STRATFORD, Conn. -- Mayor John Harkins on Wednesday again vetoed a budget that was passed by the six hard-liners on the Town Council.
It was one that would have kept the mill rate where it is now, but -- according to Harkins -- would have sent the town into a morass of sinking bond ratings and underfunded accounts.
Harkins vetoed this latest budget for the same reasons he rejected the last one on May 25, saying that it's unworkable, would erode the bond rating and "hurt the town for cheap political gain."
Harkins vetoed the budget in his office in a session attended by the press and a few members of his administration. Last month, Harkins urged people to vote the hard-liners out of office. He says that his package would only cost the typical homeowner 33 cents more per day.
The six opposed to any tax increase are Scott Farrington-Posner, District 2; Wali Kadeem, District 3; Greg Cann, District 5; Phil Young, District 6; Mitzi Antezzo, District 7; and Tina Manus, District 10. All are Democrats except Antezzo, who is a Republican.
The council will make one last stab at passing a budget June 19, but the two sides show no signs of coming together. The hard-liners say they won't OK any budget that sends the mill rate north of where it is now, 38.99.
Just about everyone close to the issue says that there's a real possibility the town will enter the fiscal year beginning July 1 without a budget. This would mean the 2016-17 spending plan will take effect -- plus an undetermined amount more to cover contractual wage increases.
So, the town government and its school system will soldier on relatively unfettered, but officials say that there will be repercussions. For one, the town won't be able to spend "new" money from bonds, grinding projects like the rebuilding of Stratford High School to a halt. The bond rating will likely drop, too.
Town Hall officials say the hard-liner budget will force the town to raid its already meager cash balance. This is now at about $4 million, or about 4 percent of annual Town Hall budget. The bond-rating agencies like to see that figure in the 7 to 10 percent range. This money is needed to handle emergencies and natural calamities.
"Their budget -- in the category of 'Debt and Overhead' -- takes $1.3 million out of that account," said Chief Administrative Officer Chris Tymniak. "But those are fixed costs -- we can't change that. So we'd have to cover that from the fund balance."
Tymniak said that there are a raft of other issues with the hard-liner budget passed on Monday.
"For example, there are 500 to 600 trees that need to be removed in town, and they want to cut the tree-removal budget in half," he said. "And then they want to cut the money allocated to the Aquarion water bill," he said.
Monday's meeting followed the same game plan as the last few council sessions, with some of the six hard-liners expressing their distrust and disdain for the Harkins administration and even Stratford's school district.
"There are people who have lived here all their lives and they have to leave," said Wali Kadeem (District 3). "Look at the Board of Ed -- We have a superintendent and all the people under her -- at some point we won't have town services because the schools are taking all the money! They keep asking for more year after year."
Kadeem's angry speech went on for 20 minutes, and his loathing for the school district was shared by Young.
"We threw a historic amount of money at the BOE, only to have them ask for more this year," Young said in an earlier email to the press. "I won't support it again."
"There's too much protection going on here in Town Hall," said Scott Farrington-Posner (Dist. 2). "There's too much political patronage, and too many people on the 'friends and family plan.' That's still going on."
The hard-liners said that taxpayers in town can't take it anymore and that even a small increase is unacceptable.
"I'm not going to vote to raise taxes," said Manus on Wednesday. "I figured that the mayor was going to veto our budget, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm not raising taxes. They don't have any ideas to hold costs down. So, we're at an impasse."
