Mayor Luke Bronin on Monday unveiled his recommended fiscal year 2023 budget that proposes to lower the city’s tax rate by 7.2%.
Bronin’s budget proposal reduces the city’s mill rate from 74.29 to 68.95 mills, the largest property tax reduction in decades, he said.
Overall, the recommended budget spends $599.57 million, a 0.79% increase from the revised 2022 fiscal year budget of $594.85 million, Bronin said.
The budget does not include any borrowing or one-time revenues and prioritizes key services such as public safety and public works, and fully funds the city’s annual contribution to the pension fund, the mayor said.
“This recommended budget continues our commitment to careful, disciplined budgeting — focusing on core services like public safety and quality of life, while protecting Hartford’s long-term sustainability and strength,” said Bronin. “We’re proposing the largest reduction in the property tax rate in many years, which is something that seemed almost unimaginable five years ago when we confronted the largest budget crisis in Hartford’s history. We have a lot of work left to do, but this budget keeps Hartford on a solid, sustainable path as we work to recover from the past two years and recapture the energy and momentum we had built prior to the pandemic.”
The city of Hartford has not relied on resources from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan to balance its budget, Bronin said. Instead, a separate the City Council approved a plan last year that spends federal stimulus money on youth services, community safety and wellness, small business support, flood resilience, and economic development.
Bronin’s budget proposal underscores the extent to which Hartford’s once chaotic financial situation has been reordered. Hartford’s current mill rate is 74.29 is by far the highest among any major city or town in Connecticut.
When Bronin took office in 2016, the city, facing years of population decline, was saddled with debt and considering declaring bankruptcy. The state eventually stepped in with a controversial financial bailout.
Since then, however, Hartford has built up its reserves and had its credit rating raised.
Hartford’s high commercial tax rate has driven out some longtime local businesses over the years and stifled some opportunities for future development. Bronin has spoken often about the chilling effect the mill rate exerts, calling it an
“unsustainable and unfair burden” in a 2019 interview with the HBJ.
The city also recently completed a revaluation that saw the value of commercial office buildings decline, for the most part, while residential property values jumped around 30% to 46%, portending a shift in the city’s tax burden onto homeowners.
A decline in the mill rate could ease that burden.
