STATEMENT BY MAYOR JUSTIN ELICKER ON THE NEW HAVEN BOARD OF ALDERS VOTE TO AMEND THE PROPOSED CITY BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2022-23

NEW HAVEN, CT -- This evening the New Haven Board of Alders passed an amended version of Mayor Elicker's proposed $633 million budget for the City of New Haven for Fiscal Year 2022-2023. Mayor Elicker released the following statement after the vote:

"This is a budget that reflects New Haveners values and that addresses so many critical priorities for our residents from public safety to public health to public education to everyday qualify-of-life issues and services. It also funds many important programs for our children, youth, families and seniors.

When you compare this year’s budget to last year’s budget, New Haven is in a dramatically better financial situation because of the increased funding we fought so hard for and were able to secure from the State of Connecticut, with the doubling of our annual PILOT (Payment In-Lieu of Taxes) funds to $91 million, and from Yale University, with the near doubling of its annual voluntary contribution to $23 million. These new funds have enabled us to meet the City’s financial obligations, provide essential city services and programs, and begin to fix our long-term budget challenges like underfunded pensions and overborrowing – while also keeping taxes down. In addition, working in collaboration with the Board of Alders, I’m pleased that this year’s budget funds several important new initiatives for New Haven families, including increased funding for our public schools, more programing for our youth, and expanded library hours so that all five branches will now be open on Sundays.

While our property values and property taxes are increasing during this state-mandated property revaluation year, and the Board of Alders and I may disagree about how quickly to phase in the property tax increase -- I would have preferred the more gradual five-year phase in that I proposed as opposed to the more compressed two-year phase in advanced by the Alders so that residents could have had more time to ease into the new property values and taxes -- the Alders and I share the goal of balancing the City’s need to provide quality services with the taxes that residents pay.

Finally, while we have more work to do, we are continuing to make significant progress in addressing our City’s challenges and charting a brighter future for our residents. I want to thank the Board of Alders for their constructive partnership in this year’s budget process and will sign this budget into law.”