This was a special meeting of the New Britain Common Council convened at 6:27 PM on April 15, 2026, dedicated to the municipal budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026. The meeting opened with public participation focused on the New Britain Public Library's budget request, followed by a presentation from the Mayor detailing the proposed general fund budget and other fiscal items. The Council voted to accept the Mayor's reports and refer the budget to subcommittees for further review. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for April 28, 2026, at 6:30 PM in the council chambers.
I want to welcome all to the April fifteenth twenty twenty-six special common council meeting for the budget. Um we open with public participation. Anybody who wants to speak has three minutes. And this meeting the topic is our municipal budget for the year beginning July one. Please direct your comments to the chair, not to individual members or the audience. And I have several names on a list that I'll call up now. Our discussions with the Board of Finance Taxation have always been informative and positive. Our foundation of the relationship between the city and the library is that the city provides operational support while all other expenses, like capital projects, are library responsibility. So the city does not bear the full financial burden of maintaining a library for its residents. The Board of Trustees takes this commitment to keeping the library financially secure seriously. Working with the library director, the library manages our business without incurring a deficit. Again, I emphasize our appropriation, our appreciation for a 3% proposed increase. And if that's what it is, we will manage our business accordingly. But it will mean diminished services to the residents of New Britain. Our budget, this current physical year represents only 1.24% of the city's total budget. This year, I do not yet know the budget proposal amount. I believe you all just received it. However, I estimate that a 3% increase provides the library with an additional 102,000 dollars a year. An 8% increase would give us uh $272,000 a year, and a 13% increase, which is what we have requested would provide us with an additional $441,000. The library is a small contributor to the overall budget. It impacts extends well beyond the library walls at the main branch and at Jefferson School. Your deliberations, please consider setting studies showing that for every dollar invested in the local library returns at $4 back to the local economy. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, Mr. Whelan. Next speaker on the list is Victor Schelberg. Let's see. Dear Alderman McNamara and the members of the Common Council. I will start off with the good news. The library has been on a journey of expansion over the past two years. In just over two years, our visitor count is up by 29%. The use of electronic materials, ebooks, and e-audio books has increased by 74%. The library is offering programming like never before. And that is both in terms of quantity and diversity. And the program attendance has gone up by an astonishing 57% in just two years. I attribute this success to a hardworking library team and their strategic decision making. It is very important that we create a place where everyone feels welcome. And a strong priority continues to be to create relationships with neighborhoods and communities that may not currently have a deep connection to the library. We are doing the work to make this happen. But the reason I'm standing before you today is not only to inform you of our success, it's also to illuminate our need. The staff at the New Britain Public Library are among the lowest paid library workers in the greater Hartford area. And the wage wages are also low when compared to other urban libraries in the states. Years of flat funding from the city of New Britain and small increases over the past few years means that we find ourselves in a situation where, in order to remain attractive, remain attractive as an employer and to get closer to equitable compensation for our staff, we have requested the 13% increase. A strong library depends on its staff to provide materials and services for all ages, lead story times and other programs, and to expand its reach in the community and to expand the scope of its offerings. They are hardworking, highly skilled people, and many of them hold master's degrees. As John said, the library's operating budget makes up approximately 1.2% of the overall general fund. I feel that my expectations are reasonable, and I do not expect that we can fix this all in one budget season. But that's far as this year's budget. Approving our budget's request as submitted would be a great step in the right direction. Thank you.