Your Voices: Finizio Budget Proposal

Mayor Daryl Finizio on Monday, calling for an $87,111,948 budget for the 2013 fiscal year. This represents a 6.4 percent increase in expenditures as well as a tax rate of 30.28 mills. If the latter increase takes place, residents would be taxed an extra $4.97 per $1,000 valuation on their property, an increase of about 20 percent. Finizio says the proposal was not an easy one to make, but feels it is necessay to correct several years of what he called fiscal mismanagement.

Here are some of the reactions to the proposal:

"Eliminate all the new positions created by the mayor and then double up the responsibilities of department heads and cut those that are not performing and start the real savings for the tax paying citizens." - Randy Drummond, on the New London Patch

"Once again, I feel very bad for the people who have been misled, sad!!" - Michael Buscetto III, 2011 write-in mayoral candidate, on his Facebook page.

"Sadly numbers don't lie. If we want our current level of government that's what it honestly costs." -Mayor Daryl Finizio, on his Facebook page

"As much as I hated to do it I moved out of New London 12 years ago. Now I realize it was probably one of the smartest things I ever did. This mayor is nothing but a tax and spend progressive democrat. How does he think people can pay a increase like he wants. Maybe he should start by laying off his staff. What would of it been like if we had the winter we had last year. There are plenty of houses for sale in Waterford. Come on over." - John Lynch, on the New London Patch

"Mayor Finizio declared war on the taxpayers of New London and I for one am ready to fight against this class warfare! Don't buy into 'this was something I inherited.' He said he would veto any attempt by the council to cut his spending but he has forgotten that the people of this city have a say in the budget. If the council is unwilling to reduce this spending then let us do it through a referendum." - Rob Pero, 2011 Republican mayoral candidate, on his Facebook page.

"You have a city where over half the kids live in low income housing, that yields no property tax, and it costs over $15,000 per student to "educate" them. But blame Darryl for this mess. Frankly my disappointment with Mr. Finizio is that he hasn't recommended bankruptcy. Void all the union contracts and let the courts sort it out." - Michael Casteel, on the New London Patch

"As a retiree living on a fixed income, all I have to say is: 'why should I pay more taxes when the city doesn't even collect grant money owed them or are able to give an accurate account of their finances?'" - William MacDonald, on the New London Patch

"Thank you, Strong Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio for not flatlining the school district. 3% budget increase, while meager, will be just enough for libraries and reading, writing and 'rithmatic to survive. I think you might have averted a major disaster." - Marco Frucht, on Finizio's Facebook page

"I am doing all I can to make ends meet in this City. I'm worried about my daughter's future and I have a small modest house that I can hardly afford. This tax hike will put us both in a shelter." - Carrie Lesage, on the New London Patch

"I don't weigh in much regarding the political scene, but I have to say that I've had about enough of this foolishness, arrogance, and 'devil may care' attitude toward the taxpayers!" - Barry Runyan, on Pero's Facebook page

"It would seem that there is plenty of blame to go around for this. Mayor Finizio has done his share to increase costs to the city what with his added staff, costs incurred for settlements with fired police officers, legal costs related to the police firings and the NLFD firing and other issues. But a good deal of this is due to past actions of the City Council." - David Irons, on the New London Patch

"Does anyone want a tax increase? No! But this is what we get for forestalling our tax increases all those years. The new guy came into town, turned the lights on and we've seen all the sweeping up going on, but it's time to recognize we're failing our kids; we're failing our safety providers and we could use a base of support to move the city forward. I applaud the Mayor for his willingness to lead here. Someone has to." - Alan Green Jr., on the New London Patch