April 21st, 2008
Westville Dems wanted to let you know that they’re holding a panel discussion and Q&A on the New Haven city budget on Wednesday, April 23, from 6 to 8 pm at the Courtland Wilson branch of the Public Library. Leading voices from the Board of Alderman and the Mayor’s Administration, as well as a prominent citizen advocate for fiscal responsibility, will be discussing the 2008-2009 budget and the financial challenges the city faces in the next few years.
Panelists will include:
Carl Goldfield, Ward 29 Alderman, Board President, Finance Committee
Jacqueline James, Ward 3 Alderman
Jeffrey Kerekes, Founder, New Haven Citizens’ Action Network
Jorge Perez, Ward 5 Alderman, Finance Committee
Rob Smuts, Chief Administrative Officer, City of New Haven
The panel will be moderated by Paul Bass of the New Haven Independent.
The decisions made in the next several weeks as the Board debates the budget will have an impact on our taxes and our city’s fiscal health for years to come. If you’re interested in hearing multiple perspectives about the priorities shaping the budget, please come to the discussion, and bring your questions. There will be time for Q&A during the event.
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April 6th, 2008
Finance Committee
City of New Haven
Meeting Agenda
165 Church Street
New Haven, CT 06510
(203) 946-6483 (phone)
(203) 946-7476 (fax)
cityofnewhaven.com
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 6:00 PM Aldermanic Chambers
Aldermanic Notice - New Haven
The Finance Committee will hold a workshop on Tuesday, April 8, 2008, at 6:00 P.M, in the
Aldermanic Chambers, 165 Church St., New Haven, to hear testimony from City Departments
concerning their budget requests for FY 2008-2009. These departments are;
Registrar of Voters
Board of Education
Chapel West Special Service District
Whalley Avenue Special Service District
Town Green Special Service District
Corporation Counsel
Fair Rent Commission
Community Services Administration
Department of Public Health
Department of Elderly Services
Department of Youth Services
Economic Development Administration
Subsidies (Shubert Theater, Tweed/New Haven Airport, Grove Street Garage, Pilot Pen)
City Plan Commission
Small Business Initiative
Department of Transportation, Traffic & Parking
Commission on Equal Opportunity
Livable City Initiative
Office of Building Inspection & Enforcement
These items are filed with the City Clerk and may be inspected at Room 202, 200 Orange St.,
New Haven. Per order: Yusuf I. Shah, Chair. Attest: Ron Smith, City Clerk.
If you need a disability-related accommodation, please call three business days in advance
946-8122 (voice) or 946-8582 (TTY).
City of New Haven Page 1 Printed on 3/31/2008
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March 27th, 2008
The detailed line item forms are now available for download (6.1 MB). These detail what each department is spending money on.
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March 19th, 2008
Our latest doc on questions mentioned the Fire Department and it was regarding the Police department.
It should read:
2. Police Services. Contract reserve of $900,000 (p64). This is in addition to the existing contractual payments and signals to all that the City is prepared to increase wages by 5.3% in the next round of contract negotiations (Personnel costs in Police Services are $33.767 million so $900K over the new contract months in 2009 represents 5.3%. In the interest of transparency this item should be included in Dept 201 (Police Services)
Get the updated version here.
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March 19th, 2008
Looking through the 2008-9 City of New Haven budget document, we found a number of questions and concerns as well as things that we didn’t understand. We forwarded this list to all 30 Alders today for their review. Please let us know if you find discrepancies, questions or concerns in the budget and we will forward them along with ours.
See our list of Questions & Concerns.
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March 11th, 2008
We have updated the budget recommendations document we released previously. We tried to simplify the process by listing the changes on pages 23 & 24 of the new document. We hope to save you some time in finding the updates in this manner. We continue to welcome the outpouring of recommendations and comments from readers.
See the new version here.
2008-2009 Mayor’s Budget
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February 24th, 2008
We have a $17 Million shortfall this current fiscal year alone.
The below subsidies are rather small and dropping them should have minimal impact as the table clearly illustrates. Why do we need to subsidize the airport for $12.58 per flight? We can keep the airport, end the controversy among residents for $12.58 per flight. Compare $12.58 per flight with $6.03/rider of the trolley. From a subsidy standpoint, we would be better off flying people around then sending them by trolley. More seriously, the trolley is “free” to riders and only 9 people per hour? It looks like even when you give this service away, people are not interested. If it provides a service for those who are unable to walk, we could give them cab vouchers at a considerable cost savings.
| Subsidy |
Amount |
Tickets/Passengers/Flights |
Cost Per unit |
| Tweed New Haven |
$800,000 |
176 Flights/day |
$12.58/flight |
| Shubert Theater |
$410,000 |
93,000 Patrons |
$4.10/person |
| Pilot Pen |
$135,000 |
94,639 in 2007 |
$1.43/Person |
| Downtown Trolley |
$350,000 |
58,000 (9 People per hour) |
$6.03/person |
Posted in Budget, Inefficiencies, Tweed Airport | No Comments »
February 24th, 2008
Aired: 02/22/2008 - 9:00am Listen
Demographic trends in Connecticut are pointing to a looming crisis. The state has lost more young workers than any other since 1990. Read more…
See how this ties into an article about people moving to places with low property taxes. We need to keep property taxes under control to continue to keep New Haven a viable Connecticut City.
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February 20th, 2008
(NHCAN) is pleased to announce the budget recommendations for the 2008-2009 Fiscal Year. We have prepared a list of recommendations including the ending of unsustainable subsidies, to the reorganization of departments, to the transformation of the budget document itself. Below you will find the link to the full document (2.3 MB), as well as, shorter versions of the document. We recognize that some of these recommendations may be impractical or even naïve. We invite you to consider these in the spirit in which it is offered and to offer superior alternatives for the general good. We look forward to continuing this discussion.
2008-2009 Budget Public Comments(2.3 MB)
Executive Summary Only (414 KB)
Full Document Without the Appendices (1.4 MB)
Appendices Only (2.0 MB)
Posted in BOA, Budget, Debt Obligations, Economic Development, Education, Fire Dept, Inefficiencies, Mayor, NHPD, Tweed Airport, White Papers | No Comments »
