Leng Vetoes Council Budget

Hamden Mayor Curt Leng Thursday evening followed through on a promise to veto the Legislative Council’s approved town operating budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

On May 16, the council passed a $236,886.474 budget in a narrow vote that, at 1 a.m., appeared to have failed because of a voting error, but which the town attorney deemed the next day had in fact passed. The council’s budget would have raised Hamden’s mill rate by 1.26 mills over what Leng had proposed, bringing it to 49.99.

Leng has now vetoed that budget, requiring the council to muster a two-thirds override.

Otherwise Leng’s original proposed $235,998,505 operating budget would take effect. It would set the mill rate at 48.73, .77 mills over last year’s 47.96.

Raising the mill rate to almost 50, said Leng in a statement released Thursday evening, ​“is not in Hamden’s best interest; short term or long-term. It sends the wrong signal to every family and every business considering investing in our beautiful community. It’s also just not fair to overburden our residents with reckless increases when too many are struggling with taxes already.

“Overtaxing is not the answer, we can do better. For these reasons and others I have vetoed the Council budget.”

Leng’s veto came as no surprise to council members. Directly after the council’s vote, at 1 a.m. when council members still thought the budget had failed, he issued a statement saying that he would have vetoed if the budget had passed. The next day when the town attorney determined that the budget had in fact passed, he released another statement promising to do so.

Leng said this is the first time he has vetoed a budget.

Some council members said they fear that if that Leng’s budget takes effect, the town will end the next fiscal year with a deficit becauser of optimisitc revenue projections.

“I hope that we can override a veto,” said Majority Leader Cory O’Brien, ​“but if we can’t, we’re probably going to a six, seven-million-dollar deficit at the end of the year.”

“It’s going to cause us to borrow more money to finance the operating budget, and send us further into debt,” said At-Large Rep. Lauren Garrett, who is challenging Leng for the Democratic mayoral nomination this year. ​“We are on a path to more and more debt and more and more liabilities for this town. I’m disappointed.”

Both Garrett and O’Brien have criticized Leng for revenue projections that they have called ​“inflated,” which they have said allow Leng to keep the mill rate lower than it needs to be.

“While we don’t like the mill rate,” said O’Brien, it ​“is essentially what it costs to run the town.”

A veto override is unlikely. The council passed the budget 7 – 6, and it would need a two-thirds majority to override Leng’s veto. In addition, Council President Mick McGarry, who voted to approve the budget, has told the Independent that he might not vote to override the mayor’s veto.

District 8 Rep. Jim Pascarella, who voted against the council budget, said he is not worried about a budget shortfall.

“I think frankly that any budget can turn into a shortfall at the end of the year depending on events and circumstances that are not under our control,” he said.

He said he voted against the council’s amended budget for a few reasons. He said he did not like that the council had taken direct oversight over $800,000 of police overtime funds, forcing the police chief to come to the council every so often to ask for money. He said he was also very frustrated with this year’s budget process.

“I don’t think that some members of the body made a vote, a motion, or a comment without excoriating the mayor,” he said. ​“If you want consensus and you want collaboration and you want to work together, blasting someone constantly is not the way to approach it.”

Minority Leader Marjorie Bonadies, who also voted against the council’s amended budget, said she had done so because of the mill rate increase.

“I think the council’s budget is a better budget. It’s a more honest budget,” she said. But she said that she had constituents sending her letters and calling her begging her not to pass the council’s budget, telling her that they are ​“getting taxed out” of their homes.

“As bad as it sounds, I feel like I have to protect the taxpayers of today,” she said. She added that she had voted for cuts that could have helped reduce the mill rate, including denying a budget increase to the Board of Education. That motion failed, and the BOE’s budget remained at Superintendent Jody Goeler’s proposed $89.4 million.

As per the charter, the council must vote to override the mayor’s veto by June 10. Council members said that a meeting is already scheduled for that day, and the veto-override vote will take place then.

After what has been a divisive budget process, Pascarella said he hopes the council can begin to work together again.

“After this I hope we can hit a reset button and start cooperating instead of criticizing and confronting,” he said.