Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said the city has a $9 million budget shortfall this year, one that is projected to be three times that in the budget year to come without significant cuts. The mayor is beginning by making some immediate changes at city hall to try and save money.
Bronin made a campaign issue out of getting the city's finances in order. Now, after a couple of months on the job, he's ordering up a series of cost-saving measures because the numbers aren't good.
There's a $9 million deficit this year. Going forward, the city faces a $32 million deficit next year, and a projected deficit of nearly $50 million the year after that.
"We have just a few months to try to minimize that shortfall, and we've put some cost saving measures in place," Bronin said. "We're stopping non-essential hiring. We're stopping purchase orders. We're requiring extra levels of approval for any purchases that are deemed essential. That's going to save some money -- it's going to save hundreds of thousands of dollars, not millions."
But Bronin said bigger, tougher choices will have to be made to get out of this problem going forward.
"We may have to decide that there are some services we just can't perform anymore," he said. "We're going to have to look at cuts of all kinds. We're going to have to make sure that we are asking our partners in labor to come together with us at the table."
The new mayor is going to have to work quickly. He'll issue his first budget in mid-April.
