New London — Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio has sent to the City Council an alternative budget proposal that he says accurately funds all mandated costs, assures the city would not have to lay off workers and would not require as high a tax rate as his original proposal.

In an email to the council Monday afternoon, Finizio said he had the Finance Department recalculate the proposed city budget to restore funding to mandatory spending line items while keeping the discretionary cuts made last week by the City Council.

The result is a budget of $87,966,027 that would boost combined city and Board of Education spending by 3.16 percent and require a tax rate increase of 7.27 percent, Finizio said.

Finizio said he used as a starting point the amended budget the City Council approved in its first of three readings last week, which would represent a spending increase of about 2.3 percent and would necessitate a tax rate increase of roughly 6 percent.

That budget, Finizio said, underfunds mandated costs by about $1.2 million and would force him to either lay off city workers or dip into the city’s fledgling fund balance, or savings account, to make up the difference.

“I am aware, however, of the council’s desire to craft a leaner budget than the one the administration proposed, and that you are seeking to establish the lowest possible mill rate this year,” the mayor told councilors in his email. “As a matter of policy, I disagree with your political approach, but it is the council that controls city spending, and I want to satisfy your objectives as best I can to reach compromise, while preserving the financial health of the city.”

In assembling the alternative budget, the finance department took the council’s amended budget and restored mandated spending. Then Finizio made further cuts, including additional funding for a chief administrative officer, vacant positions in the police department and public works department, and three of the four vacant positions in the fire department.

When Finizio presented his initial budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2015-16, it included $90.37 million in spending and would have require a 12.54 percent tax rate hike.

Finizio also reiterated his intention to veto the council’s amended budget if it is ultimately passed. To explain why the spending he says is mandatory actually must be paid in full, Finizio said he reached out to state Comptroller Kevin Lembo, with whom he spoke on Monday.

“The comptroller offered to speak to the council directly to explain that we must pay these obligations to the state of Connecticut. I am hopefully (sic) that this will not be necessary,” Finizio wrote. “It would be an embarrassment for the council to have to have the state comptroller explain what our finance department has already stated on the record: that this bill must be paid.”

City Councilor Michael Passero, who crafted the amended budget approved in its first reading by the City Council, said the issue is not whether the city has to pay mandated costs, but in finding out exactly how much the city must pay in mandated costs.

“I don’t want to hear about how we have to pay mandated costs, we know we have to pay fixed and mandated costs. The thing we’re dealing with is, what are those costs? Show us, show us how you came to that number,” Passero said. “It is very easy to just hide the ball from us and make our job that much more difficult.”

The council’s amended budget will be subject to a public hearing Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Science and Technology Magnet High School. The council must still approve the second and third readings of the budget before it goes to the mayor.

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung