Elicker Wednesday on WNHH FM.
Mayor Justin Elicker had a chance to avoid proposing a tax increase— by selling city property to Yale or Yale New Haven Hospital.
He said no.
Elicker revealed that offer Wednesday during a lengthy discussion on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program about his newly proposed $569.1 million city budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
The interview came two days after the mayor released his proposed budget. The proposal calls for raising property taxes 3.56 percent — always a controversial move — in addition to cutting 80 vacant positions and combining the work of three city departments. The Board of Alders will now review, possibly amend, then vote on the budget proposal.
Elicker said he made a point of avoiding “one-time revenues” like property sales to Yale or Yale New Haven Hospital to plug the budget. He said such short-term fixes have helped New Haven avoid dealing with long-term structural deficits.
He declined to specify the properties Yale and the hospital offered to buy. Yale did not identify properties discussed; spokeswoman Karen Peart stated, “We are sometimes presented with the rare opportunity to purchase assets from the city, and we find these purchases to be mutually beneficial.” Yale New Haven Vice-President Vin Petrini said the institution can’t comment on specific discussions with the city.
“They proposed one-time purchases of city assets. And I said, ‘No, that’s not the way to go,’” the mayor said.
“I don’t think we should take asset sales off the table. There might be some things that aren’t productive for us to use. But I don’t think they should be sold under the context of filling a budget gap. If anything, those should be tied to a policy decision that makes sense for the city or tied to specifically reducing the structural problems in the budget. And we should be given a significant amount of money for those assets.
“Too often we have our hand out at these times when we’re pretty desperate.”
In the past, the city has sold High & Wall streets, rights to the Broadway parking plaza, and government buildings (in the case of Lee High School, counted as revenue in three separate years’ finances) to plug budget holes. As an alder, Elicker opposed both the streets sale as well as a DeStefano administration proposal to sell (“monetize”) future parking revenues for one-time operating cash.
Elicker argued that Yale and the hospital need to make significantly larger voluntary contributions instead to the city to compensate for some of their property tax exemptions, so the city can adequately fund public services. The university upped its annual contribution by $1.2 million to about $13 million; Elicker called that woefully inadequate. Click here for a story in which the hospital and the university respond at length to Elicker’s criticisms.
On “Dateline,” Elicker responded to listener questions on the budget.
“Both Yale and YNHH extended an olive branch to Mayor Elicker to work on a ‘big’ idea,” listener and New Haven Promise President Patricia A. Melton wrote in. “Do you have any thoughts about a big idea issue or project that we can all get behind and work on?”
“I would love to work on big ideas,” Elicker responded. But he would insist on ideas that tackle the city’s fundamental structural budget challenges in providing services — rather than unrelated well-intentioned initiatives separate from core budget challenges. “They’re always additive —they add something new. We can’t fund the very services that are the basic expectation that residents should have of their government. A nurse in every school. A librarian in every school …”
Under former President Richard Levin, Yale partnered with the city’s DeStefano administration and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven on the “Promise” college scholarship program for public-school students, and developed a homebuyer program enabling employees to settle in city neighborhoods.
Elicker praised those efforts. He distinguished them from fundamental support he argued the institutions should offer given their tax breaks.
“You have a ribbon cutting. It has an impact on the community. It doesn’t address the root … of income inequality in our city,” he said “It’s got to be meaningful to stress our structural financial problems.
“I do not believe that New Haven’s books should be balanced largely by Yale University writing dramatically bigger checks,” Yale President Peter Salovey wrote in a statement issued Monday afternoon. “I do not believe that New Haven’s current financial problems are the result of a lack of generosity from Yale. We will continue to increase our voluntary payment over time, but not at the rate the mayor has suggested.”
“While imposing additional voluntary payments is not the answer, we remain open to working on creative approaches with the city,” Yale New Haven Vice-President Vin Petrini wrote in a separate statement.
Elicker said his administration is discussing with the hospital possible ways to work together to reduce the city’s approximately $100 million annual health care bill.
Thomas Breen Photo
Mayoral Executive Ana Garcia at budget press conference with posters about Yale’s contributions.
On the program, Elicker was asked whether, given the standoff between his administration and the hospital and university on tax contributions, all sides could mount an aggressive effort to pressure the state to reimburse New Haven for more of its revenues lost on tax-exempt properties.
“Show me the path and I’d be happy to work with them in any appropriate and legal way,” he responded. But he cautioned that state legislators already feel they give the hospital and universities “huge breaks” and thus might not be amenable to further demands.
The interview began with a review of a news story about a newly elected New Haven mayor proposing a budget increase of between 3.5 and 4 percent and over $1 million in cuts to police and fire overtime; and vowing to avoid one-time revenues like the sale of city property and “potentially devastating long-term” financial deals involving future debt in return for quick upfront operating cash.
That news story involved Mayor Toni Harp’s first proposed budget in 2014.
It sound like this first-budget proposal from Elicker.
Elicker noted the similarities. He vowed that his future budgets will hew to the same philosophy. He said budgets of recent years did not.
“I’m not going to balance the budget with budget gimmicks, like the refinancing, because that’s the thing that got us in trouble in the first place,” he vowed. “A couple of those things were on the table this time.”
Click on the video below to watch the full interview with Justin Elicker and read the listener comments on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.