Norwich — The City Council's Democratic majority ushered through last-minute budget changes Monday, adding $1.2 million to the proposed school budget, delayed hiring for vacant positions and shifted $900,000 in revenue from Norwich Public Utilities to the paid fire district.

The council then voted 4-3 along party lines to approve the final budget.

Final budget totals provided Tuesday morning by city Comptroller Josh Pothier put the city government budget, including debt service at $45.9 million, a decrease of $394,005 from this year, and the school budget at $84.24 million, an increase of $3.2 million, 3.95%. The combined total budgets, including $2.6 million for capital improvements, is $132.8 million, an overall increase of $2.9 million, 2.25%.

The shift of NPU funding rankled Republican Mayor Peter Nystrom, who called it a last-minute move to have taxpayers in the five volunteer fire districts subsidize the growing cost of the central city paid fire district. Nystrom said it effectively is "spreading the fire tax" into the volunteer districts and hiding the true cost of the paid fire department.

The financially struggling public school district received a boost last week when the privately endowed NFA Foundation agreed to award a one-time grant of $1.2 million toward the NFA budget, and the Board of Trustees voted to freeze regular education tuition and all special education tuition at 2019-20 levels. The NFA tuition freeze will save Norwich $1,256,043.

The budget adds $1,240,102 to the $83 million school budget total City Manager John Salomone had proposed. The addition brings the 2020-21 school budget to $84.2 million, a nearly 4% increase over this year’s $81 million budget.

School Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow had told the school board — prior to the NFA tuition freeze — the district would need a 9.1% spending increase to keep current staffing and programs. The school board submitted an $85.4 million budget, 5.5% increase, which still would require deep program and staffing cuts.

Council President Pro Tempore Mark Bettencourt, a Democrat, said the NFA tuition savings should soften staffing and program cuts. But Bettencourt insisted the school board cannot keep coming to the City Council, as it has for the past three years, to cover budget deficits with the city’s general surplus fund.

The NPU revenue shift also has surfaced repeatedly in recent years. When Republicans controlled the council majority, they worked to reverse an earlier trend to shift some money to the central city district. Bettencourt said the new proposal tries to restore some of that shift.

Republican Alderman William Nash countered that while 53% of NPU's physical assets are in the central city, most of the NPU revenue is generated in the outlying area.

The city charter requires NPU to contribute at least 10% of its gross revenues for electricity, water and natural gas sales to the city. The 2020-21 grant totals $9,169,700. Before Monday night’s shift, the fund was split with $6,769,846 applied to citywide revenues to offset taxes and $2,399,876 to the central city fire district. Nash called that split "fair and equitable."

Delaying hiring for the eight positions, some full-time and some part-time, is expected to save $327,151.

The combined changes put the citywide tax rate at 42.06 mills, an increase of 1.78 mills. The tax rate for taxpayers in the central city fire tax is 6.41 mills, a decrease of 1.3 mills from this year’s rate after the shift of NPU funding.

Republican Alderwoman Stacy Gould strongly objected to the school budget, saying school spending has increased by $20 million over the past 10 years. She called it “disingenuous” to say the city is not investing in education.

Gould said the city's economy is still in dire straits, because of COVID-19 closures, and the state expects a $2 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year.

Nash and Nystrom said they supported the city manager's initial proposed budget, saying it treated everyone fairly.

Democratic Alderman Derell Wilson said he was pleased with the final proposed budget changes. Using Nystrom’s words from last week’s council meeting, Wilson said the Democrats “sharpened our pencils” and proposed budget revisions that supported education.

“You build your budget on your morals and where you think the city wants to go,” Wilson said.

c.bessette@theday.com