and increase tenant oversight of the Livable City Initiative (LCI).
Librarians Soma Mitra and Phillip Modeen at a November City Hall rally.
The main library at 133 Elm.
Pay the city’s top librarian a higher salary. Pay every library worker a higher salary.
Interim City Librarian Maureen Sullivan made that funding pitch as she detailed the budget asks for one of New Haven’s most cherished and nationally celebrated public services — which, she argued, could do with a little more city fiscal love.
Supt. Tracey: "I might be leaving here not closing a budget" if full $207M is not approved.
NHPS slide
Top school-district officials pitched alders on sending the Board of Education $207 million next fiscal year — as they made their case for why rising teacher salaries and special education costs warrant $4 million more than what the mayor has proposed.
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Maya McFadden |
Mar 23, 2023 10:16 am
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NHPS slide
The school district's FY24 budget request.
The Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a proposed $207 million schools budget request for next fiscal year, teeing up that financial plan — which is more than $3 million above what the mayor has proposed sending the district’s way — for review by the Board of Alders.
City Budget Director Gormany and Mayor Elicker on Wednesday.
Revenue summary for mayor's proposed FY24 budget.
Many New Haveners would see taxes increase again — and the city’s budget grow by less than the rate of inflation — according to a $662.7 million general fund budget newly proposed by Mayor Justin Elicker.
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Thomas Breen |
Feb 9, 2023 8:53 am
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Monday's FRAC meeting, complete with active public-attendee chat.
City government still has 112 full-time non-cop vacancies — while the city’s revived fiscal watchdog commission still has three empty seats — as the Elicker Administration continues to struggle to fill job posts so that overtime doesn’t spike and current workers aren’t overly stretched.
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Dennis Serfilippi |
Jan 27, 2023 10:02 am
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At a 2019 Financial Review & Audit Commission (FRAC) meeting at City Hall.
The following opinion essay was submitted by Dennis Serfilippi, a certified public accountant who works as a chief financial officer consulting for early- and late-stage technology companies.
New Haven is flush with $188 million in funding — $115 million from the feds, $50 million from the state, $10 million from Yale, and a $13 million tax increase.
Kim Harris (center) & students, speaking up for tutoring plan.
The Elicker Administration’s bid to spend $3 million in federal aid on a new math and literacy tutoring plan moved ahead — against a backdrop of questions and concerns around how exactly the city will find the hundreds of volunteers needed to make this program work.
360 State St.: Sold for $160M, appraised at $115M.
New Haven land records database
New Haven cut a $166 million break for out-of-town investors in the 10 biggest real estate deals of 2022 — leaving local taxpayers with the bill in a year that was supposed to start seeing the real estate boom pay local benefits.
The break came in the form of real estate tax appraisals that ended up far lower than the prices that buyers actually paid when they determined what the true values of high-end properties should be.
The city has received a one-time windfall of $2.7 million in deferred building permit fees from the now-former owner of 360 State St., thereby closing out two parallel developer deals that date back more than a decade.
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Thomas Breen |
Oct 6, 2022 10:12 am
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City Budget Director Gormany and Mayor Elicker on Wednesday.
City of New Haven FY22 data
Last fiscal year's budget surplus data.
Increased state and Yale aid — along with vacancy-induced salary savings — helped propel city government to a $16.9 million budget surplus as well as a slightly higher credit rating.
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Thomas Breen |
Sep 13, 2022 3:38 pm
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Ed board member Darnell Goldson at Monday's alder hearing.
Board of Education member Darnell Goldson took on the role of whistleblower as he criticized the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) contracting process as unduly shielded from public oversight, and as overly favorable to the current school bus provider.
City libraries remain closed on Sundays 11 weeks into a fiscal year in which they are supposed to be open, with the Elicker Administration citing staff shortages as the biggest roadblock so far to realizing a heralded budget promise.
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Thomas Breen |
Aug 3, 2022 12:00 pm
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Cracking concrete outside of the boathouse.
Alders signed off on paying outside attorneys $159,000 in total as legal bills keep mounting for an ongoing court battle centered on cracking concrete outside of the Canal Dock Boathouse.
The Elicker Administration is now looking to pay outside attorneys $159,000 in total in a bid to hold a city-hired contractor accountable for cracking concrete outside of the Canal Dock Boathouse.
