STATEMENT BY MAYOR ELICKER ON THE NEW HAVEN BOARD OF ALDERS’ VOTE APPROVING THE CITY BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026-27

[NEW HAVEN, CT] - This evening, the New Haven Board of Alders passed an amended version of Mayor Elicker's proposed $733 million city budget for Fiscal Year 2026-2027 and subsequent $20 million technical budget amendment in response to new revenue commitments from the State of Connecticut and Yale University. Following the Board of Alders' vote, Mayor Elicker released the following statement:

"At a time when families and local governments are feeling the pain of rising costs and inflation, as a city we were able to come together to pass a budget that maintains critical services, invests in our public schools, protects our most vulnerable residents, and continues to strengthen our city's long-term financial health.

This budget invests nearly $20 million in new funding that is desperately needed to support our historically underfunded public schools and provide our teachers with a well-deserved raise. It continues the New Haven Tutoring Initiative that provides free afterschool and summer tutoring for our K - 8 students struggling with reading and math. It invests in our Youth@Work program and summer jobs for our youth.

This budget maintains our commitment to our most vulnerable residents, including continuing our Elm City C.O.M.P.A.S.S. crisis response team for those facing mental health and substance use challenges, our emergency shelters and services for the unhoused, and emergency food aid and meals for the hungry.

This budget is also mindful of the challenges many families are facing with rising costs - particularly housing costs - with a modest property tax increase of 1.5 percent, well below the rate of inflation.

Importantly, this budget would not be possible if not for the tenacious advocacy of our residents and school communities who have led the charge in calling for additional state education funding and municipal aid. This budget would also not be possible if not for the able leadership of New Haven's State Delegation that delivered a historic level of new funding for our schools this year and a commitment to advance a more permanent, long-term fix next year. I've been so proud to work closely with our superintendent, teachers union, state delegation, and municipal leaders from across the state to advocate for more state education funding in this multi-year effort. New Haven led the way to benefit our children and children across Connecticut.

While we still have a lot of work ahead of us, when you look at where our city's finances were just a few short years ago to where they are today, it's night and day.

That didn't happen by accident. It's been years in the making. It happened because we collectively pursued a new, more responsible approach to city budgeting and advocated for new revenue streams that have allowed us to put our city on much firmer financial footing, both today and in the years to come.

In 2020, the city was on the financial brink and facing a projected $66 million deficit in our annual budget. Today, we passed our sixth straight balanced budget with a rainy-day fund of over $56 million.

Back then, New Haven received $41 million annually in state PILOT (Payment In-Lieu of Taxes) funding. This year, our state PILOT funding is projected to be over $105 million.

Back then, New Haven received a $13 million annual voluntary payment from Yale University. This year, it will be nearly $30 million - the largest voluntary payment by any university to a municipality in the country.

Back then, there was no hope in sight for any fix to the state's broken education funding formula. Today, there is recognition by all state and municipal leaders that the time has come to ensure our state's education funding formula accurately reflects our students' current learning needs and more equitably funds our highest need learners.

Back then, I.O.U.s were being passed down from one generation of New Haveners to the next. Today, we are paying down the debt service of past administrations, we are responsibly funding our pensions, we are rejecting fiscal gimmicks, and we are ensuring our city's long-term financial health is in a much better place for our children and grandchildren.

In this budget, we've shown you can govern and pass a budget that is fiscally responsible and that reflects our values. I'm incredibly grateful to the Board of Alders for their partnership and leadership in this work and I look forward to signing this budget into law."

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PRESS CONTACT

Lenny Speiller: (203) 725-4249; [email protected]