by | Mar 12, 2020 8:04 am | Comments (31)
Thomas Breen file photo
Acting Assessor Pullen: Broke news at budget hearing.
Nearly 60 percent of city real estate value is currently off the tax rolls, now that New Haven’s tax-exempt grand list has climbed by another nearly $200 million last year to reach a new peak of $8.47 billion, the city’s top property-monitor revealed Wednesday night..
by | Mar 12, 2020 8:03 am | Comments (7)
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City firefighters on the job: Should Yale have to pay more for their services?
Should city leaders argue for greater financial contributions from Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital by focusing on those institutions’ sheer wealth and the relative poverty of the city they reside in?
Or should they promote the many services that the city already provides — from fire suppression to street lights to 9 – 1‑1 emergency support — that those growing institutions inevitably benefit from?
Two city residents pushed those different rhetorical tacks during the aldermanic Finance Committee’s first hearing of the budget season.
Continue reading ‘2 Visions Pitched For Getting More $ From Yale’
by | Mar 9, 2020 1:08 pm | Comments (11)
(Opinion) “New Haven has been Yale University’s home for over 300 years and mine for nearly 40. As a longtime Yale employee and New Haven resident, I know that the university and its city love and need each other — and that there come moments when our leaders have special reason to work closely together for the good of our community.
“… I do not believe that New Haven’s current financial problems are the result of a lack of generosity from Yale.”
Yale President Peter Salovey, 2020
“The History major is for students who understand that shaping the future requires knowing the past..”
Requirements of the Major, Department of History, Yale University
Knowing the past of New Haven and Yale’s relationship may indeed help us think through how we might seek to shape our intertwined future.
by | Mar 4, 2020 5:27 pm | Comments (45)
Elicker Wednesday on WNHH FM.
Mayor Justin Elicker had a chance to avoid proposing a tax increase— by selling city property to Yale or Yale New Haven Hospital.
He said no.
by | Mar 2, 2020 6:07 pm | Comments (49)
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Fire Chief Alston (center) with other department heads and staff at Monday’s budget press conference.
New Haven’s police and fire chiefs Monday said they have plans to adjust to deep public-safety cuts Mayor Justin Elicker is proposing in his new city budget.
The mayor, meanwhile, laid into Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital for not living up to an “ethical responsibility” to contribute more financially to the city in which those private institutions thrive. Yale’s president fired back.
by | Mar 2, 2020 8:57 am | Comments (51)
Mayor Justin Elicker has proposed a 3.56 percent tax increase, dozens of cuts to currently vacant city police and firefighter positions, and a restructuring of three city departments in his newly submitted $569.1 million recommended general fund budget.
Continue reading ‘Elicker Proposes 3.56% Tax Increase; 80 Positions Cut; 3 Departments Restructured’
by | Feb 28, 2020 8:53 am | Comments (116)
Elicker: Details coming Monday.
Saying he’s following through on a promise to make tough decisions to restore fiscal order, Mayor Justin Elicker plans to propose a tax increase along with spending cuts in his first city budget.
He revealed that plan as he took a shot as his alma mater for not helping the city more with its financial woes.
by | Feb 20, 2020 9:17 am | Comments (27)
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Mayor Elicker (at right, with Yesenia Rivera): “Hens are coming home to roost” after years of irresponsible city budgeting.
Almost certain to be flat-funded once again, the city’s public schools are facing another year of drastic budget reductions.
The latest round of cost-cutting could reduce the number of high-school electives, trim the length of the school year and pack school buses — to get only halfway through the budget shortfall the district will likely have to close next school year.
by | Jan 30, 2020 1:36 pm | Comments (3)
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Demolition wrapping up at future Hilton hotel site on Elm Street.
The city’s building boom is bearing financial fruit, with nearly $7.5 million in permit fees flowing into city coffers so far this fiscal year
That’s 150 percent higher than at this time last year — as New Haven heads toward what the city’s top building official expects will be “our biggest year yet.”
by | Jan 10, 2020 9:39 am | Comments (40)
Thomas Breen photo
2 of city’s 3,000 meters: 300 are usually out of service at any given time.
Parking meter revenue collection is down by over $600,000 in comparison to this time two years ago, and by nearly $150,000 in comparison to this time last year.
A dispute with one of the city’s mobile-phone-app contractors may partly explain the drop.
by | Dec 10, 2019 4:50 pm | Comments (4)
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Alders Abby Roth and Steve Winter pitch colleagues.
The five words are buried on page 398. They matter a lot when the city borrows money.
