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Toni Harp; Len Fasano.
The state’s leading elected Republican is back poking at New Haven’s mayor again, calling for a forensic audit of city finances.
State Senate Republican leader Len Fasano of North Haven made that request in a letter to Mayor Toni Harp. He cited concerns raised by this New Haven Independent story and this New Haven Register story.
“Since state government reimburses 39.4 percent of the city’s budget, I am asking that your office conduct a thorough and comprehensive forensic audit. This audit would help to ensure that every taxpayer dollar – 39.4 percent of which are State of Connecticut taxpayer dollars – are being accounted for,” Fasano wrote. “I hope you would agree that state taxpayers need to be assured that their tax dollars are not being wasted and misused in New Haven. Your actions can help quell what is already a brewing crisis of confidence in City Hall spending.”
“After Senator Fasano’s four-months-late state budget shortchanged New Haven some $9.4 million last year the senator can rest assured New Haven’s expenses are carefully authorized, then properly assigned to the publicly vetted, adopted city budget,” mayoral spokesman Laurence Grotheer responded Wednesday.
Mayor Harp, in a previous appearance on WNHH FM’s “Mayor Monday” program, dismissed Fasano’s repeated public criticism of the city as election-year grandstanding. Click here to read about the backdrop as well as to watch both of them make their case in separate radio appearances.