Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans argued that those two proposed improvements are key to better run elections in the fiscal year to come, and that they are worth a 34 percent boost to her department’s budget.
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Markeshia Ricks |
Apr 3, 2019 7:49 am
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(6)
Mayor Toni Harp’s budget roadshow pulled into Goatville’s mActivity center Tuesday night to face a crowd of East Rockers curious about the state of the city’s finances and what the future might hold.
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Thomas Breen |
Mar 12, 2019 7:48 am
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(4)
The city plans to borrow money every two years, rather than every single year, to pay for cop cars, tree trimming, computer upgrades, and other long-term capital improvement projects.
According to the city’s finance staff, that every-other-year borrowing model could save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of staff work hours every biennium.
The city’s net taxable grand list shrank by $15 million, or .23 percent, despite the city’s current building boom.
That grand list detail emerged in the mayor’s proposed $556.6 million new fiscal year operating budget, which was published in full on Friday afternoon.
With a mixture of resignation, frustration, and cautionary instruction, alders unanimously signed off on spending over $3 million reserved for debt service on shoring up the police and fire overtime budgets instead.
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Thomas Breen |
Feb 11, 2019 3:55 pm
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(8)
Halfway through the fiscal year, city spending is down in just about every department and in just about every budget line item in comparison to this time last year.
The notable exceptions: Pension payments. Self-insurance. Worker’s compensation. And police overtime, which continues to balloon as officers leave the force.
Nobody likes vacant lots. But publish an online map identifying city-owned lots, and maybe more residents will come forward to buy, build, and return them to tax rolls.
That and other land management recommendations arose during a conversation with city staff about boosting revenue and cutting costs.
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Thomas Breen |
Jan 15, 2019 1:31 pm
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(6)
The state will fund nearly $11 million in urgent repairs for three downtown parking garages, but only if the city agrees not to sell those garages for a decade.
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Thomas Breen |
Jan 15, 2019 8:55 am
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(4)
A code inspector notices a leaky roof, or a contractor working without a permit. Instead of reaching for a pen and a pad of paper, she uses a tablet and internet-assisted camera to document the problem — which then shows up on a map shared with otherproblem-solvers.
City officials laid out that tech-assisted utopia as they convinced alders to advance two Information Technology contracts.
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Thomas Breen |
Jan 7, 2019 8:29 am
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(5)
The city will likely spend $5 million less than anticipated on a rebuild of the Department of Public Works (DPW) headquarters, even though the projected cost of the project is now $5 million more than originally budgeted.
That’s thanks to $10 million in state bond money for a demolition and construction project.
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Thomas Breen |
Dec 11, 2018 8:33 am
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(2)
The city’s Health Department plans to contract with a Middletown-based nurse temp agency to make up for a rash of unexpected vacancies and illnesses among city nurses — right at flu-shot crunch time.
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Thomas Breen |
Dec 4, 2018 1:13 pm
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(5)
The two city pensions are each currently funded at around 40 percent, leaving roughly $700 million in unfunded liabilities.
A new task force consisting of alders, city staff, and pension fund trustees aims to try to figure out how that happened, as well as how to get those funding levels up.
In its latest financial report, the city projects that police overtime will top $8 million by the end of the fiscal year — nearly double what the officials had initially budgeted.
And if New Haven residents don’t want to bear that burden through higher property taxes, then they need to lobby the state legislature for increased tax-exempt-property reimbursements, fair education funding, a slice of the state’s sales tax receipts, and other state-enabled means for cities to raise more money.
The city’s Columbus Day Parade ended in the black this year, and paid the city back for the thousands of dollars worth of police overtime that it incurred.
The mayor has informed three dozen government managers that they must each take three unpaid days off over the next eight months to help alleviate the city’s fiscal stress.
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Christopher Peak |
Oct 26, 2018 8:32 am
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(19)
A new city government working group is considering investing a small sum in the stock market in hopes of eventually earning back at least a hundred million dollars that it owes to its public employees.
The city is projecting an $11.6 million surplus at the end of the current fiscal year thanks to an August bond refunding that pushes increased debt payments decades into the future.
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Christopher Peak |
Oct 1, 2018 7:22 am
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The Harp administration told lawmakers that a trip to Washington, D.C., for the U.S. Mayors Conference this January cost roughly $2,500. The real cost ended up at least $7,225.
The Harp administration reported that a trip to Boston for another U.S. Mayors Conference this June cost roughly $4,500. The real cost ended up at $10,450.