Paul Bass Photo
From left, Mayor Harp, state Reps. Dillon and Juan Candelaria and Walker, and state Sens. Looney (partly concealed) and Gary Holder-Winfield.
New Haven’s state legislators did a great job for New Haven.
So said New Haven’s state legislators.
They said that about themselves at a press conference held at City Hall Monday afternoon to tout the results of their legislating in the state legislative session that ended May 7.
Mayor Toni Harp, who until this year served as a state senator, said she invited “these conscientious officials” to City Hall so the public can find out how much they accomplished. She credited them with obtaining an extra $2.3 million for the city on top of money that had already been approved for the coming fiscal year. The legislature met in a short session in part to tinker with the second year of a previously approved two-year budget.
The legislators enabled New Haven to receive $1.9 million in extra Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) money than had been previously budgeted, to reimburse the city for revenue lost on tax-exempt properties. They also secured an additional $1 million in municipal aid. (That netted to $2.3 million because the city lost out on $600,000 because of cuts to a separate municipal grant program, Harp said.) Harp said the extra money helped limit New Haven’s tax increase in the coming fiscal year.
“We can’t bring it all home. But we brought a lot home,” said state Rep. Toni Walker, co-chair of the legislature’s Appropriations Committee. She called it “a very tough year” to obtain extra money in Hartford, not just because the two-year budget had already been set, but because a state surplus suddenly vanished during the course of the session. She singled out the restoration of a rent rebate program for seniors as a signal achievement for people in New Haven.
“There was no way to know in the middle of session that the economy was contracting,” said state Rep. Pat Dillon (pictured).
State Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney said that in addition to bringing home the extra $2.3 million, legislators worked successfully to pass a minimum wage increase (to $10.10 an hour in 2017), give New Haven greater tools to tackle problem bars by requiring the local chiefs be informed of pending nightclub license renewals, and take a “historic step toward universal pre‑K” with the launch of the Smart Start program.
Click here for a previous interview with Looney with more details about the session’s results.
One New Haven elected official, Prospect Hill Alder Michael Stratton, was highly critical of how Looney and the state delegation performed in this session. Click here and here to read his critiques.
Hooray for us! We're great!
Measured by what standard?
Do they really think that the people of New Haven are that gullible?