Lesser of Two Evils
By Robin Vinci at June 13, 2024 | 8:00 pm | Print
Budget Approved: Many Revenue Numbers Still Unrealistic
Several Aldermen told the New Britain City Journal that the reason the revised 2013-14 budget was approved was because if it was not, the City would revert to Mayor Tim O’Brien’s original budget. And that budget, many believed, was worse than the one that was in front of them last week.
All of the committees had sent back the budget to the full council with a Neutral Recommendation.
The conflict was over inflated revenue projections. Many items originally were projected to rise by 3 and 4 times the amount of the present budget year (2012-2013). During several meetings members of the Common Council questioned that these numbers were impossible.
The night before the Council vote, the state budget was approved. Additional funds of $6.5 million were given to New Britain by the state and some of those original projection numbers were reduced.
The Board of Education was allocated $4.6 million. Of that $4.4 million was additional monies from the state and only $200,000 came from the City’s general fund. Last year the City gave $500,000 to the school board.
Police overtime was increased by $300,000.
Many believe there is a hole of between $7-$13 million that may cause either City property to be sold off or a mid-year tax to take place. Many said the Mayor’s budget had a hole of about $30 million.
“The Common Council used additional funding from the State to modify some expense items, but mostly to reduce the Mayor’s unrealistic budget projections. The new projections are still not based off anything realistic, but at least they are a smaller unrealistic number,” said Nicholas Mercier, Citizens Property Owners Association President. “My opinion is the new budget does not seem reasonable - it would require our expenses to come in way under projections. But it would take departments spending far less than what they are budgeted.”
“I believe all the changes and additional monies that came in were nice to see. We reduced some revenue items,” said Alderman Carlo Carlozzi. “But for this Alderman the budget I would have liked to see still needed more. It’s difficult for me to vote on a budget that I believe has a lot of revenue items that I don’t believe will materialize. I don’t know what that will mean for us 4 or 5 months down the road.”
Carlozzi said there are 30 positions in City government at about $1.3 million he would have liked to see removed.
“The police hot spot fee shows $1.8 million for next year. I have very serious concerns whether or not that income will come in. Parking garages, the town clerk offices and a number of other items that are quite high will not come in,” said Carlozzi. “I hope it does all work out, but I have serious reservations. Enough so that I cannot vote yes on it.”
Carlozzi said pay cuts needs to be looked at in government.
“People can only pay so much in property taxes,” said Carlozzi. “Some cuts will have to happen in the future.”
Alderman David DeFronzo said the state brought back a significant amount of money.
“Nothing was easy in this budget process,” said DeFronzo. “But it certainly made our jobs more reasonable. At some point we all have to make sacrifices. Nothing is perfect.”
Alderman Jamie Giantonio said there is good and bad, but there is still a $12 million gap on the revenue side.
“I have serious concerns. The budget has come a long way from the fairytale budget we got the first time,” said Giantonio. “We’ve come a long way, but at the same time we haven’t come a long enough way for me to approve this.”
Still at least one Alderman liked the budget.
“The state came through, but this is a darn good budget folks,” said Michael Trueworthy. “We are pushing full steam ahead. It’s a very good budget.”
The $237.5 million budget was approved by a vote of 13-2 on June 6.
The mill rate will increase from 36.63 to 44.12. Most of the increase in taxes is expected to rise in car and business taxes. Many residential taxes will decrease.
