Paul Bass Photo
From left: DeStefano and Harp (chatting); Looney, Roland Lemar & Holder-Winfield
Days after a mayoral candidate blasted New Haven’s state legislators for failing to deliver for New Haven, the current mayor invited them to City Hall — to say “thank you” for delivering.
Mayor John DeStefano delivered the thank you at a Thursday afternoon press conference at City Hall.
He invited the city’s state senators and representatives, a couple of them bleary-eyed from multiple Capitol all-nighters, a day after the closing bell of this year’s General Assembly legislative session.
“The [state] budget ended up in a much better place than where it started,” DeStefano declared. “That’s real and a big deal for families in new Haven.”
That happened “because of the people standing behind me and the rest of the delegation.”
The city had counted on state aid to the city dropping about $6 million from last year based on the governor’s initial proposed budget. The final budget saw some proposed cuts in PILOT (Payments in Lieu of Taxes) restored along with enough other funding to have state aid to the city end up about flat from the previous year, according to City Hall’s calculation. That included a last-minute restoration of about $2 million, enabling the Board of Aldermen Monday night to trim an expected 7.7 percent local tax hike to 4.9 percent for the coming year.
In addition the money — which he said will enable the city to proceed with endangered education and community-policing initiatives, as well as direct financial sustenance for the Shubert Theater, Arts & Ideas Festival, and LEAP youth program — DeStefano highlighted the passage of the country’s toughest state gun-control laws and approval for driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants.
“That’s a big deal for people in New Haven,” DeStefano said.
New Haven state Sen. Martin Looney, who shepherded much of that legislation to passage as his chamber’s majority leader, also highlighted the passage of the first minimum-wage increase in four years. He in turn offered “special thanks” to DeStefano — a man he challenged for mayor in a bitter 2001 election — for serving as “the leading spokesman” at the Capitol “among urban mayors.”
This being a hotly contested mayoral election year in New Haven, the event had local political overtones, of course.
For instance, state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield went out of his way to single out state Rep. Toni Harp for “do[ing] a lot of the work here.” The unspoken subtext, which Holder-Winfield made explicit in a press release the day before: Harp is so valuable in Hartford that we need to keep her there. Holder-Winfield is running for mayor. So is Harp.
Harp herself made a point of “commend[ing] the mayor” for “giving back to the taxpayers” that last-minute increase in state aid in the form of a trimming of the mill-rate increase, rather than spending it. Even as a lame-duck incumbent, DeStefano still wields potential behind-the-scenes influence for a mayoral candidate if he chooses to support one — or equally important, someone not likely to get his endorsement will benefit if he truly stays out of the race.
Earlier this week another mayoral candidate, former city economic development chief Henry Fernandez, offered a different take on the work of the state delegation. He argued at a campaign stop in Westville that the state delegation — read that as Harp and Looney (who’s backing Harp for mayor) — has failed to deliver for New Haven. Because New Haven receives only 40 to 60 percent state reimbursement on taxes lost to exempt properties, rather than 100 percent, the city wrestles with agonizing budget choices it wouldn’t otherwise face. Click here to read more about that as well as Harp’s response.
The school district survived the season with its budget intact, according to Sue Weisselberg, the schools’ wraparound services czar, who doubles as a Capitol liaison. She said the budget includes some grant programs that New Haven will apply for, including after-school programming, a K‑3 reading program, and extra emotional and social supports for kids. The budget includes about a half-million dollars for “parent universities” around the state, she said.
New Haven lawmakers also used the budget “implementer bill” to resolve a few issues concerning school construction projects, said Weisselberg, who used to serve as the city’s school construction czar.
One paragraph in the bill let New Haven off the hook for missing an application deadline by one day for construction projects for Helene Grant and New Haven Academy.
Another paragraph addressed $2.5 million in off-site costs related to the construction of a permanent home for the Engineering & Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) across the town line in West Haven. The $2.5 million related to off-site improvements, such as straightening out a road and adding a left-hand turning lane, Weisselberg said. Off-site improvements are not usually considered eligible for reimbursement by the state; the legislature deemed those costs eligible for reimbursement after all.
Melissa Bailey contributed reporting.