Projected $15.3M Deficit Detailed

Anticipated multi-million-dollar drops in property tax collection, building permits, parking tickets, and parking meter revenue make up the lion’s share of the projected $15.3 million deficit the city expects to face come the end of this fiscal year.

Those details are included in city government’s recently published March 2020 monthly financial report.

That’s the latest such report put out by the city’s finance staff and the first to provide a line-item look at how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the city budget, particularly compared with the February 2020 monthly financial report, which projected a $6.6 million end-of-fiscal-year deficit by June 30.

Mayor Justin Elicker has cautioned for weeks that delinquent property tax collection, building permits, and parking meter and tag revenue have all plummeted thanks so social distancing mandates and precautionary public health measures associated with the novel coronavirus outbreak. Last weekend, he first presented the projected $15 million deficit number during one of his daily coronavirus-related press briefings. 

In various Finance Committee budget workshops over the past several weeks, nearly every city department head has stressed just how much the pandemic has affected the day-to-day operations of their and their staff’s work, and how uncertain the short‑, mid‑, and long-term budgetary implications of the public health and economic crises might be. Click here, here, here, and here for stories about those workshops.

According to the March financial report, the projected end-of-year total revenue collections for the city dropped by $12.45 million since February’s report, from a total of $554,150,951 to $541,697,497

The city’s projected property tax collections have dropped by $3.27 million since the February report, from a total projected collection of $282,350,000 to a new projection of $279,080,000. That includes on-time and delinquent tax collections for real estate, personal property, motor vehicles, and interest and penalties.

The city’s projected revenue earnings from various licenses, permits and fees dropped by over $5.8 million between February and March, from a total of $26,183,682 to $20,354,415.

The largest month-to-month projected drops included building inspections ($17.9 million to $14 million) and parking meter receipts ($6.3 million to $4.95 million).

And the city’s projected revenue collections from various rents and fines dropped by over $1.8 million since February, from $5,272,300 to $3,470,005.

The largest month-to-month projected drop was in parking tag revenue, from $4.8 million to just over $3.1 million.

And the city’s projected revenue earning from other sources, including payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) and a variety of other taxes and assessments dropped by over $1.5 million since February, from an expected total of $25,009,866 to $23,507,974.

The largest month-to-month projected drops there included real estate conveyance tax revenue (from $2.1 million to $1.74 million) and PILOT from the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (from $608,400 to $304,200).

On the expenditures side, the largest change between the February and March monthly reports include a drop in the Board of Education’s projected end-of-fiscal-year deficit from $6.35 million to $2.9 million.