HARTFORD, Conn. (WTIC) – Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin has submitted the city’s budget for the 2020 fiscal year.
On the first floor of Hartford City Hall, the Mayor submitted the recommended budget in the Town and City Clerk’s Office. It marks the fourth city budget Bronin has submitted since taking office in 2016.
Most notably, the budget will not plan to borrow any money or raise taxes.
Instead, the financial plan will deliver essential services only while making investments to improve quality of life throughout Hartford neighborhoods.
“We confronted a fiscal crisis honestly and directly,” said Mayor Bronin. “We made difficult choices and built the partnerships necessary to move our city from crisis to stability. At the same time, we invested in public safety, worked to support our young people and funded programs to protect our most vulnerable residents – this budget continues that work.”
Those quality of life improvements include funding for new police officers, investing to resource the Department of Public Works and allocating funds for a wide range of traffic improvements that will help continue upgrading the traffic management system.
Additionally, the budget funds a rodent control program, including two additional rodent inspectors and a public information campaign. The Mayor notes this investment is necessary due to an increase of rodent complaints from residents – increased by construction around the city, utility work and climate change.
The budget also preserves savings made over the past few years while protecting funding for core services.
Additionally, the financial plan anticipates funding a modest Capital Improvement Plan through operating funds and maintains the partnership with the State of Connecticut. In addition to maintaining that partnership with the State, the budget also factors in a provision from Governor Ned Lamont’s budget proposal.
“We continue to protect education funding to support the Superintendent’s District Model for Excellence,” said Mayor Bronin. “Even if the State allows us to use half of the approximately $3.2 million in additional education funding for non-education operating expenses, as is proposed in the Governor’s budget, we will instead dedicate the entire amount to our schools, with a focus on chronic absenteeism.”
Ultimately, the budget stays consistent with the City’s five-year recovery plan, which aims to maintain fiscal stability while focusing on moving from that stability to strength.
“We should be proud of the stability we have achieved, but our fiscal position is still fragile, and we have much more work to do,” said Mayor Bronin.
He continued, “Our goal is simple and clear: to build our city into the vibrant center of this region of more than a million people – and to ensure that everyone, in every neighborhood, has a share in Hartford’s rise.”
