Staring at the city’s long-term budget abyss, Mayor John DeStefano has found yet another reason to love red-light cameras.
The mayor wants the money generated by red-light runners — should New Haven win permission install specialized cameras at intersection — to come into city coffers.
That was just one proposal hizzoner made to two dozen residents at Monday night’s East Rock Management Team meeting in the cafeteria in the “little” Hooker School building on Livingston Street, as he gave a preview of a major address he plans to deliver Tuesday night about hare choices New Haven faces in long-term budgeting. (Click here to read a preview/ overview he distributed at the meeting.)
The red light camera idea was part of a proposal to “diversity revenue streams,” one of eight ideas contained in a four-page hand-out DeStefano delivered to residents at Monday night’s meeting.
DeStefano originally touted the installation of cameras equipped to catch light-runners as a way to improve safety. The rationale: If motorists know they can receive a ticket in the mail if their license plate is photographed on a car speeding through a red traffic signal, they will be less likely to break the law. DeStefano has unsuccessfully lobbied the legislature for years to pass the measure as part of a traffic-calming campaign. In the proposal’s original incarnation, the fines generated would have gone to the state.
That idea changed in the hand-out of ideas DeStefano distributed Monday night. It read, “Provide City authority to issue violations for on-camera traffic violations and retain funds.”
DeStefano had asked to come to the management team meeting to talk about next year’s projected $57 million city budget gap and a projected four-year, $310 million gap, based on current trends (including growth in health and pension costs and decline in state and federal support). Other proposals included a mix of revenue generators and cuts, such as holding the line on property taxes until revaluation is ready for implementation; maintaining state aid and fully funding PILOT (payments in lieu of taxes, paid to the city from state coffers to make up for the revenue lost from tax-exempt property); reducing payouts for city employee health and pension plans, which he said are much more generous than the state average; and preventing any increase in departmental expenditures over the next two years. He noted that the largest source of revenue in the city budget is state aid, with property taxes second.
DeStefano said other ways to diversify revenue include allowing New haven to levy and collect fees on hotel/motel lodgings and on bar owners for extra police coverage. First the legislature and incoming Governor Dan Malloy must grant the city authority to do so. Both Malloy and his Republican opponent Tom Foley said in this fall’s gubernatorial campaign that they were open to those ideas.
“Do you think Malloy will support something like a hotel tax?” East Rocker Lise Dondy (pictured) asked.
“I’m more worried about the legislature than the new administration,” DeStefano responded. He said “competing interests” in the General Assembly have scotched bills in the past that would have benefited the state’s cities, such as the red-light camera bill. He also predicted a likely cut, rather than an increase, in PILOT reimbursements.
After the meeting Dondy said she appreciated the mayor’s visit. “I think we’re all really struggling with the total reliance on property taxes. The strategy of looking for diversification of revenue sources is absolutely critical, and we have to get the message to the state legislature in terms of a commuter tax, or a hotel tax, or whatever,” she said.
Former East Rock Alderman Dick Lyons (pictured, center, in photo at top of story) said if towns sending students to New Haven public schools can’t pitch in with some education costs, “Why should we have them?” The mayor replied that 3,000 of the district’s 20,500 students are from out of district. He said New Haven actually receives a state bonus for each out-of-district student attending an inter-district magnet school, so it’s not a money-loser.
Waste At Cross
Debbie Rossi (pictured) had some suggestions for reducing school-related costs. “I have a daughter at Cross and another one at Conte,” she said. “At Cross, she has to dress in a T‑shirt because they’re opening up the windows in the middle of January because it’s 85 degrees in the building. So you have increased heat costs literally going out the window. There’s not a recycling bin anywhere. It costs more to haul away garbage than it does recycling. [Click here for a story about the city’s revamped recycling plan, implemented after the recycling rate dropped to 9 percent.] So we’re spending money we don’t need to. Could there be a push— shut off lights, turn down heat, recycle everything you possibly can?”
“That’s a fair observation,” DeStefano replied. “I take some ownership of what’s in the school budget because I’m on the school board and I appoint the members.” He said the efficiency of the new schools and better energy contracts have reduced school energy costs to below what it was five years ago, but he added there’s room for improvement.
“What does the city’s Office of Sustainability do?” Rossi asked. “If that’s not their job, then whose job is it?” The office is supported with non-city funds. Someone suggested the head of the office be invited to speak at a future management team meeting.