Mayor Bronin Releases Recommended Budget Focusing On Core Services,

Published on April 27, 2020

Mayor Bronin Releases Recommended Budget Focusing On Core Services, With $5 Million In Reductions In Response To Coronavirus 

HARTFORD, CONN (April 27, 2020) – Today Mayor Luke Bronin released his Recommended Budget for Fiscal Year 2020 – 2021, which focuses on basic city services, maintains education funding, and includes no long-term borrowing or increase in the property tax rate (mill rate).  The total budget is $567.8 million, which is a one percent reduction from last year.  In response to the uncertain fiscal impact of coronavirus, the City reduced its pre-pandemic FY2021 revenue estimate by approximately $5 million.  Mayor Bronin’s budget letter to residents and a budget summary are available here, and the full FY2021 Recommended Budget is available here.

“Over the past four years, we worked hard to build a strong foundation for Hartford’s future,” said Mayor Luke Bronin.  “We made tough choices, built new partnerships, and took our city from crisis to stability.  Our fiscal situation was still fragile, but we had a path and we’ve been sticking to it.  Over the past two months, our city, our state, and our nation have been tested in a new way, and we face a whole new kind of uncertainty.  Like cities across the country, we have seen unprecedented job losses and business closures.  We don’t know when the pandemic will pass, or how long the recovery will take.  We also don’t know how this crisis will affect our budget.  The economic devastation from the coronavirus pandemic will result in lower revenue – possibly much lower revenue.  We have no way of estimating with any confidence just how large that revenue loss will be.”

Mayor Bronin continued, saying, “This budget does not raise property taxes or include any long-term borrowing, and it continues to prioritize essential services while running very lean. We have to acknowledge though, that we do not know whether the revenue reductions in this budget are big enough, and we won’t know for months.  If the revenue losses prove to be much bigger, and if the federal government decides not to provide revenue relief to states or municipalities, we may find ourselves with very difficult choices later this year.  If that happens, we will deal with that.

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