Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Bronin sends level Hartford budget proposal to CT oversight panel

  • Money
  • by Keith M. Phaneuf
  • April 16, 2018
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Kyle Constable :: CTMirror.org file photo

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin proposed the city’s first budget Monday since the state committed to retire more than $540 million of Hartford’s debt to help it avert bankruptcy.

The new $567.3 million budget technically increases spending by 1.4 percent, or $8.1 million, beyond projected city expenditures for the current fiscal year.

But Bronin’s latest plan includes a new initiative to save millions of dollars over the next five years by paying $20 million in cash for capital improvement projects — which typically are financed outside of the budget. About $10.5 million for the capital program would come from the operating budget and another $9.5 million from off-budget sources.

If those new cash payments are not counted, the plan cuts spending by about one-half of 1 percent, or $2.3 million, below current spending levels.

Bronin, whose plan also must be acted upon — for the first time — by a new state oversight panel, also is seeking to build about $10 million in labor savings achieved by union concessions and other means this fiscal year.

“Over the past two years, we have confronted a full-blown fiscal crisis, decades in the making and rooted in the fact that Hartford is a small city with more than half of its property tax-exempt,” the mayor wrote in his budget message. “We have faced that crisis honestly and transparently, with a commitment to achieving long-term sustainability and strength.”

The budget is balanced without any one-time revenues, without any asset sales, and without deferring pension obligations, according to the administration.  It does not include any new borrowing.

Bronin first warned legislators and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in the second half of 2016 that the capital city was at risk of insolvency in 2017. This was due to a combination of surging local debt costs — tied to an array of financing gimmicks employed by prior administrations — long-term poverty trends and dwindling state payments to offset state, college and hospital properties that are exempt from local taxation.

City staff, excluding police, fire and other emergency personnel, is down 16 percent, or 437 positions, from the 2015 fiscal year. And while Bronin said his budget would continue to recruit police and fire personnel, and shield local education, it maintains cuts to a wide array of personnel and programs achieved over the past two years.

Funding for the city library and recreational centers essentially would remain flat, as would aid for centers to assist the abused and homeless.

The plan is expected to draw far more scrutiny from state officials then ever before.

That’s due, in part, to a new debt assistance agreement reached last month between the city and the state. The latter was represented by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget office and by state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier, and they signed the agreement for the state.

Bronin, who was exploring a run for governor, cited the politics of that deal in forgoing the race Monday.

“I don’t want anyone to undermine our city as a way of getting at me, and I cannot let Hartford’s future become the casualty of a political fight,” Bronin said.

Some legislative leaders from both parties have asserted the deal, through which Connecticut would pay off more than $540 million in city debt over the next two or three decades, went beyond the level of assistance legislators intended.

The new, two-year state budget enacted last October provided two new forms of assistance to keep Hartford out of bankruptcy court.

Lawmakers set aside $28 million in this fiscal year and again in 2018-19 for general aid to fiscally distressed communities that work with the new state Municipal Accountability Review Board. Legislative leaders from both parties said they anticipated Hartford would receive roughly $20 million of the $28 million to be distributed by the review board.

Another $20 million was set aside in the budget — in both this fiscal year and next — to help Hartford cover payments on its general obligation debt. Lawmakers also agreed that the city would seek to refinance its debt over the long-term, and that the state would guarantee this refinancing.

But Republican leaders in the House and GOP and Democratic leaders alike in the Senate said they didn’t envision the state making any debt payments on behalf of Hartford after the 2018-19 fiscal year.

The only exception would be if the city defaulted on a payment. At that point, the state — as guarantor of the refinancing — would have to cover the defaulted payment.

Both Bronin and Malloy have said the agreement is in total compliance with the authorizing language written into the state budget last October.

Since that deal was executed, two major Wall Street credit rating agencies have upgraded the city’s rankings significantly, citing the state assistance as the primary reason.

The City Council will hold a public hearing on the mayor’s budget proposal on April 26. The state’s Municipal Accountability Review Board also is expected to begin its review of the plan immediately.

The co-chairs of the review board, Nappier and Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes, did not comment on the proposal immediately after its release Monday.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Keith M. Phaneuf A winner of numerous journalism awards, Keith Phaneuf has been CT Mirror’s state finances reporter since it launched in 2010. The former State Capitol bureau chief for The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Keith has spent most of 31 years as a reporter specializing in state government finances, analyzing such topics as income tax equity, waste in government and the complex funding systems behind Connecticut’s transportation and social services networks. A former contributing writer to The New York Times, Keith is a graduate of and a former journalism instructor at the University of Connecticut.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
CT hasn’t started collecting new payroll tax from state workers
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Connecticut established a new payroll tax surcharge on Jan. 1 but still isn't deducting it from state workers' paychecks.

Lamont’s budget offers another round of tax amnesty
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposal waives penalties and caps interest at 3% over each of the next two fiscal years.

Senate sends data center incentives and town aid pledge bills to Lamont’s desk
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Senate endorsed an omnibus fiscal bill that lays the groundwork for a major boost in PILOT aid to many municipalities.

House approves big municipal aid pledge, tax incentive bills
by Keith M. Phaneuf and Mark Pazniokas

The House approved bills Wednesday pledging $100 million-plus in new municipal aid and offering tax incentives to attract data centers.

CT legislature poised to make early budget pledge to help cities and towns
by Keith M. Phaneuf

The state House is expected to approve more than $100 million in new, annual PILOT grants to municipalities.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Fitness is part of Connecticut’s COVID solution
by David Humphrey

Based on what we now know about infection rates and transmission, it is more apparent than ever before that gyms, fitness centers, and the physical and mental health benefits of exercise are essential to help our state get through the months ahead.

Opinion Connecticut can’t afford state government-run health insurance
by Mike Licamele

As much as I support strengthening and improving healthcare, I do not believe SB 842 is the way to do that. Instead of trying to force Connecticut residents into a new, government-controlled healthcare system, lawmakers should focus on improving our existing one by building on what’s working and continuing to address lowering costs, not raising taxes

Opinion Disabled, marginalized, stalled and walled
by Doris Maldonado

As a bilingual health information specialist for PATH P2P Family Voices CT and National Family Voices Cultural Responsiveness Telehealth Team, I offer more than professional expertise as well as despair for the marginalized within marginalized communities. I am a Latina with disabilities, adoptive mother of 17-year-old twins with special needs and a thriving toddler.

Opinion The marijuana legalization debate must be based on facts
by Will Jones III

In response to my earlier piece on why Connecticut lawmakers should reject marijuana commercialization,  Brendan Ruberry wrote a rebuttal that, on its face seems scathing, but to be clear, the attempted rebuttal falls flat and well off the mark.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO