New London Green Party Endorses 2013 Budget

The New London Green Party has endorsed support of New London's , measures which will on Sept. 18.

The Green Party is the second political group to support the budget and tax rate. The Democratic Town Committee on Aug. 28. The Republican Town Committee is expected to take a stance on the budget at their meeting tonight.

The vote will determine whether to uphold the $42,323,256 municipal budget for fiscal year 2013 as well as the tax rate, which increases 7.5 percent from 25.31 to 27.22. The City Council passed the budget and tax rate on June 19. The for the is not affected by the referendum.

In a statement, the Green Party said they looked at the proposed budget as well as past budgets in making its decision, and that it will be necessary to cut from needed services if additonal reductions are made to the budget. The party said it voted to support the budget because it considers that the spending increase is less than one percent, revenue projections are more realistic, and that it is not possible to cut from fixed expenses such as debt service and contractual obligations.

"This is not to say that the city shouldn't be looking for long-range and systemic changes to make New London more efficient and sustainable in the future," the party said. "Funding initiatives for locally-generated clean energy; encouraging better land use and denser development (through, among other things, revisiting LVT in the downtown); and lobbying for an end to the drug war (shifting to public health/harm reduction approach) are some possibilities for city actions that could pay off in future savings."

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