The executive order under which the state is operating until the General Assembly passes a final budget has become a point of contention for the two Democratic contenders for the party’s mayoral nomination. Challenge candidate Nancy Rossi charged the administration of Mayor Edward M. O’Brien with ignoring warnings the budget battle could put the city’s fragile finances under more strain
In a statement this week, Rossi said the recent executive order by has the city receiving $46, 190,094, some $6,586,174 less than originally expected.
“The state funding for West Haven is being reduced by $6,586,174 for the current fiscal year under the Governor’s executive order,”Rossi said. “To make matters worse, Mayor O’Brien added an additional $8 million of projected state revenue to the city budget.”
Rossi said she and other warned the mayor and City Council about the dangers of overestimating expected revenue, and it means more fiscal woes for the city’s taxpayers.
“The mayor and City Council don’t have a contingency plan to deal with this financial disaster. The Mayor and Council just authorized $150 million in borrowing which included money for operating budget deficits. Mayor O’Brien has not balanced a single budget and his deficits get bigger each year. Most municipalities were conservative in building their budgets and had contingencies in place in case of reductions. Mayor O’Brien and his administration are fiscally irresponsible and they have put us in danger of insolvency,” Rossi said.
She said there is hope the legislature will come up with a budget, but that might take several more weeks.
“There is still a chance that the legislature will pass a budget for the current fiscal year where we can have a chance to get some funding back. The problem is that the earliest a budget will be voted on is mid-September,” Rossi said.
The Governor, in an article in the Connecticut Mirror posted on Aug. 18 was quoted saying that he would release funds on Oct. 1 “to help Hartford, West Haven and other communities struggling to avoid fiscal insolvency”.
“West Haven has definitely hit rock bottom when out of 169 municipalities the Governor names us and warns of insolvency. It is embarrassing and West Haven can do so much better,” she said.
In response, Mayor O’Brien said the city was well aware of the executive order and what it does and took action when notice of adjustments in the state were known.
“We received notice that these changes were coming and worked to adjust this fiscal year’s education budget to work with the revised state aid. This has already been completed and we will be able to work with the revised amount until a state budget is passed,” O’Brien said.
A key detail of this adjustment is that it is not permanent, according to O’Brien. The executive order only stands until the General Assembly passes a budget, which he believes is expected within a month.
In the absence of a state budget, the governor is only authorized to make cuts to funding to ensure the budget stays balanced.
“In this regard, West Haven made out fairly well with this executive order as many cities and towns are facing completely zeroed-out Education Cost Sharing funds. As a school district with a significant amount of low-income families and a high percentage of students with special needs, the state understands that West Haven has a larger cost burden than most other municipalities,” O’Brien said.
Regarding the Connecticut Mirror article, O’Brien indicated his opponent missed a very important detail.
“Another important part of the article that Nancy seemed to miss is that grants to Alliance Districts, of which West Haven is one , will remain unchanged,” he said.
He said the administration, the Finance Department, and the Board of Education have taken important steps to ensure our schools can operate under the current conditions.
“First, as mentioned before, we have already made adjustments to this year’s education budget to continue normal operations under the temporarily revised state aid without running a deficit. Second, we remain in contact with the governor’s office, OPM, and our state representatives and senators to ensure West Haven’s needs are met in the final state budget,” O’Brien said.
He took the opportunity to again criticize Rossi for not knowing all the details.
“Once again, it is clear that Nancy does not know the details of the situation we are in and would rather send out panicked press releases than reach out and learn how we are handling the situation,” he said.