Hartford Courant

Date For Referendum Set: June 12

Budget Adopted By Council Last Month Now Heads To Voters

By DANIEL P. JONES
Courant Staff Writer

May 23 2007

WEST HARTFORD -- The town council Tuesday night set June 12 as the date for a referendum on the 2007-08 budget adopted last month by the council.

Voting will take place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at regular polling places throughout town.

The West Hartford Taxpayers Association earlier this month finished gathering enough signatures to force the referendum. In setting the date for the referendum, the council had three possibilities, all Tuesdays: June 12, June 19 and June 26. But council members wanted to avoid June 19 because Conard and Hall high schools will hold graduations that day. The council also wanted to avoid June 26 because some residents begin to take summer vacations toward the end of the month.

"Thus the 12th seemed to be the best option," Mayor Scott Slifka said during Tuesday's council meeting.

Earlier in the meeting, the president of the taxpayers' association, Theresa McGrath, asked about the wording of the referendum question.

Slifka said the referendum question will ask whether voters are in favor of the council's adopted budget. Residents will vote "yes" or "no." He said the wording of such questions is governed by the town charter. The charter limits the number of referendums per budget year to two.

Last month the council voted 8-0 to adopt a budget that includes a tax increase of less than 2 percent but will raise virtually all homeowners' property taxes 6.6 percent because of the recent revaluation. The $203.3 million budget calls for a 3.48 percent spending increase over the current town budget.

Under the spending plan adopted by the council, the effect of the revaluation, which shifted some of the tax burden from commercial to residential properties, will be phased in over five years, with 25 percent of the effect phased in the first year.

Motor vehicle taxes will drop.

The council set the tax rate at 39.39 for every $1,000 of assessed value. But that rate will not apply to the full assessed values set in last October's revaluation. The first year phase-in means that homeowners will pay about 6.6 percent more in property taxes in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The tax rate is artificially high in the first year because it applies to only 25 percent of the revaluation effect and will drop over the five years, to approximately 29.17 mills, according to the mayor.

Without the revaluation phase-in, the budget adopted by the council would increase property taxes 1.94 percent.

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

Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant