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Harp: Prepare, but don’t tip hand.
The state’s latest budget crisis has New Haven Mayor Toni Harp preparing for a local hit — but she’s determined not to tip the city’s hand.
Harp discussed the latest budget mess on her latest appearance on WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday” program.
She noted that the proposed $554.5 million city operating budget making its way toward Board of Alders approval counts on $31 million in added state aid this coming year. The city made that estimate based on discussions earlier this year with the governor and legislative leaders.
But the state last week revealed a dramatic drop in income tax revenues — leading to a revised projection of a $5 billion two-year state budget deficit. That deficit means cuts will come deeper than expected, probably including cuts in municipal aid.
Here’s the rub: New Haven must finalize its budget by the end of May. The state won’t be done with its budget by that time. So New Haven won’t know exactly how much aid it will get before deciding on a final city budget.
Harp noted on “Mayor Monday” that if the city were to include drastic cuts in its own budget to prepare for a big state hit, that would probably make it more likely that state lawmakers would feel more comfortable decreasing aid to New Haven that much more. All cities are in that position: Not wanting to make painful service cuts, or a tax increase, a fait accompli for desperate Capitol budgeteers.
However, the city must also send out tax bills for the coming fiscal year before it learns the final aid number from Hartford, Harp noted.
“If I just go ahead and try to cut — and I don’t really have a lot places that I can cut — it’s sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Harp said. “I’m going to be sitting down with our Board of Alders. We’ll be working out what we think is the wisest course of action.
“I would like to see us pass the budget we have prepared and be prepared to make adjustments if we have to,” later on, she said. In the meantime, New Haven can plan for the possibility of receiving less, perhaps far less, than the promised $31 million increase in state aid.
Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full episode of WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday,” in which she also blasted the state Department of Transportation for deciding the destroy the Vision Trail without consulting the city first, urged listeners to suggest recommendations for altering CT Transit routes (at this website), discussed the potential state impact of the Congressional health care bill, and called for Yale to sit down with its newly unionized graduate student teachers.
The episode of was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.