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Budget Soundly
Defeated
By DANIEL P. JONES
And FULVIO CATIVO Courant Staff Writers
June 13 2007
WEST HARTFORD --
Voters resoundingly defeated the town council's 2007-08 budget Tuesday
following a bruising campaign by the local taxpayers group and accusations by
officials that the group misled the public.
The tally was 7,893 votes against the budget and 2,939 in favor, according to
the registrars of voters. The proposal went down to defeat in all 20 voting
districts.
Of the 36,846 eligible voters, 10,832 cast ballots, a turnout of 29.4
percent.
The West Hartford Taxpayers Association had forced Tuesday's referendum, on
the budget the council adopted in April, by gathering enough signatures on a
petition submitted in May. As town officials entered vote totals on a
chalkboard outside the registrars office and the
size of the defeat became clear, members of the taxpayers group cheered.
Association president Theresa McGrath declined comment afterward.
Council members are likely to adopt a new budget at their June 26 meeting
that is smaller than the $203.3 million rejected by voters.
"We have to respect the result and obviously we have to go back to the
drawing board," Mayor Scott Slifka said.
"I do not take this as a message that we should dismantle the West Hartford public schools," he said. "Contrary
to what the taxpayers association would like to see done, my colleagues and I
will not allow that to happen."
Council member Chuck Coursey said, "While I
respect the voice of the people, I hope that tonight's outcome isn't the
result of misinformation that's been disseminated throughout our community.
Regardless, we need to go back to the budget and identify those areas to be
cut."
Council member Maureen McClay said the defeat was
not unexpected.
"I hope the people didn't vote because of erroneous information that was
distributed and we'll do our best to cut some more, she said.
The taxpayers association has denied misleading the public.
But one voter leaving town hall - who did not want to be identified - said
she voted against the budget partly because she did not think the town
manager should get a large increase in his salary. A taxpayers
association flier and an advertisement implied that the town manager and his
assistant were getting large raises, 18.2 percent.
In fact, the council's adopted budget did not include any raise for the town
manager and reduced the assistant's salary slightly. When told that, the
voter said her information on the town manager's big raise came from the
taxpayers association's advertisement in the local shopper.
Other voters said they cast "no" votes because the tax increase was
simply too high, while some said they favored the budget because they feared
a defeat could harm the schools.
Board of education Chairman Jack Darcey said the
school system will begin looking at possible cuts starting today.
"I'm very shocked," he said. "Never in my 40-plus years in West Hartford have we had a situation like this."
Darcey did not indicate specific items or programs
that will be affected, but programs spared during the last round of budget
trimming, including gifted-and-talented instruction, after-school sports, Norfeldt
School's magnet program
and all-day kindergarten could be vulnerable.
Once a new budget is adopted, any group that wants to force a second
referendum would have until July 31 to gather signatures and submit a
petition to the town clerk.
A second referendum, if necessary, would be held Sept. 25, and the council
would have until Oct. 15 to adopt a new budget. The town charter limits the
number of budget referendums to two per annual budget.
The budget defeated Tuesday called for a 3.48 percent spending increase. With
the recent revaluation factored in, it would have raised property taxes 6.6
percent.
Contact Daniel P. Jones at djones@courant.com.
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant
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