Someone finally thinks that Hamden’s financial status is looking up — and that someone has an opinion that counts.
That someone, Fitch Ratings, announced in a July 26 report that the credit rating agency has bumped Hamden’s outlook from “negative” up to “stable.”
That revision “reflects improvement toward a structurally balanced budget, management’s efforts to increase the debt service budget in accordance with a long-term plan to avoid budget shocks and improve liquidity, and projected improvement in reserves levels,” according to the report.
The agency wrote that Hamden’s move to continue an ongoing debt refinancing and restructuring plan — which has the potential to save the town millions of dollars by reducing interest rates on old bonds — as well as its official sale of Wintergreen School to Area Cooperative Educational Services in June have bolstered the town’s financial state by promising to reduce its debt service while taking in some needed cash.
Plus, the report points out, Hamden’s identification of potential town-owned properties that could also be sold for money and/or fresh development opportunities — including the Board of Education offices on Putnam Avenue and the Humphrey Fire House on Circular Avenue — alongside the receipt of state bonding money to replace some of those municipal facilities and resources suggests an opportunity to catch up with needed capital projects without going further into debt.
Given Hamden’s 55.48 mill rate, Fitch notes that continuing the tactic of raising taxes to deal with long-term debt could be “difficult to achieve from a political and economic standpoint.” The agency recommends focusing on increasing town revenue and managing expenditures in order to maintain — or, perhaps, to further improve — Hamden’s rating.
In her own press release regarding the news, Mayor Lauren Garrett wrote that “The decision by Fitch, a credit rating agency, to move Hamden’s outlook from negative to stable is an important affirmation that we have turned the corner and are headed in the right direction. We have created a structurally balanced budget for the first time in many years and by creating a capital reserve account (read more about that here), we are reducing our need to borrow.”
Garrett and the town’s Legislative Council increased this coming year’s mill rate by three points during budget season. At the same time, the mayor pitched a five-year plan back in May arguing that the town could start seeing tax relief in the near future if they stick to balanced budgeting tactics and, as Fitch suggested, focus on new economic development opportunities. Read more about that here.
Nora Grace-Flood’s reporting is supported in part by a grant from Report for America.
Please. She raised the mil rate, is forcing people out of their own homes, crime is off the charts and she’s taking credit for the town being one step above junk status. She and her cohorts are one big joke. She will never get re-elected, in fact, she has the distinction of being the absolute worst mayor we have ever had. Now she has 600k to hand over to the failing BOE while her anti police commission continue to condemn the police, The town is more a mess than it ever was at the expense of the taxpayers and she’s walking door to door to promote Lamont. You just can’t make this stuff up. The taxpaying residents bought that rating with our hard earned dollars while she’s out doing photo ops. I guess you have to move to Washington State to appreciate her. Press on Garrett, Press on.