Meriden residents voted in favor of a referendum Wednesday rejecting the city’s budget, which was previously approved by city officials with an almost five percent tax hike.
This was the first time taxpayers took part in a referendum on the city budget.
Under the plan, the average taxpayer would need to pay an additional $200 after the 4.66 percent increase to Meriden’s property tax rate.
“I’m a single father raising twin girls and you look at every penny, you look at everything you can possibly do,” lifelong Meriden resident Michael Carabetta said.
Carabetta found out in the city charter he needed 2,779 signatures on a petition to force a budget referendum. The team he assembled collected more than 3,000.
The referendum needed 4,111 “yes” votes to reject the city budget. Wednesday night supporters learned they blew past that and got one short of 6,000.
“It’s a little overwhelming right now. I didn’t realize I would get choked up a little bit,” said Carabetta when he learned his campaign to strike down the budget succeeded.
Local
Mayor Kevin Scarpati cast the tie-breaking vote when the city council adopted the budget in May. He said he did so as a procedural move to get the budget to his desk.
“I do think that there’s some room to cut,” Scarpati said. “There’s also some room for us to grow revenue-wise.”
Before the final vote was in the mayor told NBC Connecticut the frustration he has heard from taxpayers about the mill rate increase has convinced him the council needs to take a closer look at the $198 million spending plan.
The city council has about a month to redo and approve a new spending plan.
