The newly passed budget also includes an increase of over $ 2 million in additional education funding for New Haven.

The hoped-for increase in Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney’s program, which pays municipalities like New Haven, which do not receive property tax payments from nonprofits like Yale University and the hospital of Yale-New Haven, “represents the largest investment in municipalities – especially those with a high concentration of communities of color – in more than two decades,” said Elicker.

According to the previous formula, New Haven was to receive just over $ 41 million. Elicker said last Friday that full funding for the program – “to the finish line,” he said – was a “top priority”.

“This is a historic day for New Haven and puts us in a much better financial position for years to come,” Elicker said. “With this budget, our city will be able to invest more in our city’s people, provide services, reduce our structural debt and make a larger annual contribution to our retirement – saving taxpayer dollars long term – all without raising taxes in the coming year. “

Last Friday, Elicker and the mayors and first elected officials of a number of Connecticut towns and villages, including Hamden, West Haven, North Haven and Guilford, held a press conference to make a final pitch for the program to be fully funded, calling it a matter of “fairness.”

Saying he felt like “Don Quixote fighting this fight”, at the event New London Mayor Passero Michael said the PILOT on many levels is a “question of fairness”.

“Because of our property tax system and the tax exemptions that are given to our cities, the state’s poorest tax bases must support the service of our affluent neighbors.”

On Wednesday night, Elicker said that the doubling of the payment in lieu of property taxes “is also a significant effort by the state of Connecticut to make our tax system fairer. I am so proud of the work that our coalition of leaders Council was able to accomplish – and grateful for the work of the New Haven delegation, as well as President Ritter and our Board of Directors who have been partners throughout this process. ”

As reported earlier this year by the New Haven Independent, the measure will reshape the state’s current PILOT system into three different tiers based on the relative economic needs of Connecticut’s 169 different cities, the Independent reported.

With a multi-tiered PILOT, less affluent towns and villages, those with more tax-exempt landowners, i.e. colleges and hospitals, New Haven being among the best examples, would get a larger reduction in the PILOT reimbursement, and the richer cities get a smaller slice, the Independent explained.