Leng pitches more cops, services in budget proposal

HAMDEN — Five new police officers, bulk trash pickup, Sunday library hours and a reinvestment in road paving.

If passed, Mayor Curt Balzano Leng’s proposed budget for next fiscal year would bring all those things to Hamden residents, he announced Wednesday evening. It also would lower the tax rate by half a mill, though a recent revaluation means some residents still could see higher tax bills.

The proposal sets spending at roughly $259 million, an increase of about $10 million over current spending. Leng’s proposal still needs Legislative Council approval.

Last year’s budget process proved excruciating, with hours of deliberation. After the mayor vetoed amendments implemented by the council, the council unanimously overrode that veto, the New Haven Independent reported.

Still, Leng expressed optimism about the state of the town’s finances and the upcoming budget season.

“The truth is, despite voices to the contrary, the sky is not falling in our town,” he said. “In fact, it we’re actually getting to a point where we can look up and see blue.”

The mayor cited factors including a 7.46 percent grand list increase and passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, which is expected to bring at least $20 million of federal aid to Hamden, according to Walter Morton, the town’s director of legislative affairs.

Hamden could “enter this year’s budget process without the level of despair that too many recent budget processes have started in, and understandably so. In those times, there were only agonizing cuts to consider,” Leng told the council Wednesday. “... Instead, we have an opportunity to have healthy debates about what services most benefit Hamdenites the most.”

Residential property values rose by an average of 5 percent under the town’s 2020 revaluation, according to a town release, which also indicated that multifamily housing property values went up roughly 20 percent.

Leng’s budget proposal sets the tax rate at 51.47 mills, compared to the current 51.98 mills. This would translate to $51.47 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value.

Even with the slightly lower tax rate, an individual homeowner’s tax bill could be higher or lower than this year depending on changes in assessed value due to the revaluation.

The new officers would help create a Police Athletic League, enhancing the department’s community policing efforts, Chief of Police John Sullivan told the mayor in an email about his budget request. which was forwarded to the New Haven Register.

They will also support the creation of a “Crisis Intervention Team,” according to the email, which Leng shared with the Register.

“The team will consist of trained Hamden officers, equipped with additional resources designed to more appropriately respond to specific emergency needs at hand,” the mayor told council members Wednesday. “They can be intervention, they can be mental health, they can be trauma.”

Additionally, Leng has asked for a budget that, he said, would add limited Sunday library hours and reinstate bulk trash pickup, a service that was cut last year. And residents could have fewer potholes to worry about, as the mayor has requested an investment in road paving, citing low borrowing costs.

In presenting the new budget, Leng assured listeners that deficits would be “a thing of the past” and that “the fund balance is set to have a positive and growing balance.”

While an audit for the 201920 fiscal year showed the budget ended in a deficit, pushing the general fund balance about $2.3 million into the red, a bond premium last August put the balance back in the black by about a half-million dollars, Jackson has said.

The audit also put the town’s “net position” — assets minus liabilities — at a $1 billion deficit, and the town’s bond rating last year dropped to BBB.