When Mayor Joe Ganim submits his budget proposal to the City Council early next month his spending plan will not include a tax increase. The larger question: will he cut taxes for the budget year starting July 1?
An injection of state and federal dollars is burnishing the bottom lines of urban areas with Connecticut’s largest city also bolstered by growth of its grand list of taxable property.
As higher mil rates go, Bridgeport at 43.45 is eclipsed by several Connecticut cities led by Hartford. Other examples: Waterbury 60.21, Torrington 46.17, Hamden 52.44, East Hartford 49.35. Bridgeport and New Haven are about the same.
Stamford you say at 26.94 mils? Connecticut’s second most populous city is an outlier, blessed with proximity to New York that has swelled its grand list in recent decades, backed by its former mayor, Dan Malloy, who wired numerous corporations there during his eight years as governor.
See municipal Mill-Rates-20GL-22FY-8-6-21.
Bridgeport has not experienced a sub-40 mil rate in 10 years.
City bean counters are putting the finishing touches on Ganim’s spending plan. Once the budget goes to the council it will be submitted to the Budget and Appropriations Committee, chaired by Scott Burns and Ernie Newton, where the grunt work of financial alterations takes place.
After the council approves the budget, the spending plan goes back to the mayor for possible veto action. The final budget act is setting the mil rate by the City Council.
Ganim, who will seek another four-year term in 2023, wants to trim taxes the next two budget cycles. Right now State Senator Marilyn Moore is the largest threat to his mayoralty should she enter the race after losing a tight primary to him in 2019.
Positioned well for another two-year legislative term this year, Moore won’t fully gear up a mayoral run until early 2023.
State Rep. Charlie Stallworth, who is not seeking reelection, is fresh off a slate of candidates that won all nine seats in a Democratic Town Committee primary. He seems poised for an earlier entry into mayoral campaigning.
Retired Superior Court Judge Carmen Lopez is being urged to get in by supporters as a viable alternative. She’s not there yet, but seems like this is the most consideration she has given to a potential run.
Still a ways to go before mayoral politics shake out.
Ganim, as mayor, can make things happen and that starts with cutting taxes.
I would like to compare what Mayor Ganim’s is doing with Bridgeport’s budget and where the money is going and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin budget and where the money is going.
“Ganim Eyes Tax Cut As He Prepares Budget Submission To City Council”
When Mayor Joe Ganim submits his budget proposal to the City Council early next month his spending plan will not include a tax increase. The larger question: will he cut taxes for the budget year starting July 1?
Hartford’s improved finances will also allow the Democratic mayor to offer a reduction in the property tax rate. The tax cut, which Bronin announced in his state of the city address delivered Monday at the Park Street library branch, isn’t being unwritten by federal money but is the result of the city’s overall improved fiscal health, Bronin said. He did not specify the amount of his tax cut.
“Mayor Bronin’s plans for Hartford are lifted by an infusion of federal dollars” – Hartford Courant
HARTFORD — When he took office in 2016, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin was confronted with an immediate $3.5 million shortfall and a projected $30 million deficit for the coming fiscal year.
By 2018, the city’s budget crisis was so dire that the state stepped in to pay off Hartford’s debt.
The 2022 fiscal picture is decidedly brighter, thanks partly to a transformative infusion of cash from the federal government, money that will give Bronin’s ambitious agenda a major lift.
Hartford’s improved finances will also allow the Democratic mayor to offer a reduction in the property tax rate. The tax cut, which Bronin announced in his state of the city address delivered Monday at the Park Street library branch, isn’t being unwritten by federal money but is the result of the city’s overall improved fiscal health, Bronin said. He did not specify the amount of his tax cut.
“It won’t be as big a reduction as I wish that it could be,’’ he said. “But it will help at least a little. It’ll get our mill rate down below 70 for the first time in more than 15 years. And it will be the largest reduction in our property tax rate in more than 30 years.”
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, signed into law by President Joe Biden a year ago, has bolstered the economic fortunes of cities and states across the nation. Hartford is set to receive a total of $112 million.
Bronin is allocating a significant portion of the funds to address the economic pain inflicted on businesses and residents, particularly young people, by the coronavirus crisis.
“Our first priority was investing in young people and helping our young people to recover, reconnect and heal after everything they’ve been through,” Bronin said.
The city will partner with Active City’s Youth Sports Collaborative to launch a free sports program for 1,000 children, ranging in age from 5 to 14. It will also collaborate with Girls for Technology and GalaxE Solutions to train city residents for jobs in information technology.
Some of the money aimed at helping young people has already been dispersed: In 2021, the city doled out $1.5 million in grants to 68 agencies that serve youth in the city. Recipients included the Girl Scouts, the Center for Latino Progress and the Ebony Horsewomen. The city said a second round of grants will be announced in coming weeks.
Our Piece of the Pie, a youth service agency that provides workforce development and runs service learning programs to youth in Hartford, will receive a total of $1.5 million over the next three years.
The money will help the agency expand its offerings and reach more young people, said CEO and President Hector Rivera. “This will definitely provide some growth potential for the organization,” he said.
Our Piece of the Pie has an annual budget of about $2.7 million and currently serves about 200-250 young people, many of whom have been previously incarcerated, come through the foster care system or “have participated in risky behaviors,’’ Rivera said.
The federal money will allow the agency to increase the number of young people it serves to 350, Rivera said. “It also might allow a young person to stay on an extra year,’’ he said, “and we’ll be able to provide more emergency support” in the form of child care, housing and transportation to program participants.
Bronin will also allocate some of the federal dollars flowing into the city to to help businesses hurt by pandemic-related closures.
The mayor said he intends to use the cash-infusion from the federal government to make lasting change.
“We … want to make sure that we are making investments that allow us to get the benefit of these resources for years and years to come,” Bronin said. “So we can see and feel the difference, even after the dollars are gone. And to do that, we can do things like fixing up blighted buildings, activating vacant lots around our city, pursuing neighborhood projects that have been long sought.”