New London — After using his veto power earlier this week on the budget unanimously approved by the City Council, Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio on Friday sent the council an alternative budget that he says would address his concerns with the council budget and hold city spending flat, thanks to "unanticipated revenues" included in the state budget passed Wednesday.

The $40.3 billion two-year state budget passed Wednesday by the General Assembly includes $375,000 more in state funding than the city originally accounted for during the budget process, Finizio said.

"Using this revenue, and by removing 2 of 3 vacant positions in the Fire Department, 3 vacant positions in the Police Department, and the additional funds for a full time CAO (along with the benefits associated with each position); the Finance Department has been able to prepare a new city budget that flat funds city expenditures and contains a 0 percent spending increase," Finizio wrote in an email to the City Council on Friday.

On Wednesday, Finizio vetoed the budget that the City Council approved unanimously last week and the council is scheduled to meet Monday evening to determine whether it will override the mayor's veto, which would require the votes of six of the seven councilors.

The council's budget includes $43,919,919 in expenditures on the general government side — which would be about $95,600 less than the current year's budget.

The council also approved a $42,445,400 budget for the Board of Education — an increase of about $1.2 million over the current budget — and the mayor has already signed that budget.

The spending plan the council passed would increase city spending by about 1.30 percent and necessitate a tax rate increase of roughly 3.90 percent.

The alternative budget Finizio released Friday includes $44,015,531 in city spending — the same amount as is included in the current year's budget — and would require a tax rate increase of 4.11 percent, the mayor's office said.

"This is still a tight, difficult budget, but by leaving two vacancies in the fire department and three vacancies in the police department unfilled, and by reducing benefits accordingly, this budget meets City Council's stated objectives of avoiding layoffs and holding the line on city spending," Finizio said in a statement. "Most importantly, it gets to a 0 percent increase while meeting all of our legally mandated obligations."

City Councilor Michael Passero, who is running for mayor against Finizio, called the apparent additional monies to the city "great news," but cautioned that the the municipal aid offer would not be official until the governor signed the state budget.

"Assuming that happens, knowing we have the additional revenue is just more assurance that we will not run a deficit," he said.

Passero said he did not see a purpose in the mayor's proposed cuts to create a zero-increase budget, saying that he did not understand why the mayor thought the budget ran a deficit. He said he still plans to push for an override of the mayor's veto.

"I think we have a good budget. There's a disagreement here and I'm not sure where there's any evidence that this budget threatens that thing that the mayor believes it threatens," he said.

Even if there were a built-in deficit, Passero said at this point that deficit would be so decreased by the apparent windfall in state funding that the proposed budget that the mayor vetoed is still a "very good budget."

Prior to news of more state monies coming to the city, Finizio said he and his administration estimated that the council's budget underfunded mandated costs by $657,903 and overestimated revenue by $68,489 for a total "built-in" deficit of $726,392.

The mayor said his alternative budget addresses those concerns by restoring $410,000 in funding for municipal employee health insurance, as well as additional funding for worker's compensation, a contractually-mandated uniform allowance, disability insurance and the lease for the shed where the city stores its road salt. It also removes two vacant positions from the fire department and three vacant positions from the police department.

"We can't afford as a city to get this wrong. We have to get it right," said the mayor.

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung

t.townsend@theday.com

Twitter: @ConnecticuTess