Danbury Mayor Talks No New Taxes + School Full-Time Reopening Plan

Mayor Joe Cavo talked to us about the city budget he unveiled last week, if Danbury schools will reopen this year, and when he'll decide whether or not he'll be running for Mayor in November.

Every week you can find out what's happening in Danbury as Mayor Joe Cavo discusses the issues people are talking about in and around the city.

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I was so happy to hear last week that there will be, read my lips, no new taxes in the recent budget you unveiled.

"You know, I took what you said to heart and I made sure we're trying to be as responsible as possible to our taxpayers as we move ahead towards the next fiscal year."

That would have been a hard thing to do, to raise taxes during a pandemic.

"I pondered about this quite a bit, put a lot of time and effort in with the city's department heads and with our finance department, who by the way did a tremendous job on the budget. It's just not the time to be raising taxes, a lot of people are struggling, being forced to work from home while their kids are in a hybrid model at school, it's been problematic for a lot of people and we wanted to make sure we took that into consideration. That's why we released a budget with a zero tax increase for the 2021-2022 budget year."

Let's talk about Danbury Public Schools. Do you think we'll see kids back in the classroom full time this year?

"No, I don't think we will wind up back in person, in full classroom this year here in Danbury. There are several factors that are tied to that, one of them is the CDC guidelines for spacing between desks. That's part of why the career academy is such an important issue. This month's agenda is the bond for the academy and for the expansion of our schools. We just need more space and without that space, they can't meet the guidelines for the CDC, so I don't think you'll see the children back in school full time before the end of the current school year."

There are now three Democratic candidates who have thrown their hats into the race for Mayor in November, but I know a lot of people are wondering if you're going to run and be the Republican candidate.

"I told the party that I would let them know sometime after the budget. I thought that after last year's election, folks had pretty much had enough with elections and politics, and it would be good if everyone just got a little break. It's important to concentrate now on things like running the business of our city, state, and federal government without the politics involved. I told the powers that I would not be ready to make a decision until sometime in May after the budget is adopted."