It won’t hurt. It won’t help.
That is basically Mayor Toni Harp’s assessment of Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed $43 billion two-year state budget.
“He didn’t want to do major cuts for municipalities. We didn’t get cut in terms of dollars. He pretty much kept his word,” Harp said of the budget Lamont proposed last week, and which the legislature will now take up. Harp made the remarks on her latest appearance on WNHH FM’s “Mayor Monday program.
But New Haven didn’t get the help it needs in state reimbursement for tax-exempt property or for its education budget, Harp said.
She noted that since she became mayor five years ago, the amount of New Haven’s grand list that the city can’t tax, thanks to state exemptions, has grown from 50 to 56 percent. But Lamont did not propose an increase in the underfunded Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program that makes up for some of those exemptions.
“We got nothing. Nothing. There was a zero increase. But thankfully there wasn’t a decrease, like there was last year,” Harp said.
“We need an increase.”
The governor’s budget — which the legislature will inevitably alter — did include at least $2 million more for New Haven’s schools, Harp said. But that portion of the Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) formula will be restricted to certain uses. It will come in the form of grants for new programs under the Alliance District program. “It is a special fund. We have to apply for it,” Harp said. “It doesn’t really count toward offsetting” the regular school budget or help cut the local tax rate.
In fact, New Haven’s share of flexible dollars through the ECS formula would drop about a quarter-million dollars under Lamont’s budget, she said.
On top of that, Lamont proposes having cities and towns start paying some of the cost of their teachers’ pensions under the state retirement fund. Most municipalities would have to contribute 25 percent under the plan. Poorer cities like New Haven would be required to contribute only 5 percent. Harp said that would a mount to a little more than $180,000 in the first year.
But that’s just for now.
“It’s really the camel’s nose under the tent. It’s not our bill,” Harp said. “Once we start paying for it, then we are going to be paying for it probably forever. …
“Once we start taking on part of the future retirement debt for a system that was created by others, not cities, that creates a problem. We don’t get to set actuarial assumptions. We don’t get to make a decision about what the contribution will be for teachers. There are number of things that we don’t get to do, except pay. That’s troubling.”
Before Lamont unveiled his budget last week, New Haven Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks warned that New Haven could be forced to eliminate 172 teaching positions and close schools unless the state ups its education aid to New Haven by $10 million.
Which clearly didn’t happen once Lamont revealed the budget.
Harp said Monday she’s not convinced that Birks is right, that the proposed state budget leaves New Haven in that position.
She said she wants more detail from Birks about how she arrived at her numbers, and whether she incorporated all funding sources, like grants and special funds, into her calculations. “I want my fiscal team to take a look at that as well,” Harp added.
Harp agreed with Lamont’s proposal to levy a special tax on extra-sugary drinks, because, she said, the government needs to take action to address an obesity epidemic in urban neighborhoods. She said such taxes have been shown to work.
She agreed with Lamont critics who called for upping marginal income tax rates on the highest earners.
Daniels Students Speak Out
Local parents and teachers, meanwhile, are fighting for increases in school funding wherever they can find them.
About a dozen New Haveners travelled to the statehouse on Friday to testify in favor of a bill that would increase inter-district magnet funds by 5 percent.
This year, New Haven received close to $33 million for bringing in suburbanites to city schools, meaning the district could pick up almost $1.65 million if the bill passes.
Two students from John C. Daniels Interdistrict School of International Communication — third-grader Talya Hadari and seventh-grader Alejandro Huber — told legislators that budget cuts had already resulted in a loss of hours for their library media specialist.
Click on the videos to watch them testify.
Christopher Peak contributed to this story.
Click on the video below to watch the full episode of “Mayor Monday.”
WNHH’s “Mayor Monday” is made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.
".... thanks to state exemptions, has grown from 50 to 56 percent. " Are you kidding me? The city have actively sought to increase the amount of its tax exempt Grand List through property giveaways and tax abatements to favored non-profits. New Haven follows the Connecticut rule of holes: when you are in one, dig deeper. From LCI's sale of the Grand Avenue house to Fair Haven Health, to the tax abatement to the Residences at Ninth Square, to the tax abatement for the church building housing by Route 34, the city continually works to reduce its list of taxable property.