Auditing West Haven
The Ledger's review of West Haven's budgets, audits, debt and redevelopment money. Every story in the series, sorted by subject, with the figures the records show and links to the official documents.
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Auditing West Haven: what we're examining and why
The Ledger is reading West Haven's budgets, audits and council records. Here is what the city's fiscal 2025 audited financial statements and its fiscal 2027 final budget show.
Read the explainer →Key figures
- $11.3 millionGeneral fund budget, fiscal 2027Auditing West Haven: what we're examining and why →
- $2.9 millionGeneral fund balance, June 30, 2025Auditing West Haven: what we're examining and why →
- $905,250Projected energy-tax revenue, nine months of fiscal 2027West Haven's 6% energy tax took effect Oct. 1 after a 3-2 vote →
- $112,500Budgeted Hunter Drive reimbursement, fiscal 2027 (forecast)West Haven budgets $112,500 to repay Hunter Drive road work in Walmart's first months →
- $1.45 millionWindsor Park bid awarded to MSCI Builds (draft minutes)West Haven awards about $2.2 million in park construction bids for Poulter Pond and Windsor Park →
- $766,238Storm water reserves used to balance fiscal 2027 budgetWest Haven's storm water budget leans on $766,238 in reserves as a fee increase is studied →
Budgets, reserves and taxes
West Haven's storm water budget leans on $766,238 in reserves as a fee increase is studied
The fiscal 2027 storm water budget expects $343,000 from the current $3 monthly fee and balances with a $500,000 general fund transfer and $766,238 from reserves. The city manager's summary says the fee must rise.
West Haven's 6% energy tax took effect Oct. 1 after a 3-2 vote
The council voted in June to implement a 1998 ordinance taxing electricity and natural gas, which had never been applied. The state lists the 6% tax as effective Oct. 1, and the budget expects $905,250 from it this fiscal year.
Subsidies
West Haven budgets $112,500 to repay Hunter Drive road work in Walmart's first months
The fiscal 2027 budget assumes a Walmart Supercenter opens in the last quarter of the fiscal year and splits its expected $225,000 in city sales tax between city operations and reimbursing developers for realigning Hunter Drive.
Contracts and spending
West Haven awards about $2.2 million in park construction bids for Poulter Pond and Windsor Park
The council awarded three Poulter Pond contracts totaling $775,109.04 in August and, according to draft minutes, a $1,446,896.44 Windsor Park contract in October, after an August budget amendment corrected how Windsor Park was to be funded.