New London — The City Council is poised to take a final vote Wednesday on an overall city budget that will raise taxes more than 9 percent but falls short of earlier dire projections of a far worse tax increase.

Several residents already have promised a petition drive to send the budget to a referendum if it is passed as proposed.

The combined proposed budget of $90.05 million represents a 5.2 percent increase and contains $41.7 million in education spending and $48.3 million for city government.

The city government budget is the main tax increase driver in part because of the reduction in state aid and jumps in items such as retirement contributions, health insurance and personnel costs. The mill rate would increase from 40.46 to 44.26 under the proposal, according to the city’s finance department.

Mayor Michael Passero and the City Council spent the last week chipping away at the $49.1 million city government budget as a result of a Board of Finance vote to cut an additional $750,000.

Passero initially had proposed a smattering of cuts that included the loss of three positions. The proposed budget voted on by the council on Thursday, however, calls for no lost positions. It instead cuts smaller amounts from line items for expenses such as consulting services, training, equipment and overtime.

Public works appears to be taking the hardest hit, with more than $100,000 in new cuts that include $50,000 from its overtime budget. The council early in the budget process agreed to strip $515,000 from the public works budget earmarked for school building maintenance, shifting that cost to the schools.

Passero said the overtime cuts in public works likely will lead to a drop in services, especially on weekends when overtime is more prevalent. Dropped services could include things such as athletic field maintenance or trash pickup around the holidays. He said it is more difficult to strip overtime from the public safety budgets, where the loss of police officers or firefighters needed to cover shifts is not an option.

Passero said there is a possibility that the $700,000 budgeted for police overtime in the patrol division could be whittled down by the hiring of additional officers. The council cut $45,000 from the $190,000 proposed budget for overtime for emergency dispatchers.

The overall proposal was a combination of cuts proposed by Passero, the council and council President Anthony Nolan, a New London police officer who proposed more than $1 million in overall cuts that included defunding of the police chief’s position while it remains unfilled.

Nolan also had proposed the elimination of the information technology director’s $120,000 position that has not been filled since the former director left in September.

Passero, however, called the position “absolutely critical” and said the IT department already has decreased from seven to three employees and the team now working is “hanging on by their fingernails.” The IT director position has been posted three different times without a successful hire.

While Councilor John Satti suggested looking at a budget with a zero increase, or a $4 million reduction in spending, other councilors argue it is just not feasible. Passero said, “that doesn’t happen without decimating the city.”

Councilor Don Venditto said further cuts put the city “in jeopardy of not being able to operate, certainly not efficiently.”

“We have to have something in the checkbook” to get through the next year, Councilor Michael Tranchida said.

In light of the $515,000 cut to school building maintenance, the council also has been hesitant to reduce the school budget, which is driving less than a quarter of the overall proposed tax increase.

The finance board voted on May 15 to reduce school spending by $1 million. While the council initially abided, members later rescinded their vote and reinstated the money.

The council obtained a legal opinion from the city attorney that determined the 2-0 finance board vote did not adhere to City Charter that dictates that at least three members must vote yes to pass a measure. Three members were present at the finance board meeting but member Lonnie Braxton abstained from the vote.

Local business owner Jeff Suntup has called into question not only the attorney’s opinion that led to reinstatement of school funds but the council vote that reinstated the money. Suntup said the finance board vote, since there was a quorum of three members at the meeting, took a legitimate vote according to Roberts Rules of Order, which trump the City Charter section cited by the attorney in his opinion.

He said the subsequent vote to reinstate the money is flawed and invalid because of a technicality: Councilor Efrain Dominguez voted in Spanish and not in English.

“Whatever you do, you have to do by the book,” Suntup said. “The ... t’s must be crossed and, in this situation, they were not.”

Some Republicans have questioned not only the proposed tax increase, but the method at which it was arrived.

Republican Town Committee Chairwoman Shannon Brenek said her foremost concern was “the fact we’ve seen so many inconsistencies with respect to the process, by individuals elected to or appointed to various positions.”

She said that the council’s decision to reinstate the $1 million toward education without public discussion “was a hard one to swallow.”

Brenek also said there is a growing concern among residents about the funding for the future magnet schools in light of the drops in state aid.

“Our schools are worthy of pride and our students are worthy of everything that we can afford for them. But we need to live within our means,” she said.

Resident Dan McSparran said the nearly 10 percent tax hike is too high and the numbers needed for a successful petition of the budget are obtainable.

City Clerk Jonathan Ayala said that, under city charter, a successful petition would have about 340 signatures or 10 percent of the number of people that voted in the last municipal election.

“As soon as the budget is approved, we will prepare the petitions and be on the streets,” McSparran said.

g.smith@theday.com