NL City Council passes budget

$200,000 added to mayor’s proposal for schools

New London — The City Council ended weeks of deliberations on Wednesday and passed a budget that will bring a bump to the city tax rate.

The school and general government budgets, both passed by 4-3 votes, came with some debate over education spending, lost city positions and a pay-as-you-throw trash-removal program that some councilors claimed was slipped into the budget without their knowledge.

The council added $200,000 to the mayor’s proposed education budget for a total approved amount of $43.13 million. By some accounts, the school board was facing a $1.2 million shortfall with the mayor’s budget. Councilors all contended the $600,000 increase suggested by the Finance Board was not feasible.

The council approved the mayor’s proposed $49.86 million general government budget but shifted some funds around to save an administrative position, but not a bus driver, at the senior center. Other lost positions include clerical jobs at the police and fire departments and a senior engineer in the public works department. The budget includes funding for one additional police officer.

The general government budget is a 3.16 percent increase over this year’s. The combined $92.99 million spending plan would increase the mill rate by about 0.6 mill, from 43.17 to 43.79, Finance Director Don Gray said. A mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

Councilor Don Venditto said the tax rate increase over the past sev-

en years has been significant but the city was struggling to maintain the services expected by residents from the schools and public works, police and fire departments.

He said the city is at a crucial time in the development of the magnet school district.

“In my opinion, the worst thing we could do at this point is to underfund or cut funds to the point we put the magnet school transition in jeopardy of failing; the fallout from that would be a catastrophe,” Venditto said.

Councilor Efrain Dominguez said the relationship with the school board this year was more transparent, “something I haven’t seen in years past.” Dominguez lobbied for a larger increase for the school budget.

Councilor Alma Nartatez said the school board had made strides but still sees room for the district to streamline operations and rein in costs.

“I’m not completely convinced we’re doing everything we can,” Nartatez said.

The three councilors cited the apparent inclusion of new public works vehicles for the pay-as-you-throw program in the general government budget as one of the reasons for voting against the budget. The council earlier this year had approved a study of the program. Several councilors said they were blindsided by the inclusion in the spending plan.

“It is my personal opinion that the pay-as-you-throw program is going to be a failure and is going to be an additional tax,” Councilor Michael Tranchida said.

Councilor Martin Olsen called it a “lack of transparency” by the city administration not to fully keep councilors aware.

The pay-as-you-throw program, if implemented, would require residents to pay for special yellow bags — an effort to encourage recycling and cut by hundreds of thousands of dollars the city’s cost of waste disposal. The city plans to replace garbage pickup trucks with smaller vehicles.

Mayor Michael Passero said he had kept the council aware of the plans to move toward the pay-as-you-throw program and countered criticism of cut positions by saying “it would be unfair to claim we’re abandoning anybody in this budget.”