New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Blumenthal: City would get $250M if Heroes Act approved
NEW HAVEN — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said New Haven would get more than $250 million over two fiscal years from the Heroes Act that the U.S. House has passed, but is stalled in the Senate.
Blumenthal, in a press conference outside City
Hall Tuesday, said cities and towns across the country need the money to cover the unanticipated costs of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
“Every cent of it is necessary to compensate for the additional back-breaking expenses that otherwise cause increases in taxes or massive layoffs in towns and cities around the state of Connecticut,” Blumenthal said.
“When I say layoffs I am talking about police, fire, teachers, sanitation workers, public works. We are not talking about conveniences or luxuries. We are talking about the basic necessities of government which would be severely impeded,” the senator said.
The Board of Alders was to vote Tuesday on a $569.1 million budget proposed by Mayor Justin Elicker that the alders’ Finance Committee recommended be cut by $7.1 million, which anticipates $2.5 million from
Yale University on top of the $13 million the university currently voluntarily contributes.
Elicker at the press conference said there will be some changes in the aldermanic proposal, but “if there are significant cuts as proposed by the Finance Committee or something close to that, I find it very hard to find a path that would not include some form of cuts to personnel.”
The mayor previously had said that furloughs are an option, but don’t generate much savings.
He said he already has cut positions in the police and fire departments, while the school board also has made cuts. Together, those three areas represent the largest number of employees.
Elicker also has said he can’t cut from debt service, health care or pensions, which leaves a much smaller number of departments from which to find savings.
Blumenthal said New Haven would be eligible for $181.8 million in assistance this year under the Heroes Act, with $90.3 million in fiscal 2021. He said Norwalk would qualify for $41 million; Bridgeport, $163 million; and Hartford, $171 million.
Health Director Maritza Bond reported that she only got one complaint over the weekend of people violating safety rules, such as the requirement for wearing masks and social distancing. She said staff at a drive-through fast-food restaurant on Whalley Avenue were not wearing masks until she contacted the manager to tell him to remedy that.
In other news, the city on Wednesday will install a pop-up testing site on the New Haven Green across from City Hall where personnel from Murphy Medical Associates will conduct free COVID-19 tests from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesday morning, Elicker said some 20 religious leaders went to the testing site at Day and Chapel streets in New Haven run by Murphy Medical Associates and got tested for the coronavirus as an example to their congregants to also take advantage of the free testing at five sites in New Haven. He thanked the Proprietors of the Green for allowing this. He said proprietor U.S. Judge Janet Arterton immediately agreed to work it out.
“We want people to get tested there is no stigma around it,” Elicker said.
The city is increasingly telling all residents to get testing, including those who are asymptomatic, which is necessary to know the full extent of the infection rate in New Haven. The number of city residents who are positive for the virus is 2,387, while fatalities just went over 100.