North Stonington — Following a marathon five-hour meeting last week that saw friction over the public works budget and the town's tribal recognition account, the Board of Finance approved $340,000 in cuts Wednesday night to the town and school budgets.

The cuts were made following a defeat at the polls of both town and school budgets, which would have increased taxes by about 3 percent.

Town officials attributed the rejection to the narrow approval of the school renovation project a month earlier.

The budget now stands at $18.8 million.

The mill rate has been set at 27 mills, up 0.9 mills from last year.

However, because of the declines in the town's grand list, the average property tax bill will be the same as last year.

Ahead of the meeting last week, First Selectman Shawn Murphy had prepared a list of $6,000 in cuts from the muncipal government's proposed budget, mostly from the election funds due to fewer referendums.

Acting Chairman Charles Steinhart IV said last week more cuts would be necessary for the budget to pass.

"My personal thought is if you go over 27 (mills), you're not going to get a budget; anything over a mill (and) you're going to be back here, doing it again," he said at the time.

At Wednesday night's meeting, there was consensus that their work, cut down to a 0.18 percent increase in the budget, was worth bringing to the public again.

"That seems to me worth a try because I think the town is in difficult straits if that one goes down," member Emil Pavlovics said.

Large shares of the cuts included $40,000 from the public works labor budget, and $50,000 from town road maintenance, which Selectman Nick Mullane said would amount to forgoing maintenance on about two miles of roads.

The Board of Education, which requested a $250,000 increase, was cut to a $115,000 increase.

The town's emergency services received scrutiny as well.

The Board decided that taking more out of the budget from the North Stonington Volunteer Fire Company would not be prudent, as the fire company has been responding to a large share of medical calls in town.

However, the proposed increase from last year, $13,400, was cut from the proposed North Stonington Ambulance Association spending.

The tribal recognition account, cut by $3,000 to $45,000, saw some debate between members of both boards.

Murphy said the town was anticipating additional moves toward recognition from the Historic Eastern Pequot tribe.

But some members of the finance board, including Steinhart, said before more money is spent, the town's efforts on tribal recognition should be "brought back to the public."

In large part, capital requests remained in the budget, and a plow and the company car for the volunteer fire company remained.

The capital budget also included money being held in reserve for the first payment on the Emergency Services building, $425,000.

It wasn't immediately clear how the cuts would impact the school budget.

n.lynch@theday.com