By DANIEL P. JONES And VANESSA DE LA TORRE
Courant Staff Writers
June 27, 2008
The West Hartford Taxpayers
Association considers the more than $2 million that was cut from the town
budget this week — including the loss of about 39 school and municipal jobs — a
"slap in the face" to residents.
"A lot of the cuts seemed to be very petty," said group Vice
President Judy Aron.
She and other taxpayers' group members said the association will pursue a
second referendum — which by town charter would be held on Sept. 30, the Jewish
new year Rosh Hashana — because, they say, the town
council eliminated curbside vacuum-truck leaf collection to punish senior
citizens who voted against the original $215.9 million budget.
Mayor Scott Slifka called the charge
"outrageous, intentionally inflammatory" and not supported by the
facts. "I use the service, too," he said.
Slifka said Thursday that the budget reductions, from
$1.4 million in school cuts to closing the main and branch libraries on Friday
nights and reducing outdoor pool hours, were an "equitable spread across
the board" that did not target any particular group of residents. The
reductions will affect the police and fire departments, public works, town
administration and a variety of other town departments.
The town's senior centers' funding, programs or hours will not be affected by
the new budget.
Slifka said the town is trying to determine whether
it can change the date of the anticipated second referendum — which by charter
must be held the fourth Tuesday of September — to avoid the Jewish holiday. The
town might not be able to legally change the date.
If that's the case, Jewish voters might get the option of voting by absentee
ballot at town hall for an extended period before the referendum. But town
officials are still working with the secretary of the state on what options
might be available.
"We will undertake extraordinary measures to ensure that any Jewish
resident who wants to vote will have that right," Slifka
said.
In the June 17 referendum, the budget failed by a vote of more than 7,037
against to 3,711 in favor.
Wednesday night, Aron said the taxpayers' group will be asking for the $385,000
leaf collection service to be reinstated, "because this is a direct hit on
our senior citizens." Aron said the town council should have cut more jobs
and gotten rid of "some of the non-union bonuses and paid holidays and
compensation," but didn't specify how many more millions of dollars should
be cut from the budget.
"A lot more. I'm not going to give a
number," Aron said.
Christopher Torino, the taxpayers' group president, said Thursday that he could
be satisfied with a 3.5 percent spending increase, as opposed to the 5.5
percent increase in the newly adopted budget.
Slifka said the town hasn't paid non-union bonuses
for the past two years. Aron, he said, is "mentioning bonuses because it's
inflammatory and she thinks it's what people want to hear — that it's easier to
create a person to blame for these problems than to have to accept the
explanation that we're in particularly difficult times in a difficult property
tax structure that severely limits our ability to mitigate the impact of rising
costs."
As for Torino's suggestion of a 3.5 percent spending increase, Slifka said Torino's figure would mean a reduction — from
the council's new budget tax levy — of $143 in property tax for the average
homeowner, someone with a house with a $354,000 market value. That translates
to a property tax reduction from the currently adopted budget of about $12 a
month, the mayor said.
But spending would have to be reduced by about $3.5 million.
"You'd be talking about the elimination or significant reductions in core
services," such as eliminating a branch library, closing a senior center,
or closing all the outdoor pools, the mayor said.
"We're getting to the point where we can't make piecemeal
reductions," he said. "It's the government equivalent of having to
close an entire division of a business. The reason the taxpayers' group doesn't
offer specific reductions is because they know just as we do that the
reductions would be in public safety, education, and other core services, and
they don't want to be labeled as advocating for such reductions."
Although he didn't vote on the budget because he was out of town, resident Jack
French, a 79-year-old retired underwriter for Travelers Insurance, opposed the
town's original spending plan and said there are "always ways of cutting a
budget."
But, he conceded, there are certain services he wouldn't want to lose. Thursday
afternoon, French was busy using a workout machine at the
"I think senior center hours are probably needed to help preserve the
seniors' sanity," French said with a chuckle. "No, I think that
should stay."