Norwich — The City Council approved a series of budget cuts Monday, with split votes and emotional arguments on many items, after hearing criticism from a dozen residents about new cuts that targeted the Human Services department and a plan to shift $164,000 in revenues out of the central city fire district and apply it to the citywide general fund.

The cuts were proposed after a series of closed-door Republican caucus meetings over the past few weeks and another 20-minute closed-door caucus prior to Monday's meeting. Republicans said even those meetings were contentious, with some participants walking out.

Several speakers accused the council of exacerbating chronic tensions between the central city paid fire district and the outlying five volunteer fire districts by redirecting $164,000 in revenue the city receives each year from Norwich Public Utilities out of the City Consolidated District, or CCD, into the citywide general fund.

“We are a split city,” resident Kathleen Murphy said. “We are not one city.”

After a lengthy debate, aldermen voted 4-3 to add to the amount of money shifted from the NPU revenues to $500,000.

After all the changes, the council voted 5-2 with the two Democrats voting against, to approve a final $122.95 million combined city and school budget and a $7.1 million paid fire tax budget. The final tax rate will be 41.22 mills citywide, a 0.32-mill increase over this year, but 0.41 mills lower than the city manager's original proposed budget. The central city fire tax will be 7.84 mills, a 0.68-mill increase over this year and 0.71 mills higher than the proposed budget.

Republican Alderman and council President Pro Tempore Peter Nystrom, lead proponent of the effort to redirect NPU from the City Consolidated District, called it “a subsidy” provided by general taxpayers to the CCD. He said residents in the town volunteer districts pay a “double tax” to the tune of 1.8 mills to lower the central city fire tax.

Mayor Deberey Hinchey said the NPU revenue was directed to the CCD to cover the value of NPU's nontaxable property located in the CCD and covered by the paid fire department. Other city property, including City Hall, also are covered by the paid department. She called the fund split “an equitable way” to divide the NPU revenue.

Democratic Alderman H. Tucker Braddock said the most fair system would be to have “one city and one tax.” Republican Alderwoman Joanne Philbrick agreed that the city is “horribly divided” over the fire tax issue. “If we continue down this road, we are going to destroy ourselves,” Philbrick said.

The council voted 4-3 to cut the Human Services caseworker, with Nystrom changing his vote from a month ago when the cut was first proposed and rejected by the council 4-3.

As with many of the contentious votes Monday, Republican Alderman William Nash voted against the cut of the Human Services caseworker, joining council Democrats Hinchey and H. Tucker Braddock.

Hinchey called the Human Services cut “one of the most callous cuts coming before us.” She criticized Republican aldermen for cutting services to the working poor of the city.

“This is a small amount compared to what will happen to these people who will not have a safety net,” Hinchey said.

“As the mayor of this city, it is disturbing that we care so little about the people who live in this city and call it home.”

Nystrom said he took exception to the mayor's comments and said aldermen are being responsible to the need to keep taxes down. He assured residents that “the safety net will still be there.”

During public comment, several speakers complained about the Human Services cut, which will leave the city agency with only one caseworker to handle several thousand residents who seek help ranging from job training assistance to emergency rental housing assistance, public bus transportation to medical appointments and jobs and once per year assistance with utility bills.

“When you need a police officer, you want one there,” William Seth Owen said, addressing several of the proposed cuts. “When you need a firefighter, you want one there. When you need a social worker, you want one there. You never know which one you might need, so it is a false economy to frame the choice as being between them.”

Aldermen voted 4-3 — again with Nash, Hinchey and Braddock voting against — to cut the city police department overtime replacement account by $100,000 and the city paid fire department replacement account by $100,000. The accounts are used to pay officers to fill in for others on vacations and sick time.

Police Chief Louis Fusaro objected to the cut during the public comment period, saying it would hurt the community policing effort.

But Nystrom said if the police and fire departments exceed the remaining funds in the replacement accounts, they could seek a transfer of funds toward the end of the fiscal year next spring. Any request for additional police replacement funds would come from the citywide general fund, and the fire department request would come from the CCD revenue fund, Comptroller Josh Pothier said.

Hinchey objected to the reasoning that the police and fire replacement budgets be cut with the intention to take the money from contingency funds later in the year.

c.bessette@theday.com