Mayor Ed O'Brien says the West Haven City Council needs to keep all options open in order to come up with a solution to fill an estimated $2 million budget shortfall.
He says incremental property tax increases years ago could have avoided the budget issues the city faces today.
"I think we should have raised them a little bit, year after year after year, a little increase year after year so we wouldn’t have this situation so I do so see that as a minimal tax increase," O'Brien, a Democrat, told NBC Connecticut Tuesday.
O'Brien described the budget issues as "nothing new" and said they've been building for 10 years.
He said the root cause of the existing shortfall has to do with increased health insurance claims from city workers. West Haven is self-insured.
He says without the health insurance claims, the city has an operating surplus of $1 million.
Nancy Rossi, a Democrat on the West Haven City Council who chairs the city's Finance Committee, says not enough has been done to fend off the ballooning budget issues.
“The problem they’re not taking seriously is doing something about it," Rossi said.
Rossi, who is running for re-election as a petitioning candidate after losing her bid for the Democratic nomination, said the city needs to figure out ways to avoid a tax hike while maintaining city services.
Rossi said, "If these taxes go up, I don’t care if it’s a single parent or a senior, I don’t care if its middle class, I don’t care who it is, they feel they’ve paid enough taxes and if taxes go up it’ll mean the difference between people staying here or leaving.”
She recommended contracting out the city owned Savin Rock Conference Center. Rossi doesn't expect it to fill the budget hole, but said combined with cuts elsewhere, it should make a dent.
"We could put it out to bid and see what it can do for us."
She was also critical of the city's overtime and hiring practices in recent years. The mayor said the city has worked to cut back on overtime, even asking groups that ask for city assistance on weekends to pay up front for estimated overtime costs.
O'Brien said, “We’re meeting with every department head to cut where we can cut.”
He added that not all overtime could be cut altogether. O'Brien said with the seasons changing, the city can't hit the pause button on discretionary spending.
“You still have to plow the roads. You still have to have public safety. You can’t just sit around and watch the city crumble because for the last ten years we sat around and watched this problem develop,” O'Brien said.
