Groton Town Council Approves Tentative Tax Rate Increase of 6.4 Percent

The Groton Town Council on Tuesday approved a tentative tax rate of 19.6 mills for the coming fiscal year, an increase of 6.4 percent over the current year.

The council cut $1.7 million from the budget recommended by the Town Manager, which would have required a mill rate increase of 9.8 percent.

Representative Town Meeting gets the budget next and begins deliberations at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Groton Senior Center.

Councilors said they were frustrated by the process but had to turn over the budget to Representative Town Meeting.

“I think we could have done a lot better,” Groton Mayor James Streeter said. “I’m disappointed. But I’m only one vote.”

Councilor Frank O’Beirne, Jr., who cast the lone dissenting vote against the tentative tax rate, said he wanted to see more money cut from the school department.

“They came in with a large increase and we reduced it slightly, but we didn’t hold their feet to the fire,” he said. The council cut $683,000 from the $74.8 million request for education.

Councilor Catherine Kolnaski said she supported the education spending request and believes it is reasonable.

“There are certain needs and services that the residents in the town of Groton just need,” she said.

Earlier this week, the council voted to add back $80,000 that it had cut earlier from the public safety department to restore community policing. Town departments otherwise had their budgets increase zero percent or fall.

Councilor Harry Watson said an independent study was supposed to be done to look at Groton’s system of having three police departments – one each in Groton Long Point, Groton Town and Groton City - to see if it could be improved.

The study never got off the ground.

“I was very frustrated that the police study for all departments in the town was not done, and here it is, a year later,” he said. “I’m very frustrated.”