Budget Fails Again; Budget Drops Below $100 Million

By John Voket

Legislative Council Vice Chairman Timothy Holian said he was standing beside an elderly woman at the latest budget referendum when she read over the ballot and quietly said to the poll worker, “It’s still over $100 million…that’s a lot of money.”

In part, that encounter last Tuesday pushed Mr Holian to support sufficient budget cuts to both the school district and town reining the 2007-2008 spending package back under the historic $100 million mark.

The latest proposal, factoring another $120,000 in net cuts, was introduced by Councilman Francis Pennarola and passed by a 9-2 margin Wednesday during a spirited and contentious session. Taxpayers will now be asked to approve a new budget of $99,878,877 at a fourth referendum, which could take place as soon as Tuesday, June 5.

The first three budget proposals, all topping $100 million, likely caused some degree of “sticker shock” among taxpayers, Mr Holian said. The latest cuts further reduce the proposed tax rate by two-tenths of a mill, affecting a net increase below three percent.

A mill is equivalent to one dollar in taxation for every $1,000 in assessed property. If approved, the new budget will bring a revised mill rate of 28.1.

For the third time in four weeks, voters defeated a spending proposal, this one $100.5 million, with 5,085 voters and taxpayers turning out to polls at Newtown Middle School or filing absentee ballots. The final count, according to Democratic Registrar of Voters LeReine Frampton, was 2,624 against and 2,538 in favor.

The 86 vote difference was significantly tighter than the 390 vote margin that sent the second proposal down, but a few votes more than the 75 vote margin that killed the original $102.2 million proposal.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said he plans to consult with fellow selectmen to determine if they will move this new proposal directly to referendum, foregoing a town meeting and preventing a petition drive to force the budget back to a machine vote.

Any effects to services or personnel resulting from the latest round of cuts was minimized by an 11th-hour revision to insurance programs for town and school employees that further reduced respective line items by $363,000 on the school side and $121,000 on the town side. This left a net cut of $120,000 to be split equally between the town and school district.

The gross reduction to the latest failed budget proposal totaled $604,000.

The actual budget action and related discussions took up a relatively short segment of the council meeting Wednesday evening, which ran more than four hours. Nearly three of those four hours consisted of some measured and many emotional observations, mostly from parents and those advocating for holding the line or even restoring funds to the school budget.

Public commentary was also laced heavily with rhetorical questions and criticisms about a municipal office project at Fairfield Hills. Extensive time was spent clarifying numerous points of interpretation and misinformation officials discovered on flyers being distributed outside the polling site by resident Kevin Fitzgerald.

Several speakers, including school board Chair Elaine McClure, alluded that Mr Fitzgerald’s activism against the town office project may have contributed to the third budget failure. Councilman Keith Jacobs was more direct in his pointed rebuke.

“There are one or two individuals responsible for us sitting here tonight,” Mr Jacobs said. “I would strongly like to condemn these one or two individuals. Shame on you Kevin Fitzgerald…shame on you!”

Mr Fitzgerald has stated that he is not necessarily against a town office project, but that the proposal going forward is collateral to a master plan of development for the town-owned campus, which he contends should be endorsed or turned down in a binding referendum. Through a flyer he distributed at the referendum, which town officials say contained numerous factual errors, Mr Fitzgerald asserted that voting No on the budget will stop the proposed municipal center from being built.

Both Mr Rosenthal and council Chairman Will Rodgers took several opportunities at the meeting to clarify that no matter how many budget failures may occur this year, legal authorizations and other binding aspects of an existing bond resolution have transpired to the point where the new town offices will go forward.

“There is no linkage between voting against the budget and preventing the town hall from being constructed,” Mr Rodgers said following the meeting, which adjourned just before midnight.