Milford Budget Approved By Board Of Aldermen

MILFORD, CT — The Board of Alderman passed the $238 million city budget in a nine to five vote Monday night. The city mill rate will be set to 26.65 mills, which is one mill reduction from the current fiscal year.

However, the city also had a property revaluation last year and many residential properties experienced an assessment increase.

“There are going to be some people this year that pay less in taxes, and some people that pay more just because this is a reval year,” Mayor Ben Blake said at the meeting. “But this board certainly did all that it could to make sure that the costs were reduced as much as possible.”

Discussion became heated at times as aldermen and Blake discussed adding four police officer positions to the budget. The positions were originally requested by the department at the beginning of the budget season, but they didn’t make it into Blake’s budget proposal or the Board of Finance budget recommendation.

Alderman Anthony Giannattasio made a motion to add the positions into the budget, but the motion failed eight to five.

“The best way, the best approach, the best course of action to fight crime is to hire more police officers,” he said.

Giannattasio also said he was surprised Blake didn’t add the positions to his budget proposal and that people were concerned about muggings, thefts of catalytic converters and other crimes.

Blake said Giannattasio was painting a dark picture of the town. The city has also taken cost-effective steps to get more cops on the streets, such as making sure there are enough staffed public safety dispatchers, so officers don’t have to put on dispatch duty.

The budget also included funds for parking enforcement officers, which alleviates sworn officers from those duties.

“I see sunshine and summer days on the beach, and you see crime,” Blake said. “To be responsible doesn’t mean that you just throw money at a problem, especially when it’s taxpayer’s money.”

Alderman Raymond Vitali said his constituents voiced concerns about dirt bikes and ATVs riding recklessly in the streets and parking lot muggings.

“People, as far as I'm hearing, people are really disgusted with this and not only what's happening within the country itself, but here in our own little town of Milford,” Vitali said.

Alderman John Moffitt recalled how his house was ransacked about eight years ago.

“It was a tough time,” he said. “I'm not sure one more police officer, four more police officers or eight more police officers would have prevented that.”

He also said the department already had several vacant positions that need to be filled and that it would be better to wait and see if crime comes down as the country exits the pandemic.

Blake thanked the board members for their efforts to drive the mill rate down as much as possible during a challenging budget year.

“Even when we have spirited debates like we have tonight, it is for the betterment of the community,” he said.