NORWICH – After nearly two hours of hearing public concerns and deliberation, the Norwich Common Council passed a 2016 budget on Tuesday that’s balanced and prevents any layoffs of city employees.

Despite early fears that taxpayers would see a double-digit tax rate increase, the $8.4 million general fund spending plan calls for just a 5.4 percent tax increase.

It was a sticky budget process for the city council this year. While city officials have approved deficit spending in recent years and drew from reserve accounts to make up the difference, that wasn’t an option this year as those accounts have nearly dried up.

In November, Norwich officials made a proposal to cut four full-time and five part-time employees from the Norwich Fire Department – a maneuver that was thwarted by a number of concessions made by the Norwich Firefighters Association and the forfeiture of a contracted two percent salary increase among all city employees.

The third and final amendment of the 2016 budget included elimination of funds to replace the outgoing deputy city clerk who’s set to retire at the beginning of the year. The city will see a net savings of $60,000 by not refilling that position.

Council members also reduced the municipal building maintenance fund from $15,000 to $5,000, making for a total $70,000 in changes to the budget. A resolution to adopt the final revision was voted down only by Ward One Alderman Bryan McCracken who advocated to cut spending even further by eliminating $16,000 for replacement of the Norwich City Court’s handicap ramp and instead use money from the building maintenance fund to make necessary repairs to the ramp.

Efforts to pass a spending plan without laying off city employees was applauded by outgoing Mayor Joseph Maiurano who, in his final Committee meeting, said he’s been “honored to have such a great council.”

“I think that makes the difference of how you operate. No matter what we have done, we did it because it was the right thing to do at the time. There are a lot of things that I think we should be proud of. Our accomplishments are because we have a council that is willing to debate and discuss without arguing, and that’s been the theme throughout the years.”