With debt service in question, New Britain looks to refinance

New Britain, Conn., Mayor Erin Stewart's plan to refinance more than $100 million in city debt hit a wall of silent opposition Wednesday night when the council's Democratic majority boycotted a vote that she had called "very, very important."

None of the council's nine Democrats showed up for the 6:45 p.m. meeting at city hall, leaving Stewart and her Republican minority with no chance to pass the measure.

New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart

GOP council leaders decried the move as politically motivated and a disservice to voters, while Democratic leaders said in texts later in the evening that Stewart knew full well they weren't going to support her plan. They said she refused their request to postpone the meeting.

"We find it disingenuous that the mayor would try to proceed without us," President Pro Tem Eva Magnuszewski said.

"What the mayor is doing right now is very disruptive to a bipartisan working relationship," Majority Leader Carlo Carlozzi said.

Stewart, who is considering a run for governor, condemned Democrats for not showing up to vote.

"They were elected to do a job, to say yes or to say no. Its a dereliction of their duty not to do that," she said. "I pray for the day when we elect people who can put party politics aside and do what's right."

But Democrats countered that she should be seeking more public opinion before trying to push through a plan that would add tens of millions of dollars in interest costs by stretching out the city's debt repayment schedule.

"Each of the five [alternate] bonding restructuring plans adds at least $35 million" in interest, Magnuszewski said. "It is fair to borrow this much from future generations?"

Democratic council member Emmanuel Sanchez has engaged in a social media debate with Stewart for more than a week about the matter.

He has warned that her plan would extend debt repayments by another three years and add up to $69 million in costs, and that Stewart's administration needs to address spending.

Stewart said the city would have to slash services or raise taxes by as much as 10 mills unless it can restructure its long-term debt to avoid steep increases in payments that are due in the next two years.

"There are debt service payments coming due in 2019 and 2020 that we don't have the money to pay for," she said.

Democrats argue that her administration, over four years, boosted municipal spending, raised taxes and proudly talked of surpluses in recent budgets despite knowing that a spike in debt costs would be coming up.

When it became obvious Tuesday night that the nine Democratic council members wouldn't be attending the meeting, Stewart called reporters into her office. Surrounded by the GOP caucus and her staff members, she called each one on speaker-phone to ask if they'd be attending. Each call went to voice mail.

Tribune Content Agency
Budgets Refinance
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