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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2023 · VOL. CXLV, NO. 17 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
City increases budget by $30 million Uni. Council
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker’s plan for the city includes adding 34 city jobs while cutting the property tax rate after a property valuation that saw residents' tax bills skyrocket. /Yash Roy, Staff Photographer BY YASH ROY STAFF REPORTER Amid historic staffing shortages and concerns about increases in taxes, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker projected confidence while presenting the city’s $665 million budget. Elicker’s budget proposal for the fiscal year 2023-24, which he announced on Wednesday at City Hall, includes plans to
lower the city’s property tax rate by roughly 6 percent, add 34 city jobs, increase New Haven Public Schools funding by $8 million, increase up-front contributions to pensions, add 12 positions to the New Haven Police Department and create an Office for Policy and Management. “I believe this budget strikes the right balance between providing the critical services that our residents expect and deserve while also keeping our residents’ tax bur-
den down and ensuring the financial health of our city,” Elicker told the News. The lower property tax rate does not necessarily mean that all residents will pay lower taxes: last year’s property revaluation saw property values spike across the city, and even with a lower mill rate, residents could still have a higher tax bill next year. Wednesday’s budget announcement was vastly different from Elicker’s 2021 budget address where he laid out two separate budgets, including a crisis budget which proposed cutting services and raising taxes. Amid a pandemic, unmitigated debt obligations and underfunded pensions, New Haven was “on the precipice of collapse in 2021” according to Elicker. Elicker said that “smart fiscal decisions” over the last two years, which include the stabilization of pension funding and an increase in the state’s contribution to the city through the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program reimbursing municipalities in the state for non-taxable property, have contributed to the city’s “strong position” today. “We had a $66 million gap in the budget in 2021,” Elicker told the News. “It’s been a really, really challenging three years. But when you think about where we’ve come, how far we’ve come, it is quite remarkable. It’s in part because of our team but it is also in large part because of the partnership and leadership of our state delegation and the many people on the ground, encouraging and pushing, you know, the university to contribute more to the city.” State Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney and New Haven activists, including members of New Haven Rising and UNITE-HERE, have spent much of the last two years advocating both in Hartford SEE BUDGET PAGE 5
Yalies advance to “Jeopardy!” semifinals Sattler and Miner's episodes aired Monday and Tuesday respectively BY MOLLY REINMANN STAFF REPORTER Those who frequent the New Haven bar scene have probably seen Claire Sattler ’23 or Lucas Miner ’24 dominating weekly trivia nights. Now, the two have brought their skills to television, as they head to the semi-finals of the "Jeopardy! High School Reunion Tournament. Sattler and Miner previously competed in the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament, coming in first and second place, respectively. Late last year, they — along with 25 of their competitors from the Teen Tournament — were invited to take the “Jeopardy!” stage again and compete in the SEE "JEOPARDY!" PAGE 5
Howard R. Lamar GRD ’51, former dean, University president and Sterling professor of history at Yale, died on Wednesday at the age of 99. Lamar, who served as University president from 1992 to 1993, as well as dean of Yale College from 1979 to 1985, began his career at Yale as a professor of “History of the American West” — a year-long lecture class that he taught for nearly four decades. Lamar also served as chair of the history department and wrote several books, including “The New Reader’s Encyclopedia of the American West.” His legacy at Yale will continue under the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders.
CROSS CAMPUS
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1975.
