New London council repeals budget

New London — The City Council on Tuesday voted to repeal its $90.05 million budget — a response to a petition from taxpayers seeking relief from a more than 9 percent tax rate hike.

The thinking behind the move, rather than holding a budget referendum, is that the council will buy some time for the legislature to vote on a state budget and allow the city to plug in actual state revenue numbers.

The council is hoping the state will provide some tax relief but is preparing to make what Councilor John Satti called “the tough decisions” if state revenues fall short of expectations. Satti said the council has discussed cutting $850,000 from both the $48.3 million general government and $41.7 million education spending plans. Even that would reduce the tax rate increase only by about 2 percent, he said.

The council has not yet set a date for further budget discussions but must take action before the city spends more than 25 percent of the budget or by charter the budget will revert to the last fiscal year’s $88 million budget.

The possibility that the council could make further budget reductions has some educators nervous,

including interim Superintendent Stephen Tracy, who started in the district just last week.

Tracy and school board member Mirna Martinez addressed the council Tuesday, asking that any cuts to the education side of the budget be avoided altogether, if possible.

Tracy said the school district is working with about $700,000 less than last year’s request from the city, faces cuts in Educational Cost Sharing grant funding, recently reduced by $1.3 million the grant side of the education budget and is trying to cope with the loss of $515,000 cut by the council for school maintenance.

Others, including Republican city council candidates Katherine Goulart and Tim Ryan, called on the council Tuesday to act and make the budget more palatable to taxpayers.

Goulart said the council never should have waited so long to take action. Ryan said there are available “efficiencies” to be made that are not dependent on the state, such as the merging of school and city finance departments.

City Council President Anthony Nolan, who said discussions about possible additional cuts already are under discussion, said the council’s finance committee is likely to meet in the coming weeks to further discuss budget options.

The city’s finance director has predicted the city will hit the 25 percent threshold by mid-October.

Mayor Michael Passero during a budget presentation in March called his spending plan a “worst-case scenario” budget.

“We’re dealing with a reality now that that could be a best-case scenario,” Passero said Tuesday.