New London ― Several prominent Republicans, stung by what they describe as a token decrease to the city budget, are for the second time in as many months collecting signatures to force the City Council to modify the 2024-25 general government budget – or allow residents to vote on the plan.
But Mayor Michael Passero said any new attempts to further modify the budget through the petition process would be an exercise in futility.
“Based on long-standing legal opinions, they only get one bite of the apple,” he said.
The latest petition circulation comes just days after councilors on July 15 approved trimming $50,000 from the $56.7 million city budget they approved in May.
That change was the result of a June citizen petition signed by 299 registered voters which called for the council to either repeal the spending plan or send it to a city-wide vote.
John Russell, the Republican Town Committee member spearheading the petition drive, said his collectors are about halfway toward securing the 282 signatures ― or 10% of city resident votes cast in the last general election ― needed to force action on the budget.
The petition must by submitted by Tuesday to the city clerk’s office, which will formally count and certify the signatures.
Russell called the council’s cuts tantamount to a “slap in the face.”
“They didn’t do a deep dive into the budget, but instead went with the low-hanging fruit,” he said.
Funding for this month’s budget decrease was found by postponing the hiring of a deputy police chief until October.
The modified city budget, combined with the $47.4 million education spending plan and the results of last year’s property revaluation, translated to a 9.73-mill decrease in the tax rate compared to last year.
Russell said while the petition format doesn’t allow for a specific budget decrease figure, he wants the council to consider more substantial cuts.
“We need to see that (tax rate) needle move more,” he said.
RTC Chairman John Martin on Monday suggested the city institute “immediate” pay freezes for executive and department head-level employees, and a line-by-line examination of the city budget to ferret out possible savings.
“I guarantee there’s $150,000 worth of cuts that can be found that would not impact everyday citizens,” Martin said.
Passero vehemently disagreed with the premise that’s there’s anything left to cut in the city budget. He said that spending plan only rose by less than 1% this year, compared to a roughly 7% increase to the Board of Education budget.
He said the city’s charter provides for a measure to reconsider the budget via a petition, but not multiple times.
“Because that would result in an illogical circle that would conceivably continue on forever, and we must have a budget in place for the contractual obligations of the city,” Passero said. “And (the petition circulators) are doing a disservice to city taxpayers by misconstruing what the city has to cut.”
j.penney@theday.com
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