One Ansonia alderman wants his board to have more control over the city’s budget.
Republican John Marini has proposed changing the city charter so the elected Board of Aldermen has the final say on the city’s budget — instead of the appointed Board of Apportionment and Taxation.
The Board of Aldermen members certainly have a lot to say about the budget process: They spent about 20 minutes of last week’s regular meeting debating budget ills both past and present. (Click play on the two videos to watch the debate.)
But that doesn’t mean the board wants to change the city charter to re-arrange the budget control, members said during the debate.
“We’re talking about taking politics out of the equation, when in fact, we’re putting politics into the equation (with this proposal),” Board of Aldermen president Eugene Sharkey said.
Background
Ansonia is the only Valley town where an appointed body has the final say on budget approval. Other towns vary on who gets final approval, and whether residents have a chance to vote on the spending plans.
The Ansonia budget process works like this:
- The finance subcommittee of the Board of Aldermen reviews department requests, and puts together a total city budget proposal.
- The full Board of Aldermen passes that proposal (or a revised version of it) along to the Board of Apportionment and Taxation.
- The Board of Apportionment and Taxation reviews the request, holds a public hearing, and comes up with a final budget. BOAT votes on that budget, and sets the tax rate.
Marini wants to see the process reversed, to work more like this:
- The Board of Apportionment and Taxation gets the budget proposal first, and passes it along to the Board of Aldermen.
- The Board of Aldermen reviews, tweaks and sets a tax rate.
- If that tax rate is more than 1 mill increase over current spending, the proposal would go to voters at a referendum.
Marini’s main gripe: The tax board is appointed and the Board of Aldermen is elected. He said an elected board should have the final say, to make the budget deciders more accountable to voters.
“I feel this board needs to step up and take responsibility for the finalization of the budget,” Marini said.
Marini also said he wants the public to have more say in the process, through a budget vote on any proposal that would pose more than a 1 mill increase in taxes.
Reaction
The proposal drew criticism from several other Board of Aldermen members and BOAT vice chairman Edward Norman, a former alderman.
“I was really furious when I read this resolution,” Norman told the Board of Aldermen last week.
“We do have a budget process that’s working,” Norman said.
Norman said the city charter, written in the 1800s, purposely gave the final vote on the budget to the Board of Apportionment and Taxation.
“It wasn’t for the convenience of the Board of Alderman that a non-partisan board was appointed,” Norman said. “It was to take the politics out of the budget process because it was that serious.”
Other aldermen called Marini’s proposal “political.”
“You’re being irresponsible, and you’re playing with the city’s budget,” Alderman Robert Duffus said. “You are absolutely playing politics. The election is over John. You have to be responsible, and be a leader of this city.”
Debate Derailed
Those points came out during a debate that focused more on what individual Ansonia aldermen have done during past budget seasons than on the charter revision proposal. (Watch both videos to see the back-and-forth.)
The debate spiraled into smaller fights over tangential topics, such as:
- Two Republican aldermen who voted against the budget, after they initially supported the finance subcommittee’s proposals?
- The notion that some aldermen said they wanted to see a no-tax increase, but then voted to support a tax increase
- The 2010 budget proposal, which initially carried a proposed 8.4 tax increase
Sharkey took exception with Marini’s characterization that the aldermen were “not negotiating a real budget,” because they don’t have the final say.
“You said we sent on a real budget when it’s an 8.4 percent increase,” Sharkey said. “I think that everything we did, with all the meetings we were in, we put forth a real budget. We have to feel that our sending on to them is a real budget. It’s certainly not a smokescreen.”
Moving Forward
Marini’s resolution would start a charter revision process, where his budget proposal could be discussed.
If the aldermen agree to launch a charter revision, any part of the charter can be looked at and revised. Marini’s budget proposal might end up getting canned at the Charter Revision meetings.
But before the charter is opened, Sharkey said he wanted the Board of Aldermen to be clear about how they feel about the budget proposal.
“I think this is the single most important charter change in the City of Ansonia for decades, what’s being proposed right here,” Sharkey said. “This doesn’t need to be decided by six people (the mayor) appoints, or five people he appoints. This needs to be decided by the Board of Aldermen, what happens to this proposal and how it needs to be changed.”
So the Board of Aldermen agreed to have its finance subcommittee review and discuss the proposal, before deciding whether to open the charter revision up.
“Certainly we want to take our time,” Marini said. “I would say one thing I’m worried about is I don’t want to be too timid and basically have it die off in committee.”
