CHESHIRE — The Town Council voted overwhelmingly against a $106.4 million plan for a new middle school Tuesday night.
The council’s five Republicans and two Democrats opposed four motions to let the school district apply for state grants, prepare schematics for the school proposed at Cheshire Park, and send the project to referendum in November. Two Democrats voted in favor of the motions.
Each councilor spoke Tuesday night, slowly making it clear that the Board of Education’s request would fail.
Councilors cited a potential doubling of the town’s debt and the impact on taxpayers, particularly with a $12 million cut in state aid looming in the coming fiscal year.
Sylvia Nichols, a Republican councilor, said the council has a role in vetting projects before putting them before residents.
“When we put a project to referendum, we must anticipate approval by the voters,” she said.
Michael Ecke, a Democrat, described Dodd Middle School as inadequate but said the financial risks were too great to proceed with the project now. He anticipated supplemental tax bills based on state aid cuts.
“I think we just have to wait until the state has settled down,” he said.
Education leaders pushed for a vote by June 30, the state’s deadline for grant applications using the current reimbursement rate. They said that if the application were delayed until the next fiscal year, the town would likely qualify for a lower reimbursement and have to pay more of the construction cost.
If the council had approved the motions, Cheshire would have paid about $70 million of the total project cost with the rest coming from the state.
A new middle school is the first step in a larger plan to rebuild or renovate the town’s educational facilities.
Democrats Patti Flynn-Harris and Peter Talbot supported sending the project to the voters in November.
Flynn-Harris said the town should have made building investments a decade ago. It’s now lagging in economic growth behind towns such as Southington and shouldn’t continue to postpone major work.
She also said that councilors shouldn’t have the final say on the middle schools.
“It’s not just our job as town councilors,” Flynn-Harris said. ”The public has the right, the voters have the right to have their say also.”
Council Vice Chairman Paul Bowman, a Republican, said the council would work toward a solution for Dodd.
“I don’t believe it ends tonight,” he said.
The signing came nearly three weeks after the state House of Representatives passed the measure, 103-46. The Senate had approved it two weeks before that, 24-12.
“Over the years, our state has maintained a longstanding partnership and compact with the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribal nations, who employ thousands of Connecticut residents at their casinos,” the governor said in a statement. “Make no mistake about it — the legislation I signed today is about jobs for the residents of Connecticut, and securing those jobs in our state.”
The tribes, citing a gaming expert’s analysis, had maintained that failure to counter the competitive threat posed by MGM Springfield would jeopardize thousands of direct and indirect jobs in and around Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, their southeastern Connecticut facilities, and across the state.
The new law calls for MMCT Venture, the partnership the tribes formed to pursue the third casino, to pay the state $1 million to cover the initial costs of regulating the facility. Once the casino is operating, the state will receive 25 percent of gross gaming revenue generated by the casino’s video facsimile games, or slots, and 25 percent of gross gaming revenue from its table games. Ten percent of the table-games revenue will be dedicated to tourism promotion.
In addition, MMCT will contribute $300,000 annually to the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, and pay regulatory costs incurred by the state Department of Consumer Protection.
Under a deal East Windsor signed earlier with the tribes, the town stands to get about $8.5 million a year in casino revenue, including $3 million to mitigate the casino’s impact on local services and an estimated $5.5 million in property taxes. The tribes also will make a $3 million upfront payment to the town no later than 15 months before the casino opens.
Revenue the state receives from the casino will provide annual grants of $750,000 to each of six towns surrounding East Windsor — East Hartford, Ellington, Enfield, Hartford, South Windsor and Windsor Locks.
“With a stroke of the pen, we are that much closer to turning our proposal for an entertainment and gaming facility in East Windsor into reality,” Kevin Brown, the Mohegan chairman, said in a statement. “We’re excited about the future, and tremendously thankful for the leadership of the governor and the many legislators from both parties who rallied to protect jobs in our state that would otherwise have been lost.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE