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Council To Hold
Budget Hearing
By DANIEL P. JONES
Courant Staff Writer
June 23 2007
WEST HARTFORD --
Instead of voting Tuesday night on a revised spending plan, the town council
will hold a public hearing on the 2007-08 budget and will hold off voting
until a special meeting Wednesday night, Mayor Scott Slifka
said Friday.
The public comment session Tuesday will be at 7:30 p.m. at town hall.
"Residents are welcome to come and offer their views," Slifka said. "We want to make sure people know about
it and that it will be televised."
Both the Tuesday public hearing and the Wednesday council meeting to discuss
and vote on the budget will be shown on West Hartford Community Television,
the mayor said he has been assured.
The town council meeting Wednesday will be at 7 p.m. at town hall.
The council has not indicated how much it might cut from the budget to reduce
spending and taxes.
"Everything is on the table," Slifka
said, "but we're guided by the goal of staying as far away from the
classrooms as possible."
Voters earlier this month resoundingly defeated the $203.3 million annual
budget that the council had adopted in April. The budget included a property
tax increase of less than 2 percent, but when revaluation was factored in, it
would have increased virtually all homeowners' taxes by 6.6 percent.
The West Hartford Taxpayers Association in May secured enough signatures on a
petition to force the June 12 referendum.
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 referendum capped a bruising campaign in which the taxpayer group accused
the council of out-of-control spending and town officials accused the group
of misleading the public with misinformation printed in a flier and
advertisement.
Contact Daniel P. Jones at dpjones@courant.com.
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant
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