Several people, posing as college students and law enforcement officials, confront students in at least six different incidents, attempting to obtain marijuana.
expression BY WILLIAM PORAYOUW STAFF REPORTER The University Council, Yale’s highest presidential advisory body, will be in talks at the end of March with University President Peter Salovey over the status of free expression on campus. Salovey told the News that the Council, which was established in 1947 as the only general volunteer leadership advisory body appointed by the Yale Corporation, will be asked to share their insight on the “free exchange of ideas” at Yale. The 30 members of the body, which includes General Motors chief economist Elaine Buckberg ’89 and U.S. congressional representative Sheila Jackson Lee ’72, are to provide ideas on how to improve free inquiry at Yale, according to Salovey. The Council will also produce recommendations on how to foster “productive, open conversations” across campus. “We’ll be promoting a culture on campus in which all points of view are welcome,” Salovey said in an interview with the News. While the Council has influence over administrative decisions, Salovey told the News that not every piece of advice they offer is able to be implemented — however, he added that the University administration has “tried a SEE EXPRESSION PAGE 4
Two charged for drive-by shooting BY YASH ROY & NATHANIEL ROSENBERG STAFF REPORTERS
Gitlin described Lamar’s personality as “utterly genial,” remembering his sense of humor and beaming smile, as well as his ability to bring people together. This “knack for creating a sense of family,” according to Gitlin, may be attributed to his upbringing in the South. Lamar grew up in rural Alabama and attended Emory University. “He saw people,” Gitlin said. “He saw people because there was a sense of closeness and because he understood what we all have in common, so I think he was able to cross barriers in ways that others weren’t.” As Miles has gotten older, he said he has come to appreciate the remarkable quality of Lamar’s “generosity of spirit” more and more.
Two individuals were arrested on Monday following the shooting that sent ten New Haven schools into lockdown Monday morning. The individuals were leaving Newhall Street in Hamden when they were arrested by New Haven Police in connection to the shots fired between two cars that occurred near Science Hill on Monday morning. Police have also recovered four firearms, one of which has been linked to the shooting. The shootings prompted lockdowns at schools across the city, potentially due to a miscommunication between police dispatch and the Board of Education security’s team, leading the BOE to believe that an active shooter was inside a New Haven school. “Through investigative efforts by NHPD’s shooting task force and criminal intelligence units working with state and Hamden Police, we determined that the persons responsible may have fled to a house on Newhall St. in Hamden which police have identified as a known location for criminal activity,” New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said at a press conference on Tuesday. Both individuals, one a 19-year old from New Haven and the other an 18-year old from Bridgeport, have been charged with criminal possession of a firearm, possessing weapons in a motor vehicle, pistol without a permit, high-capacity magazines and larceny of a motor vehicle. The department has recovered 23 casings around the area of the shooting. They also obtained a search warrant to search the Newhall St. house and obtained two
SEE LAMAR PAGE 4
SEE DRIVE-BY PAGE 5
The students, who first competed on the show’s Teen Tournament, have both advanced to the semi finals of this week’s High School Reunion Tournament /Courtesy of Lucas Miner
Former Yale president dies at 99 BY WILLIAM PORAYOUW & SARAH COOK STAFF REPORTERS
to advise on free
George Miles ’74 GRD ’77, former curator of the West Americana collection at the Beinecke, first met Lamar as a senior undergraduate at Yale. After Miles graduated, Lamar served as his advisor and suggested he apply for the Beinecke curatorial position — a job Miles never considered before Lamar’s suggestion and ended up working at for 41 years. “He was an extraordinarily transformative influence on my life,” Miles said “I’m not unique in that there are dozens and dozens of people across the country who would tell you a similar story.” Among those people is Jay Gitlin ’71 MUS ’74 GRD ’82, who continued to take classes with Lamar as a graduate student at Yale School of Music after taking his signature lecture course as an undergraduate. Lamar later served as Gitlin’s mentor when he got his PhD in history at Yale.
INSIDE THE NEWS A STUDENT WAS HIT BY VEHICLE AT YORK-ELM PAGE 12 NEWS
PAGE 3 EDITORIAL PAGE 6 NEWS PAGE 13 BULLETIN PAGE 14 SPORTS PAGE B1 WEEKEND
SLAY For the first time the YLS invited a drag queen, Robin Fierce, to speak at Drag story hour. PAGE 6 NEWS PIXAR Yale professor Theodore Kim won an
award for his work at Pixar Animation Studios. PAGE 8 SCITECH