UPDATED: Voters Reject New London Budget, Tax Rate

The city’s $42.3 million municipal budget and increased tax rate were both rejected at a referendum vote today, with about 60 percent of voters against the measures.

A total of 1,436 votes were cast against the budget while 1,007 were in favor. The tax rate was rejected in a 1,470 to 963 vote. At last count there were 13,122 registered voters in New London, putting voter turnout at about 18.5 percent.

Mayor Daryl Finizio and the City Council must now put together a new budget and tax rate to replace the ones that went into effect on July 1. The tax increase has not been reflected in bills to property owners, but will be included in the January bill or a spring supplemental bill.

Councilor John Maynard, who opposed the budget and tax rate, said he hopes the further deliberations will be able to reduce the budget enough to lower the tax increase to 5.5 or six percent. Maynard said he did not think further reductions can be made to areas such as the New London Fire Department, route: {:controller=>"listings", :action=>"show", :id=>"new-london-fire-department-headquarters"} --> or that he did not think further cuts were possible without cutting into city services. He said he did not think cuts could be made except in areas such as trash pickup, the , , the , and the . The budget set a tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value of 27.22, a 7.5 percent increase from the 2012 fiscal year. New London’s over three years. His after the council to transfer the money to the police and fire departments to avoid . In finalizing the budget, the council but restored the funding for the positions on the expectations that agreements with the police and fire unions will save enough money to keep the departments within budget and avoid layoffs. A total of 19 municipal positions were eliminated in the budget, including nine in the Department of Public Works, six in the . A total of 483 signatures were needed. The referendum did not challenge the school budget, which was