Montville — The town budget the Finance Committee plans to recommend to the Town Council will include a flat school budget, no new police cruisers, no additional money for the Raymond Library and no money for a culvert replacement project the Department of Public Works had planned for this year.

Several town residents crowded a room in Montville's Town Hall to protest the committee's recommendation that the council pass a school budget with no increase from last year.

Montville Police Lt. Leonard Bunnell spoke against the committee's proposal to deny request for several new vehicles, and town animal control Officer Christian Swanson said she opposed the proposal to turn the car she uses into a police cruiser.

"I really, really must say that's not a good idea," Bunnell said, chastising the committee for delaying a decision on what he called a necessary addition to the department's fleet.

Howard "Russ" Beetham, the town's former mayor known for his thrifty policies, broke with tradition to ask the committee to add money for the private Raymond Library, whose director has asked for additional funds to get the library into the black.

"In the current environment, we couldn't do it," said Chuck Longton, the Finance Committee chairman.

Reductions in the state budget passed last month loomed over the committee as it made cut after cut to the $59.8 million budget Mayor Ronald McDaniel proposed in April.

Since then, state legislators cut more than $500,000 in municipal aid that town officials had expected, leading the Finance Committee to propose Tuesday's cuts.

The committee also faced the town's information technology director, who asked for more hours for a part-time employee but could not convince the committee to fund it.

It was one of more than 20 reductions the committee will propose at a Town Council meeting this month.

That meeting has not yet been scheduled, but Council Chairman Joseph Jaskiewicz said it will likely take place next week.

Finance Director Terry Hart said the committee's proposed budget would result in a 0.41-mill increase in the mill rate, which equals about a $40 tax rate increase on $100,000 of assessed property.

Resident Donna Geary encouraged the Town Council members to consider the possibility that people in Montville could shoulder a bigger increase.

"People are wiling to pay it," she said. "Don't be afraid to raise the budget ... I think that you've done all that you can."

m.shanahan@theday.com