City Budget

Mayor's $680M Budget Rethinks Parks, Housing

by | Mar 1, 2024 2:50 pm | Comments (68)

Thomas Breen File Photo

Mayor Elicker unveils his fifth proposed budget.

FY25 general fund, mill rate proposals in comparison to previous four years.

Taxes would rise — and city government would reshuffle its approach to inspecting housing and caring for parks — in a new city budget Mayor Justin Elicker proposed Friday.

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Department Head Pay Raises Advance

by | Sep 29, 2023 12:15 pm | Comments (5)

Yash Roy photo

Gormany and Matteson at Thursday's Finance meeting.

The Elicker administration won a key initial vote of support for its plan to increase pay for department heads, coordinators, and other non-unionized managers, as an aldermanic committee endorsed salary range bumps and cost of living adjustments in an effort to ward off even more City Hall vacancies.

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Surplus Reaches $22M — Minus $15M Settlement

by | Sep 19, 2023 5:28 pm | Comments (34)

Thomas Breen photo

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.

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Debate Pitch: Here's How I'd Fix The Parks

by | May 31, 2023 6:09 pm | Comments (22)

Zoom images

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.

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Final Budget OK'd At Mayor's Same #'s

by | May 23, 2023 8:38 am | Comments (19)

Thomas Breen photo

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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New Building Official Tapped As Boom Stretches Budget

by | Apr 24, 2023 2:44 pm | Comments (2)

Thomas Breen photo

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.

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The Public Speaks

by | Apr 21, 2023 5:24 pm | Comments (4)

Laura Glesby photo

A hundred people attended Thursday's public hearing.

Jobs. Education. Climate change mitigation. Libraries. Housing. Traffic safety.

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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Budget Alarm Sounded For Housing, LCI

by and | Apr 21, 2023 3:37 pm | Comments (14)

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.

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Brennan Looks Beyond Yale, State For Budget Boosts

by | Apr 18, 2023 3:42 pm | Comments (26)

Thomas Breen file photo

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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Library Leader Pushes For Higher Pay

by | Apr 14, 2023 9:08 am | Comments (11)

Thomas Breen file photo

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.

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Schools Seek $4M Above Mayor's Budget Rec

by | Mar 31, 2023 5:34 pm | Comments (22)

Maya McFadden photo

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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School Board OKs $207M Budget Request

by | Mar 23, 2023 10:16 am | Comments (0)

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.

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$662.7M City Budget, 37.2 Mill Rate Proposed

by | Mar 1, 2023 2:29 pm | Comments (74)

Thomas Breen photo

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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City Vacancies Dissected As FRAC Comes Back

by | Feb 9, 2023 8:53 am | Comments (9)

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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Opinion: What The FRAC?

by | Jan 27, 2023 10:02 am | Comments (15)

Thomas Breen file photo

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.

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Alders Advance $3M Reading, Math Plan

by | Jan 27, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (17)

Maya McFadden photo

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.

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Whose Boom Is It? City Cut Top Investors $166M Break In 2022

by | Dec 23, 2022 1:08 pm | Comments (42)

Thomas Breen photo

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.

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