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Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin proposes $573M budget with no tax hikes or borrowing

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin calls on a Hartford resident at a town hall style meeting in January.
Brad Horrigan / Hartford Courant
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin calls on a Hartford resident at a town hall style meeting in January.
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Mayor Luke Bronin’s fourth budget, released as he campaigns for a second term in the recovering capital city, proposes $573.28 million in spending, with no tax increase and no plans to borrow money.

The plan, presented Monday, would increase spending by about $3.2 million, or 0.6 percent, over the current year. After accounting for debt and other capital investments, the city would have $561.88 million to spend, up 0.8 percent from this year.

“There are things I wish we could fund that we cannot,” Bronin said in a prepared statement. “But by staying disciplined and working to grow Hartford, we will move our city from stability to strength. 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.”

The budget would fund 1,361 full-time equivalent positions, an additional 17 positions from 2019. Aside from public safety personnel, however, the city would have 54 fewer employees overall than five years ago, an 11 percent reduction. Those figures don’t include school district jobs.

Bronin recommends increasing the public safety budget from $83.5 million this year to $85 million next year, providing funds to hire 64 new police officers, enough to replace a large number of retirees and modestly grow the force.

The police department currently has 416 officers and projects having 436 by next July, according to the budget.

The city has already added more than 100 firefighters in the last three years, funded in part through an $11 million grant from 2017. That grant would cover about 62 percent of the cost of those new hires in 2020.

Hartford Public Schools would see $284 million under the proposed budget, including about $3.2 million in additional funds the state has proposed for Hartford. While the city would potentially be allowed to use half of that funding for non-education operating expenses, Bronin said he would not divert any of the $3.2 million from the school system.

Part of that funding would be earmarked for efforts aimed at reducing chronic absenteeism.

School system funding from the city would remain flat.

The budget would also fund a new, $271,000 forestry division with four new staff members to deal with the rapid loss of urban tree cover, and to plant new trees, which help remove pollution from the air and reduce the high asthma rates found in Hartford’s low-income neighborhoods.

Trees also helps cool buildings and soak up and slow stormwater flooding. There is currently a two-year-old waiting list of about 60 residents seeking to get trees planted in Hartford.

Another growing public health concern, a citywide rodent problem, is also addressed by the recommended budget.

Bronin seeks two additional rodent inspectors to ease the burden on the sole current inspector. A new rodent control program would also fund a supply of rodenticide and a public information campaign.

The budget also recommends about $560,000 in roadway improvements, including traffic signals and signs, and additional security and maintenance for the city’s heavy vehicle and police vehicle fleets and public facilities.

The capital improvement program includes about $32.5 million, with the city planning to spend $25 million of that during fiscal year 2020.

Bronin estimates the city will save $12 million in the coming year thanks to the numerous labor agreements the city has made with its municipal unions over the last three years.

“Our goal is to continue the momentum we’ve built,” he said. “We’ve worked hard to get from crisis to stability and our goal now is to continue to work every day to get from stability to strength.”

Last month, the city saw an upgrade to its issuer rating, reflecting the stability Hartford has achieved through those labor contract agreements and its disciplined spending.

Moody’s Investors Service elevated Hartford’s designation from B2 to B1, and maintained the city’s A2 bond rating, which Moody’s gave Hartford in April 2018 after the state agreed to pay off the city’s $550 million in general obligation debt.

As part of the deal to have its debt paid off, Hartford agreed to oversight by the Municipal Accountability Review Board, which must review its budget as well as a five-year financial recovery plan.

City Council President Glendowlyn Thames said the proposed budget appears to be on target with that plan, “which is most important,” while also “prioritizing quality of life and essential services for our residents, and giving the Board of Education additional resources we haven’t been able to do for at least the past 10 years.

“So that’s a bright spot,” Thames said.

The city council has until May 31 to adopt the budget. Residents will have opportunities to comment at open meetings and public hearings, the first of which will be held on Tuesday, April 23 at 5:30 p.m., at Bulkeley High School.

Rebecca Lurye can be reached at rlurye@courant.com.