Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim says the state's bipartisan budget plan that Gov. Dannel Malloy signed into law on Tuesday leaves the city with about a $13 million shortfall.
The state budget eliminates municipal revenue sharing, which shares sales tax revenues with cities and towns. It also eliminates state funding for the elderly home ownership tax relief program.
Ganim says the city will now be supporting that program at the cost of about $542,000. To manage, he says the city will have to do more with less and that they have implemented a hiring freeze. He says the city will also be reissuing bonds that would save millions in debt service.
Right now, Ganim says raising property taxes is not something the city will pursue.
"We've got to deal with the challenges here," Ganim says. "It hurts cities and towns in Connecticut. But it's a better product than what the interim budget was. So I'm hoping we dig out of this locally."
Ganim says the state budget would also increase the cap on the car tax mill rate from 37 mills to 39. He also brought up concern over a ballot question on Tuesday that proposes to increase the tax mill rate. He says it would impact taxpayers.