By Dorinda Borer
Mayor of West Haven
Thank you for the opportunity to present the City of West Haven’s Fiscal Year 2025 Operating Budget, 5-year Capital Plan, the Allingtown Fire Budget and Sewer Operating Budget (see budget details).
This year my Administration engaged in a new process to create the budget before you which consisted of meeting with Department Heads to examine expenses for operational efficiencies and revisit personnel structures. I also focused on new revenue drivers and growing the grand list.
While the Council’s next steps are to weigh in and make changes as they see fit, it is the MARB however, that will have final say over our budget as we were placed in strong oversight of the MARB’s TEIR IV in March of 2022.
As a reminder the MARB rejected last year’s 5-year plan and asked the previous Mayor to resubmit a new plan to the MARB. That final plan that was submitted and MARB approved includes a 2.4 mill rate increase for this budget. Unfortunately, this is already built into our jumping off point for this budget.
This presented a challenge for this budget as to how do we take the scheduled mill rate increase down to lessen the impact to residents and businesses while not cutting the services we collectively deserve. Additionally, we must invest in critical areas while balancing the MARB’s responsible directive and our goal of maintaining a healthy general fund balance.
All of these aspects were considered and resulted in what I believe is a responsible, prudent budget that accomplishes all of these goals.
The details of the budget are available on our City Website but some highlights include:
Filling Vacancies-with our aggressive approach towards talented recruitment we have already begun to eliminate high priced consultants to cut personnel costs and to address overtime expenses.
Restructuring personnel-I have eliminated some positions that were less essential in lieu of creating new ones that invest in the areas that I believe our City has fallen short in and need to augment such as services for our Youth, our Seniors, Social Work and outreach for our deserving veterans.
This budget also proposes a significant cut to outside legal services due to a restructuring of Corporation Counsel’s Department.
This budget includes an anticipated favorable reduction in fuel and energy costs as a result of our plans to aggressively pursue renewable energy projects but also to rebid a renewal for electrical pricing which should take effect December 2024.
I have included the anticipated sale of City properties that are neither functioning nor producing revenue.
We will be pursuing un-taxed out-of-state license car registrations. We welcome new residents but cars should now be registered in West Haven. There will be an exception for those that own property in other states.
This budget also includes a reduction in expenses due to cost sharing. For example, through negotiations with the West Haven Housing Authority, we will now share in the cost for our senior transportation expense.
This budget includes a new revenue item for Blight fines as in the past the City has collected $0 in blight fines due to the lack of legal and systematic structure in place to allow for this process. We have fixed this and will be fining.
Another new revenue line item includes non-resident landlord registration fee and a $500 fee for noncompliance. Addressing absentee landlords not only addresses blight but assists our fire and police efforts as well.
There is an anticipated increase in Parking Revenue as we will revisit new ways to charge nonresidents for parking across the City.
This budget creates a better structure of Economic Development by changing our Building Department fees and adding new software for ease of business and tracking. It also includes a modest investment into marketing so that the City can finally be competitive for business.
I have included additional investments for paving and curb cuts.
This budget makes valuable investments into our education system as the City has not provided a funding increase since 2016 and I believe demonstrating the commitment to the children of our City is long overdue.
This budget includes the increase to the police personnel base salary which brings our police officers from one of the lowest paid in the state towards a more competitive salary which is a critical investment towards our goal of recruitment and retention.
For our Allingtown Fire Department we have lowered the mil rate slightly while still investing in the pension liability.
And finally, the Sewer Operating Fund requires significant improvements to our critical infastructure and will result in a $15 per household fee increase for FY 25. Our clean water, storm water and sewage operation is critical.
One of the main criteria for exiting MARB oversight is to commit a certain percentage towards the General Fund and in this budget we have taken that action to demonstrate our commitment towards future financial stability.
As you can see, we’ve made substantial efforts to relook at the way we do business and ensure we are investing in areas that overall will improve the quality of life for our residents.
The message is that we’ve come so far through the work of the MARB, the employees and the patience of our public. We are on a progressive and positive road with financial stability within our reach. I’m confident that together we will all achieve this goal.