New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
City juggling inflation, taxes, revaluation in budget
NEW HAVEN — The five-year phase-in that Mayor Justin Elicker had proposed for the city’s revaluation would drop to two years but the tax rate would be a little lower, as a result of recent budget action by the Board of Alders’ Finance Committee.
Meanwhile, committee members reduced Elicker’s proposed increase in the Board of Education’s fiscal 2022-23 budget by $500,000, reducing the budget from $195.76 million to $195.26 million. New Haven Public Schools still would see a $4.5 million increase over the current year’s spending.
The tax rate would drop by 3 mills from Elicker’s proposed 42.75 mills to 39.75 mills for fiscal 2022-23 under amendments approved by the Finance Committee. Both are lower than the current year’s 43.88 mills, although revaluation would result in many property owners seeing higher values and therefore paying more in property taxes.
Each mill equals $1 of tax per $1,000 in assessed property value.
Elicker’s proposed $633.17 million budget for fiscal 2022-23 sought to raise spending by $26.82
million, or 4.42 percent, over the current year’s $606.34 million budget.
All of the changes were approved overwhelmingly by a voice vote of the committee, chaired by Westville Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, with only East Rock Alder Anna Festa, D-10, appearing to vote against them. The full Board of Alders still must vote on the budget at a May 23 special meeting.
Those on all sides seemed keenly aware that people in their wards are struggling.
“I’m hearing from people in a vulnerable neighborhood all the time, not sometimes,” said Festa. “A lot of people believe that because we got” additional funds both from increased state Payment in Lieu of Taxes money as well as voluntary contributions from Yale University, “that we shouldn’t be asking for money,” she said.
“It’s hard to say to someone who doesn’t have much, ‘We need more money from you,’” Festa said.
Alder Evette Hamilton, D-24, said the alders “need to continue to be good stewards” of the city’s tax money and “the two-year phasein brings our mill rate down.”
But Alder Steven Winter, D-21, said, “I think many landlords are going to increase their rents either way,” although he also thought going to a two-year phase-in was the better choice.
Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow, D-27, said city residents right now are seeing increases in everything, including the cost of groceries, rent and utilities.
“Everywhere, people are struggling. They’re trying to figure out how to make ends meet,” Furlow said.
But the city needs to do certain things just to maintain what it already has, he said.
“We’re not buying a new car. We’re putting new tires on a 100,000-mile car, and the treads are showing ,” Furlow said. “... If we don’t fix these tires, we’re not going to be able to maintain government.”
Elicker, in a statement released after the changes were made, said there were good reasons why he proposed what he did.
“After conducting the state required property revaluation we saw significant property value increases across much of the city,” Elicker wrote. “Some neighborhoods like Fair Haven, Newhallville and Dwight were hit particularly hard with some property values increasing more than 80 percent.
“I felt it not fair for these areas that saw dramatic property increases to experience such a significant jump in their taxes, so I proposed a five-year ‘phasein’ so people could ease into the new values and taxes,” he said.
“The Alders’ vote will implement the change over two years rather than five. As such, those areas of the city that saw a significant increase in values will see their taxes rise more dramatically over these next two years, instead of more slowly over five years,” Elicker said.
“While ultimately the Alders and I may disagree about how quickly to phase in the increase, I think we all share the goal of balancing the city’s ability to provide quality services to residents with the taxes people pay,” he said. “When you step back and compare this year’s budget to last year’s, the city is in a dramatically better situation because of increased funding we were able to secure from the State Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program and Yale University’s annual payments to the city.”
In his proposed budget, Elicker also recommended 25 new staff positions to support what he called “essential city services.”
The Finance Committee recommended to eliminate eight of them. It also reduced funding for two others to $1.
The eliminated proposed positions included antiblight specialists, school nurses and library staff, he said.
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, D-22, pointed out that while two additional staff positions for the libraries were eliminated, additional hours that will allow the city’s branch libraries to remain open on Sundays remain in the budget that will go to the full board, “which I feel this is very, very important ... Our children need access to the library ... at all times,” she said.