by Laura Glesby The New Haven independent
Mayor Justin Elicker hopes to add 12 new city jobs to New Haven’s general fund budget in the coming fiscal year.
Alders are now weighing whether to approve those new positions amid a host of separate funding requests from local food pantries, teachers, homeless rights advocates, and others.
Elicker has framed his $703,765,049 budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025 – 26 as a “primarily status-quo budget,” with nearly half of the proposed new jobs expected to bring in new forms of revenue for the city to offset their salaries. The mayor’s proposed budget includes a 3.63 percent spending increase, as well as a 2.3 percent increase to the local tax rate.
The proposed new positions include a tree trimmer, three parking enforcement officers, two assistant building and plans officials, a deputy controller, a chief data officer, and an Engineering Department resource analyst and scheduler, among other roles. The mayor has also proposed moving the director of community resilience into the general fund budget now that that position’s one-time federal funding is running out.
The mayor’s annual proposal for new positions in City Hall tends to be a focal point for alders seeking to amend the mayor’s budget plan. Over the last three years, alders have denied a total of 47 new city jobs included in mayoral budget proposals, nixing at least 10 new positions per year.
The 12 proposed positions for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, are likely to undergo close review by alders this week.
Each position is listed in the budget proposal alongside a corresponding salary, but additional funding is typically required to actually hire a given employee, due to pension and medical benefits that depend on each person’s unique circumstances. According to city spokesperson Lenny Speiller, the city generally budgets for pension costs at about 12 percent of an employee’s salary and medical costs at about 42 percent of an employee’s salary, with the understanding that these numbers are likely to vary.
In total, the proposed new positions would cost $980,604 in salaries, as well as — roughly — $117,672 in pension costs and $411,854 in healthcare costs. That adds up to a total of $1,510,130.
The city currently has 1,427 full-time employees, not including the school system.
The budget review process is unfolding at a time of widespread cuts in federal programs, leaving the fate of assistance ranging from food aid to healthcare and public benefits uncertain. Some federal grants allocated to the city are also in limbo — such as an already-promised EPA award that the city is currently suing the federal government in order to obtain.
The city’s public school system is simultaneously gearing up to lay off 129 employees (including 56 teachers) due to an anticipated $16.5 million budget shortfall. Elicker has proposed increasing the city’s contribution to public schools by $5 million this year (bringing the general fund’s contribution up to $213.2 million in total), and has called on the State of Connecticut to make up the difference.
Over the course of several hearings held by the Board of Alders Finance Committee in recent weeks, city department leaders had a chance to advocate for the various proposed new positions. Here’s what they said.