Taxpayers to vote on 3rd fire budget; some want districts consolidated

Taxpayers to vote on 3rd fire budget; some want districts consolidated

By Mark Zaretsky, Register Staff

June 02, 2000

WEST HAVEN — Allingtown taxpayers, having rejected two Allingtown Fire District budgets so far, will get their third chance at 7 p.m. June 9 at Carrigan Middle School.

What will happen then is anyone’s guess, although the topic West Haveners have come to call "the C-word" — consolidation — is sure to come up again.

The two active members of the Allingtown Board of Fire Commissioners have yet to decide what to do about the budget, which at the time of the last rejection on May 23 called for the same half-mill tax increase that taxpayers in the First and West Shore taxation districts already have approved.

As of Thursday afternoon, they had yet to meet. Chairman Robert Roy and board member John Samperi both complained that the other had failed to return telephone messages.

The third commissioner, Curtis Edwards, moved out of state several months ago and has attended few meetings over the past year. He still owns a house in Allingtown, however, and remained listed as a board member on the proposed budget that taxpayers voted down. He could not be contacted.

West Haven is unique in that it has three separate, independent fire districts with their own taxation powers rather than one fire department that is part of city government. The fire tax rate in a given district is added in to the city’s tax rate to calculate the total bill.

The fire departments in the past have fought efforts to consolidate, although some attitudes have begun to change since the last consolidation attempt, particularly in Allingtown, which has the least development and by far the highest tax rate.

Samperi, who is expected to take over as chairman when Roy steps down on July 1 to be replaced by Aaron Haley, said that the one thing he is sure of is that he won’t cut the budget further.

"Absolutely not," said Samperi, a former city councilman who just last year was one of the taxpayers calling for the budget to be slashed. "I just know that I don’t want to chairman, which I will be next month, and find out that I have a $300,000 deficit."

He did not rule out discussing consolidation in the coming year.

"Consolidation has always been an issue in Allingtown," Samperi said. "People don’t have enough money to pay their bills. Of course it’s an issue."

The fire commissioners will try to sell their budget to taxpayers in a separate public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Minor Park Firehouse.

City officials, meanwhile, are having conversations of their own about:

•What West Haven must do if the budget is rejected again;

•What it must do if Allingtown doesn’t set a tax rate before tax bills have to go out; and,

•What happens if the Allingtown Fire Department runs out of money.

Tax bills must go out by July 1, and they must be at the printer by June 12, Tax Collector Arthur C.

Gilbert said.

Even if things got so bad that Allingtown firefighters didn’t work, "there are mutual aid compacts between Allingtown and Center and New Haven that will ensure that that area gets served," said Mayor H. Richard Borer Jr.