Alders Endorse Mayor’s Budget, Mill Rate Bump

Finance Committee alders voted to leave the mayor’s ​“primarily status-quo budget” primarily as is — while tweaking it to prioritize food aid, street-level maintenance, and reserves for an era of turbulent Trump funding.

That means, overall, spending next fiscal year is on track to increase by 3.63 percent and the local tax rate by 2.3 percent, just as the mayor originally proposed in March.

The committee met in the Aldermanic Chamber at City Hall on Thursday evening to debate and amend the city budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 26) starting July 1.

The committee alders unanimously passed the budget out of committee — advancing it to the full Board of Alders, which will take a final vote on May 27 — after amending it to redistribute approximately $1.7 million.

They left the top-level numbers intact. The general fund budget would be $703,765,049 and the mill rate would be at 39.40, an increase of 0.9, just as Mayor Justin Elicker has proposed. (One mill translates to $1 owed in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed property value.)

The committee alders also kept ten of the 13 new positions requested by the mayor for City Hall, including a permanent general fund allocation for the director of the Department of Community Resilience.

East Rock Alder Anna Festa moved an amendment to cut three of those proposed new jobs: a deputy controller and chief data officer requested for the Finance Department, as well as an accountant requested for the Economic Development Administration, which amounted to a budgeted total of $298,959.

Festa asked that the bulk of that funding — $248,959 — be reallocated toward nuts-and-bolts constituent services, such as sidewalk repairs or tree trimming. She said she needed more time to pinpoint exactly where that funding would go.

“The mill rate is going up,” she said. ​“Our constituents deserve something tangible.”

The remaining $50,000 in Festa’s amendment would be distributed to Haven’s Harvest, a local food rescue and redistribution organization that is seeking to grow its capacity.

The amendment won unanimous support from Festa’s colleagues on the committee, who passed it with the intention of determining exactly where to allocate that $248,959 by the time the full board votes on the budget at the end of May.

The committee alders had another opportunity to reallocate funding due to a slate of calculation errors and revenue projection updates in the mayor’s original proposal, which uncovered a net surplus of $1,770,439 in the mayor’s overall budget.

Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola moved an amendment to save a majority of that surplus — $1,425,000 — in an expenditure reserve, to cover unexpected costs that could arise ​“due to the unpredictable nature of our president.”

DeCola’s amendment also allocated $345,439 toward the Coordinated Food Access Network (CFAN), a local food access coalition that rallied to advocate for funding for a variety of citywide hunger initiatives this budget cycle. 

“We know a lot of our constituents and beyond really utilize these services,” said Board President Tyisha Walker-Myers of CFAN’s food distribution efforts.

“Food aid is important,” echoed Festa. ​“It’s a moral obligation. It’s a responsibility.”

The combined investments of nearly $400,000 toward CFAN and Haven’s Harvest mark the first time that the city has invested general fund dollars (as opposed to federal or other grants) into food insecurity initiatives, according to CFAN co-chair and Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen Director Steve Werlin. 

“We’re extremely grateful to the Board of Alders and to the city and to the community for supporting us,” Werlin said. ​“We saw incredible turnout. It’s really encouraging, especially as we’re facing some difficult budget cuts at the federal level, to know that the City of New Haven is investing in this.”

“We are grateful and encouraged that the Board of Alders recognizes the dire situation of hunger in our city,” wrote CFAN co-chair Alycia Santilli in a statement. ​“While the problem sometimes feels intractable, collectively, we can make a difference, and the Board is stepping up to be a part of the solution.” 

CFAN had sought this funding in the face of a perfect storm of rising rates of local food insecurity, the Trump administration’s cuts to federal food bank support, and proposals to restrict SNAP (food stamp) benefits currently before Congress. Connecticut Foodshare estimates that 20 percent of New Haveners are now food insecure.

The alders’ proposed allocation is still less than the $993,000 that the organization had requested for eight specific initiatives. According to Santilli, the group will prioritize ​“ensuring people have access to healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables” with the funds.

Alders also decided to allocate general fund dollars, for the first time, toward the director of the Department of Community Resilience, a role that had previously been funded by federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. At the expiration of the position’s original funding, the committee’s amended budget marks a more permanent role for the Department of Community Resilience, which was created during the pandemic to focus on homelessness, mental health, prison re-entry, and violence prevention initiatives.

Finance Committee Chair Adam Marchand said after the meeting Thursday that he has been ​“impressed with the work [that the department’s director Tirzah Kemp] and her team have been doing.” He said he was convinced that a supervisor specifically devoted to the department’s priorities is necessary. ​“The circumstances they’re dealing with are really difficult,” and require attentive leadership, he said.

School Layoffs Loom

As part of the budget proposed by the mayor and advanced by the Finance Committee, the city would allocate $213.2 million toward New Haven Public Schools, a $5 million increase from the current fiscal year.

The school system, which has its own budget under the purview of the Board of Education, is anticipating a $16.5 million deficit this year even with that increase. School community members, along with the mayor, have advocated for the state to contribute more funding to make up this gap. If the shortfall is not addressed, however, Supt. Madeline Negrón has proposed budget cuts including laying off 129 school employees — primarily teachers and librarians. 

Dozens of educators and students showed up to testify in public hearings before the Finance Committee over the past few weeks, advocating for additional school funding to mitigate those layoffs. 

On Thursday, Festa proposed an amendment to sequester the mayor’s proposed $5 million increase until the Board of Education could present alders with a plan to reduce funding through the ​“elimination of non-student facing positions or school closures,” rather than cutting teachers, coaches, and librarians. If the funds were to be sequestered, the Board of Alders would have to pass legislation in order to release them to the school district.

Festa’s colleagues expressed skepticism about this mechanism for asserting authority over the school system. 

Uncertainty around funding could backfire, argued Annex Alder and retired principal Sal Punzo. ​“I’m afraid that we’re gonna lose teachers if they get notice that they’re gonna be replaced,” he said.

“If they don’t have a plan, or if we don’t like their plan, then what are we gonna do?” asked Majority Leader and Westville Alder Richard Furlow. ​“We know at the end of the day, we’re gonna give it to them.”

Festa was the sole alder to vote in favor of her amendment.

By the end of the meeting, the version of the budget advanced on Thursday would keep the mayor’s proposed $5 million increase to NHPS intact, without increasing it.

That $5 million was not necessarily a given. According to data gathered by the teachers union (New Haven Federation of Teachers), alders approved no more than 50 percent of any proposed mayoral increases to the NHPS budget between 2016 and 2021. 

The trend has shifted in recent years. In 2022, shortly after the union gained new leadership, alders approved $4.5 million of the mayor’s proposed $5.045 million increase to the school system, and for the most recent two years, alders approved 100 percent of the mayor’s proposed school funding increases. 

NHFT President Leslie Blatteau acknowledged this shift on Thursday night, while bracing for the shortfall if the state does not step in.

“The alders and the mayor are doing their part. It is significant. And it’s still not enough,” she said. ​“So, then what? Where is the accountability for the decision-makers on the Board of Education to rein in legal fees, to figure out how they’re gonna generate more revenue?”

“While people are deciding who’s gonna take the blame for underfunded schools, we know who’s gonna bear the brunt,” Blatteau added: students, educators, families. 

“It shouldn’t be that way,” she said. ​“Not in one of the richest states in the richest country in the history of the world. And not in a place where there’s a $41 billion institution across the street.”