A fed-up homeowner came face-to-face with the mayor and popped the question: Why do you want to raise our taxes an average of 9 percent?
Melissa Bailey Photo
Times are tough, the mayor responded. The alternatives are worse, he argued; and we have important jobs to do, like improving the schools and fighting crime.
The exchange came Wednesday evening at City Hall, where DeStefano gave a budget address to the Board of Aldermen. DeStefano offered a broad overview of the city and state’s fiscal health for the next few years, ending with his plan to close a $45 million gap for next year’s budget.
When the mayor opened the floor for questions from the public, he came across the type of taxpayer he’ll try to convince in order to win approval for a spending increase as many people are still reeling from a global economic crisis.
DeStefano (pictured) unveiled his$476 million proposed spending plan for FY2010-11 on Monday. The plan would keep the mill rate at 41.21 mills to support a $12.5 million increase in spending. Because the city’s entering the third year of a property revaluation phase-in, that translates to an average 9 percent increase in a homeowner’s tax bill. Total tax revenue would rise by $16 million, including $3.5 million growth in the city’s grand list.
At Wednesday night’s session, after the mayor’s presentation, Cedar Hill activist Rebecca Turcio jumped to her feet. She told the mayor that her income remains the same, but the cost of gas, health care, utilities and property taxes is going up.
“I have to make cuts because I don’t have the choice,” she told the mayor. She urged him to do the same.
“Not one person can afford another property tax increase,” Turcio declared.
DeStefano gave a rebuttal that hit on the choices that the city faces going into the budgeting process. He submitted his budget to aldermen Monday; they’ll kick off a series of public hearings on the budget Tuesday, culminating in a vote by May 24.
DeStefano said he understands what taxpayers like Turcio are thinking: “I know it’s great, John, but it sucks for us.”
First, DeStefano said his budget is an honest one, given tough financial times. He took issue with Turcio’s assertion that he had not kept costs down.
“There are cuts in this budget,” DeStefano said.
He said he started the budgeting season $46 million in the hole. The city faced a $19 million projected loss in revenue, and $26 million increase in expenditures, $12 million of which is due to health care, pension and workmen’s comp.
To get out of that hole, DeStefano is rolling out what he termed “Innovation-Based Budgeting.” He aims to hire a new “revenue & innovation project coordinator” to help top managers find ways to streamline government now and in the long term. The goal is to cut expenditures by $8 million, or 1.7 percent, in the FY2010-11 budget. Managers will look a range of topics, including replacing paper copies with digital files, “targeted privatization,” and leasing out the Goffe Street Armory. The plan calls for hiring two attorneys to the Corporation Counsel office charged with reducing the amount of money the city pays by losing lawsuits. A new budget analyst position would also be created to write grants to bring in more revenue.
In addition to the IBB program, DeStefano aims to procure $1 million in labor concessions this year, as the city negotiates new contracts with a majority of its 13 unions.
To help close the gap, DeStefano proposes borrowing $10 million in revenue from a proposal to “monetize” the city’s parking meter revenue. That would save taxpayers a 2 mill increase in the tax rate this year, he said (although it would saddle future mayors with millions a year in lost parking meter revenue for 20 years).
The mayor said he refuses to do what other cities have done and raid a fund balance to get through the budget year.
In past years, the mayor has cut deeper. In the last decade, the city lost one out of every three City Hall jobs through layoffs. Last year, the mayor slashed jobs, closed three senior centers, closed two schools and cut back on library hours.
“People do know things about cuts,” he said.
He said the city does have choices about the proposals in his budget. The city could opt not to give the school system a $3 million increase to support school change, he said. The government could choose not to hire new 35 police officers, in a city that had 140 shootings last year. It could decide not to hire 12 new firefighters.
“Those choices would retard the attractiveness of our city,” the mayor warned.
“There are other cuts we could make,” he concluded, but they would “hurt our chances of recovery.”
Even Some Cuts Might Not Save Much
The mayor strengthened his call as budget watchdog Gary Doyens hit him with the same line of questioning.
Doyens mentioned grave projections the mayor showed for the state deficit in upcoming years: $513 million in FY10, $287 million in FY11, then a harrowing $3.3 billion in FY12, $3.0 billion in FY13, and $3.2 billion in FY14.
As the state plunges into crisis, the state cut $5.5 million in aid to New Haven in FY11, and will likely cut more in future years, DeStefano said. The city budget is highly dependent on state aid. State aid would be 42 percent of the city’s budget in the mayor’s FY11 proposal.
“Why do we not start shrinking the size of government now,” asked Doyens, “so that when we get to [FY]12, 13, 14, we’re not in the dumper?”
DeStefano said he could lay off more government workers, but he didn’t see much savings — the federal government just extended unemployment benefits, so the city would still have to pay two-thirds of the cost of salaries up to one and a half years after a layoff.
He said cutting more now just isn’t worth it.
“I don’t think we could deliver the type of school change” that would close the achievement gap and cut the dropout rate in half in five years, he said. The city would not sustain the cuts required to balance the budget without an increase in tax revenue, the mayor argued.
“We wouldn’t be able to provide services.”
How's the hope and change working out for you?