Mayor Reveals A Sunnier Budget

Buoyed by grand list growth, Mayor John DeStefano proposed a $486.8 million new city budget that he said would add cops and firefighters while cutting most homeowners’ taxes — a more optimistic scenario than last year’s unveiling.

The mayor (pictured) announced the new spending plan at a 1 p.m. press conference at City Hall. It features a 2.4 percent spending increase in the budget over last year’s $475.5 million. The new budget takes effect July 1. Click here to download the mayor’s proposed budget from the city website.

The announcement just begins the budget process. The mayor submits this proposed budget to the Board of Aldermen, which his supporters no longer dominate, unlike in past years. The aldermen then spend months examining and debating the budget’s details before voting to approve it.

Unlike last year’s budget press conference, which was attended by riled labor leaders amid a season of protests and recriminations, this year’s announcement was a quiet affair. That might be because it’s essentially a good-news budget: Taxes on cars and most owner-occupied properties are going down, fees are staying flat, no city employees will be laid off, and no service reductions are planned.

The new mill rate would drop from 43.9 to 40.56. You can now find out how much you’d pay by entering your address on the city website.

In the school department, the budget calls for a 119-position reduction. DeStefano said the majority of those would be through attrition. That’s despite the first proposed increase in education spending in three years. The city’s portion of the Board of Ed’s budget would go up to $174 million, an increase of $1.2 million. The Board of Ed had sought a larger increase. (Read about that here.)

In the police and fire departments, the mayor is looking to add 67 new cops and 43 new firefighters. The city would spend $2.7 million more on policing, partly due to the expiration of a grant that was paying some salaries. (Read more about plans to add cops here.)

The increase in police spending would fully staff all car beats, double walking beats from 20 to 40, restore school resource officers, and double Internal Affairs staff — to help ​“police the police,” the mayor said.

Other proposed spending increases include $3 million more in health care spending and $1.15 in pension spending. Those remain significant drivers of the city budget, DeStefano said.

Meanwhile, in the wake of citywide revaluation, 75 percent of homeowners would see their taxes drop this coming year, DeStefano said. (More about that here.)

In the City Hall atrium at 1 p.m., DeStefano laid out budget highlights with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation, as is his wont.

The first slide showed the mayor’s budget priorities, similar to the priorities he laid out during last year’s reelection campaign: school reform, economic development, public safety, and jobs.

The budget is predicated on DeStefano’s Homeowner Fairness Initiative, which still requires state approval. The program would implement a partial phase-in of new property assessments, to offset the skyrocketing values some homeowners saw last year, particularly in East Rock.

It’s also predicated on projected labor savings. The budget assumes $2.5 million in savings through labor contract negotiations and $870,970 in attrition cuts. That’s a more conservative savings estimate than last year’s.

The mayor also predicted an increase in state Payment In Lieu Of Taxes reimbursements on Yale-New Haven Hospital property from $1.8 million to $3.5 million due its merger with the Hospital of St. Raphael. And he predicted the sale of the Martin Luther King School building on Dixwell Avenue for $1.5 million.

Other new revenue includes $7.5 million in new taxes from net new growth to the grand list. That comes from revenue-generators like the new PSEG peaking power plant and upgrades to United Illuminating substations on Union and Grand avenues, a new chiller playnt at Science Park, and the sale of the Broadway parking lot to Yale.

Mayor DeStefano also touted cost controls the city has implemented. That list includes energy and copying savings and $252,000 in saving due to increased recycling.

Challenges remain, the mayor said as he wrapped up Wednesday. The city still sees a large share of the state’s prison re-entry population, it has very little land available for new development, and the second highest share in the state of both subsidized housing and tax-exempt property.

Those challenges could be addressed if the state fully funded PILOT or if the state’s tax structure were adjusted to ease reliance on property taxes, DeStefano said.

The budget now heads to the Board of Aldermen, which is expected to hold public Finance Committee hearings on it. The first one is scheduled for March 15 at Columbus Family Academy.

The mayor will be holding his own public meetings on the budget:

• Saturday, March 3 at 11 a.m. at St. Bernadette’s Church
• Wednesday, March 7 at 6 p.m. at Wilbur Cross High School
• Thursday, March 8 at 6:30 p.m. at Lincoln/Bassett School
• Saturday, March 10 at 10 a.m. at Mitchell Branch Library