City budget passed after two-hour standoff

The city has a budget, but it wasn’t easy.
On six different budget votes Monday during a joint session of the Board of Finance and City Council, officials split right down the middle, racking up one 7-7 tally after another.
“We’re spinning our wheels, people,” said Janet Moylan, a finance commissioner who tried unsuccessfully to find middle ground.
“It’s a farce,” said Finance Chairman Rich Miecznikowski.
In the end, though, a first-term city councilor, Democrat Cliff Block, found the key to resolving the increasingly frustrating two-hour long standoff, proposing some minor additions to a spending plan that Mayor Art Ward created in a bid to pare the proposed tax cut.
The $170.9 million dollar budget approved on a 9-5 vote will hike property taxes by 1.04 mills, or $1.40 per thousand dollars of assessed value.
The fight was mostly about that 40 cents tacked on to the mill rate hike, which Block pushed in order to pump another $100,000 into education, $30,000 into code enforcement efforts, $30,000 into community promotions such as the Mum Festival and a couple other small increases.
“It’s amazing, the elder statesman, even though he’s a freshman, has come through with the tiebreaking vote,” Block joked afterward.
There was, however, an element of a power play involved, with Block and two more senior councilors, Democrats Craig Minor and Kevin McCauley, opposing the mayor’s preferred budget until they were able to add in a handful of items they had championed.
Ward was among those who voted against the budget, opposing it even though it almost mirrored his own, with a relatively paltry $190,000 added back in.
The finance board had backed a $172.7 million spending plan three weeks ago that would have hiked property taxes by 6 percent, or 1.5 mills.
Ward said that after hearing an outcry from residents struggling to pay their bills now, he revisited the spending plan with department heads and the school superintendent, winding up with a new proposed budget that would have hiked taxes less than 4 percent, or .98 mills.
But Ward’s budget drew only a few votes because most members wanted either less spending or more.
Following that, a series of votes that basically offered the finance board budget and a one mill increase budget split down the middle.
“It’s obvious everyone has dug in their feet,” said city Councilor Frank Nicastro, a former mayor who wanted a lower tax hike. He said he’d never seen anything like this in two decades in city government.
“We’ve got to come to reality here,” Ward proclaimed. “I’m getting a little frustrated.”
At one point, Republican city Councilor Mike Rimcoski told the city clerk to “make a mistake on the count” and bring an end to the divisiveness.
When one official left the room briefly, the mayor joked, “Quick, he’s gone. We can take a vote. 7-6.”
But Block’s compromise drew the necessary majority at last.
Had finance commissioner Cheryl Thibeault been there the two-hour long stalemate would have been virtually impossible because she would have provided one side or the other the winning vote. She told colleagues she couldn’t make it because of her mother-in-law’s death.
In an email, Thibeault said she thought a property tax hike of about a mill was appropriate.
The new budget takes effect on July 1. It preserves existing programs and isn’t expected to result in any layoffs.

This will give you a flavor of the 7-7 votes:

Vote on the Final Budget

YES: John Smith, Don Soucy, Rich Miecznikowski, Ron Messier, Kevin McCauley, Mark Peterson, Janet Moylan, Craig Minor, Cliff Block
NO: Ken Cockayne, Frank Nicastro, Art Ward, Mike Rimcoski, Roald Erling

First Vote on Board of Finance Budget (with 1.5-mill property tax hike)
YES: Cliff Block, Kevin McCauley, Craig Minor, Janet Moylan, Ron Messier, Don Soucy, John Smith
NO: Ken Cockayne, Art Ward, Frank Nicastro, Roald Erling, Rich Miecznikowski, Mike Rimcoski, Mark Peterson

First Vote on slightly revised Ward Budget (with one mill property tax hike)
YES: Art Ward, Rich Miecznikowski, Roald Erling, Mark Peterson, John Smith, Ron Messier, Janety Moylan
NO: Don Soucy, Ken Cockayne, Kevin McCauley, Frank Nicastro, Mike Rimcoski, Craig Minor, Cliff Block

Vote on proposal for budget with 1.1-mills increase
YES: Cliff Block, Janet Moylan, Mark Peterson, Rich Miecznikowski, Ron Messier, Don Soucy, John Smith
NO: Art Ward, Roald Erling, Frank Nicastro, Ken Cockayne, Mike Rimcoski, Craig Minor, Kevin McCauley

More details to come.


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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com