City faces $6.7M deficit, largely due to OT

06/25/2007

Angela Carter , Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — The city is facing a $5.7 million deficit, and finance officials expect both revenue and expenditures to exceed the $415.6 million bottom line for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. In addition, the Board of Education is showing a $1 million deficit in its accounts.

There was a controversial $4 million overrun last year because the administration needs Board of Aldermen approval to exceed the budget, but waited four months after the close of the fiscal year to seek authorization, which the board granted retroactively.

This time around, Lawrence Rusconi, the budget director, and Joe Clerkin, the Office of Management and Budget supervisor, alerted the aldermanic Finance Committee that there will be overruns, but they do not expect costs to outpace revenue at the close of the year.

The shortfalls on the expenditure side, they said, are $1.2 million for Police Department overtime; $1.5 million for Fire Department overtime; $1.7 million for the transfer station, run by public works; $742,000 in workers compensation costs; and $585,000 in medical benefits.

The overtime deficits are accumulating at a pace of about $50,000 per week in the Police Department and $61,000 per week in the Fire Department. The police department has an academy class up and running, and the fire department is recruiting, although there are reservations about how the fire test was scored.

Those figures are reported in the monthly financial report for April, the latest available report.

To mitigate the revenue shortages, the administration says it will focus on property tax collection, an ongoing personal property tax audit program, sales of city-owned properties, parking tag collections and income from the real estate conveyance tax, investments and building permits.

A personnel tracking committee reviews whether to fill jobs on a bi-weekly basis, the April report says, and the anti-blight Livable City Initiative has brought in $545,000 in property sales so far this fiscal year.

Finance Committee members have few questions at this point, but Hill Alderman Jorge Perez, D-5, said he wants a follow-up report from the police chief, who said at a prior meeting the department would be evaluating sick leave and other causes of absenteeism.

"They feel confident they will be able to meet what they need to meet to balance the budget," said Finance Committee Chairman Sergio Rodriguez, D-26, of Westville.

The panel will have a meeting with the police chief and budget director in the future, Rodriguez said.

The financial report is available through the offices of the city clerk, Hall of Records, 200 Orange St., 2nd floor, or Management and Budget, 3rd floor, City Hall, 165 Church St.

Angela Carter can be reached at 789-5614 or acarter@nhregister.com.