Now two budget-watchdog alders are trying to change them.
by | Nov 15, 2019 1:31 pm | Comments (12)
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Acting Budget Director Michael Gormany and Controller Daryl Jones.
The city saved $3 million in debt service — and pocketed nearly $5 million — by refunding decade-old bonds. Without playing politics.
by | Oct 29, 2019 1:16 pm | Comments (2)
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City Acting Budget Director Michael Gormany.
An aldermanic committee signed off on transferring $75,000 from the city’s rainy day fund to cover the cost of a mayoral transition team — with the caveat that that final dollar amount will likely drop, maybe even by half, before the full board grants its final approval.
by | Sep 16, 2019 10:36 pm | Comments (8)
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City police officers listen in on the Board of Alders vote.
Alders unanimously approved a new police union contract that will grant city officers their first pay raises in over three years, and that will also cost the city around $834,000 more in annual pension contributions.
Continue reading ‘Police Contract Passed; $834K Pension Hit Expected’
by | Sep 16, 2019 10:34 pm | Comments (11)
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Dixwell Alder Jeannette Morrison: “Support this ordinance. Support the children of New Haven.”
Alders voted overwhelmingly to transfer $365,000 from various department budgets to the Health Department to fund the creation of five new full-time lead inspector positions.
by | Aug 12, 2019 8:27 pm | Comments (9)
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Mayor Harp and Controller Daryl Jones announce plan on Monday.
City finance staffers and attorneys plan to take a larger role in helping the Board of Education cut down on legal, technology, and human resources costs, according to a newly published five-year financial plan.
by | Jul 30, 2019 8:14 am | Comments (25)
The city is projecting it will bank a $14.6 million surplus as it closes last fiscal year’s books, thanks to lower-than-expected medical costs, higher-than-expected tax collection revenue, increased contributions from Yale, and — most significantly — a delay in paying off its debts after last year’s massive refinancing.
by | Jul 16, 2019 8:01 am | Comments (17)
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Resigning deputy Evie Velazquez: Keep slot empty?
A budget-balancing task force said that the school district should begin cutting at the top by eliminating six-figure positions in Central Office like the deputy superintendent.
Continue reading ‘Citizen School Budget Review Starts At Top’
by | Jul 15, 2019 2:26 pm | Comments (10)
Christopher Peak File Photo
NHFD’s Keith Kerr treats man who overdosed on heroin.
The city and the firefighters union have reached an agreement that would allow department minimum staffing levels to drop from 72 to 69 per shift, if the chief is open to scrapping all of the department’s ambulance units.
by | Jun 28, 2019 7:57 am | Comments (21)
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Independent mayoral candidate Seth Poole.
• At budget forum, mayoral candidate Seth Poole calls for leaving prison reentry to nonprofits.
• Backs gov’t tree-trimming, street repair, fines for litterbugs, 25 year-old minimum for cops.
• Elicker: Ban towing for parking tix.
by | Jun 26, 2019 12:21 pm | Comments (20)
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Mayoral candidate Justin Elicker at a recent Democratic Town Committee meeting.
Limit Yale property acquisitions through changes to the zoning code by encouraging vertical, not horizontal, expansion of its university and medical campuses.
Continue reading ‘Elicker: Use Zoning Code To Slow Yale’s Roll’
by | May 31, 2019 1:42 pm | Comments (15)
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Toni Harp and Justin Elicker at second mayoral candidate forum.
Ship shape? Or the Titanic?
by | May 29, 2019 7:25 am | Comments (31)
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Big-picture values-vs.-responsibility debaters at budget vote (clockwise from top left): Festa, Marchand, Morrison, Roth, Winter, Brackeen.
Alders overwhelmingly passed an amended version of the mayor’s $556.6 million operating budget for the next fiscal year, but not before engaging in an hours-long debate over the proper function of city government in times of fiscal distress.
by | May 16, 2019 8:05 am | Comments (11)
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Alders Adam Marchand, Chair Evette Hamilton, and Alder Sal DeCola at Thursday night’s session.
Police and fire had their overtime budgets slashed, the city’s health care fund got a $1 million boost, and a permanent affordable housing commission was born in an amended city budget Thursday night approved by the Finance Committee.
Continue reading ‘Amended Budget Moves $1M From Police OT To Health Care’
by | May 13, 2019 3:53 pm | Comments (26)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Yale should scrap its daytime shuttle service and buy public bus passes for its students and employees.
Democratic mayoral candidate Justin Elicker listed that policy priority in a newly released “Jobs/Economy Platform” that envisions structural changes to the relationship between Yale and the city it calls home.