Hartford Courant

Budget Stirring Much Debate

Town Officials Say Misinformation Is Being Spread

By DANIEL P. JONES And FULVIO CATIVO
Courant Staff Writers

April 18 2007

WEST HARTFORD -- Crunch time for cutting the town manager's proposed budget is fast approaching, as the town council prepares to vote next Tuesday on the spending plan.

But along with the usual scrutiny and taxpayers' anxiety, town officials say that this year they need to counter misinformation about the spending plan and hostility from some budget critics.

At budget hearings, residents criticized an 18 percent salary increase proposed for the town manager, salary increases for the corporation counsel, increases in travel and food budgets, and a miniature golf course project at Buena Vista. The only hitch is that the proposed spending plan does not include money for any of these items.

"The town manager is not getting an increase in salary and wages," said Joseph Verrengia, a Republican who heads the council's three-member minority.

Comments by Conard High School students seeking support for stadium lights at the high school football fields sparked taxpayer talk that money for the project is in the proposed budget.

Neither the school board nor the council has indicated any support for the idea and no money has been proposed for this item. Even so, residents at recent budget hearings attacked the concept as if it were already part of the budget proposal.

"What we did as a courtesy to our students is now being used against us as an example of improper spending, when we never made such a proposal and no such proposal has been in the budget at any time," said Mayor Scott Slifka, a Democrat who heads the council's six-member majority.

Verrengia decries what he views as an unusually contentious budget debate.

"There's so much animosity," he said. "I welcome a difference of opinion, as long as we have a normal conversation and stick to the issues. But unfortunately there are some who make it personal."

Members of the West Hartford Taxpayers Association have been among the harshest critics of town officials and the proposed spending plan, town officials say. And some of the group's statements and proposals have been the source of some confusion, according to town officials.

At a town council meeting in December, about a month before a group of dissatisfied members of the taxpayers' group took over its leadership, resident Theresa McGrath, who ultimately became the new president of the taxpayers' group, proposed that the town adopt an annual cap on property tax increases of 2.5 percent. She said her proposal was modeled on Proposition 2½, a ballot initiative approved by Massachusetts voters in 1980.

The Massachusetts initiative sets a ceiling on each town's property tax levy. It limits the property tax increase to 2.5 percent of the full value of all taxable real estate and personal property. It also limits the maximum amount of revenue the municipalities can raise in any given year - to no greater than the property tax levy ceiling.

West Hartford officials say state law would have to be changed to allow Connecticut towns to adopt such a cap. Earlier this year Gov. M. Jodi Rell proposed that the legislature enact a 3 percent cap on annual property tax increases for municipalities but she linked the plan with a proposal for huge increases in education spending for Connecticut cities and towns.

During budget hearings in March and April, McGrath proposed a 2.5 percent cap on spending, instead of what she proposed earlier.

"That's totally different than what Proposition 2½ calls for," Verrengia said. "That totally changes the dynamic. You would be talking theoretically about serious cuts in services, services that people in this community value and that make this community so special."

McGrath was asked recently which of the differing proposals she presented to the council she wanted the town to adopt. She said she wanted both. "They go naturally hand in hand with each other," McGrath said.

Slifka and Verrengia said pushing for the dual proposals makes no sense.

"The council's focus right now is to try to get this budget increase as low as possible. Whether we do it through forecasting additional revenue, or cutting spending, the delicate balance that the council has to be concerned with is continuing to provide the services that make our town so special," Verrengia said.

"By having it both ways, it's a clear indication to me that the taxpayers' association is just bent on having a referendum," he said. "Theresa [McGrath] has been advocating for this Proposition 2½, and now she's changing the rules, late in the game."

Towns can typically have a higher percentage figure for a spending increase than for a property tax increase, the officials say. For instance, Avon town officials are now proposing a 2007-08 budget that includes a 2.82 percent property tax increase and a 5.18 percent spending increase over the current budget.

The mayor said that the taxpayers' group is exploiting the natural anxiety associated with the revaluation of property and that the group this year is an "active arm of the Republican town committee." Previous leaders of the taxpayers' group, he said, did not engage in personal attacks and did not align themselves with the minority party.

In response, McGrath said she has not changed her mind about her proposal. She said the taxpayers' group is nonpartisan and includes Democrats, Republicans, Green Party members and unaffiliated voters. She also denied engaging in personal attacks.

"It's disturbing to me that elected officials would try to steer the press to create this personal issue rather than actually addressing the real issue, which is our taxes," she said.

Jack Darcey, chairman of the school board, agreed that the town's first property revaluation since 1999, coupled with the annual budget anxiety, has increased the level of tension this budget season. During the school board's budget hearings, many residents - facing the prospect of higher property taxes - expressed opposition to items that are in the school budget and many that were not.

"It's sent people into a dither," Darcey said of the revaluation. "It's made people very nervous and very, kind of angry and certainly ready to do battle because they feel that what they're calculating for their taxes is something they cannot afford."

Contact Daniel P. Jones at dpjones@courant.com.

Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant