New London — The City Council on Wednesday passed general government and education budgets that, despite repeated attempts to cut them, will raise the city’s tax rate.

None of the councilors appeared satisfied.

The council voted 5-2 to flat-fund the school district at $42.4 million, more than $1 million less than requested.

A $45.9 million general government budget passed by a 4-3 vote and only after a vote to drop two public works positions that were added earlier in budget discussions.

Councilor John Satti expressed his frustrations early on during Wednesday’s meeting, with repeated attempts to reduce both the education and government budgets.

He proposed five different amendments in an attempt to offset the $1.13 million lost in state funding that precipitated the tax rate increase.

Satti proposed cutting $10,000 for consulting fees for the human services director and $30,000 from the mayor’s office for a yet-to-be-hired executive assistant.

He also proposed a symbolic 10 percent pay reduction for city councilors, who earn $1,500 a year.

“We are in tough financial times,” Satti said. “If I’m going to ask for departments and department heads and education to reduce their budgets, I believe I have to be a leader by doing the same thing.”

Councilors said it would take cutting a large ticket item to reduce the impending tax rate hike.

“I understand where you’re coming from in your attempts to try and find places to make a cut,” Councilor Don Venditto said. “Unfortunately in order to get to a number that is anywhere remotely close to zero, we’d have to cut the budget so bad the city would fail to get out of its own way.”

Councilor Anthony Nolan said “in some cases I think (cuts) would hurt more than remedy things.”

The budget passed on Wednesday will increase the tax rate by 0.97 mill, from 39.49 mills to 40.46 mills. That would mean a hike of slightly less than $100 a year for every $100,000 of assessed property value.

Mayor Michael Passero said he intends to sign the budget.

“We don’t have much else to give up without cutting jobs,” Passero said.

Before the news of a reduction in state revenues, Passero’s budget — a 4.6 percent increase in spending — would not have required a tax rate increase.

The increases in expenditures in his budget, he said, were driven by a spike in police department spending and a 16.8 percent increase in debt service payments.

The council has been most divided throughout budget deliberations on the school board’s request for $43.5 million toward its $64.6 million proposed overall budget.

The request was a 2.5 percent increase from the current year to help cover revenue losses.

The council had rejected the education budget with 4-3 votes on two previous readings.

Council President Erica Richardson and Councilors Efrain Dominguez and Nolan had remained constant in their support of the school board’s request.

On Wednesday, councilors said they recognized they could not increase the budget above what the Board of Finance had approved and by state statute could not go below what the city funded the schools this year.

Board of Education member Zak Leavy, chairman of the Finance Committee, said he was deeply disappointed in the council’s final vote.

“It is ridiculous that we will now be flat funding the school budget for the sixth time in nine years,” Leavy said. “This isn’t a vote for the status quo. It is a vote to take our district backwards in time.”

He said the cuts to the school board’s proposed budget will jeopardize some of the progress the district has made in completing magnet programs and showed a lack of commitment to education by some councilors.

g.smith@theday.com