Even after a $2 million infusion from the Parking Authority, New Haven is still looking at a $15 million projected deficit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the budget office’s latest monthly report.
That’s $1 million worse than projected in the previous month’s report.
Last Thursday, the budget office, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), published its May 2018 monthly financial report. The report projects that the city will face a $15.06 million budget deficit by the time all of the expenditures and receipts are tallied for the fiscal year that just ended on June 30. The monthly financial report for April projected an end-of-fiscal-year deficit of $14.07 million.
Despite the recent announcement that the Parking Authority increased its payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to the city by $2 million last month, an amount which has been factored into the May financial report, the projected deficit worsened. The increase came in three key areas: a nearly $2 million cut to expected revenue from building permits, a $750,000 increase to projected workers’ compensation payments, and a $672,981 projected increase to debt service payments.
Click here to download the full May 2018 monthly financial report.
Mayor Toni Harp said during her most recent appearance on WNHH FM’s “Mayor Monday” program that she’s still hoping to close out the fiscal year’s books without a deficit.
The city originally budgeted to collect $15.95 million in building inspection fees for the fiscal year 2017 – 18 (FY18). The May financial report bumped down the projected end-of-fiscal-year building inspection collections down to an even $14 million. The department has only collected $8.28 million in building inspections as of the end of May.
The city originally budgeted to spend $7 million on workers’ compensation payments, and another $1 million for workers’ compensation contractual services for FY18. The May financial report increased the projected expenditures for workers’ compensation payments to $8 million for the year.
The original FY18 budget projected average monthly workers’ compensation payments to be $583,333. Through the end of April 2018, which are the latest actual (as opposed to projected) numbers in the May report, the actual monthly average for workers’ compensation payments through the first 10 months of the fiscal year were $809,400.
After initially budgeting to spend $57 million in debt service, the city issued over $43 million in bonds in August, and subsequently revised the budget to reflect $31.8 million in savings through bond premiums and refunding. The revised budget subsequently reduced the debt services line item to around $48 million. The city projects to make payments of just over $28 million, or around 60 percent of the budgeted contribution, towards its debt service by the end of the fiscal year. That’s an increase of nearly $700,000 above what it had projected to make towards its debt service in last month’s report.
The monthly financial report also showed a restoration of over $600,000 in state Town Aid Roads (TAR) grant money, an over $500,000 decrease to projections in parking meter and tag collections, and a $150,000 increase to the projected deficit in the city’s self-insurance fund because of an increase in litigation claims.