Groton Long Point had requested $208,000, which covers about 31 percent of its police budget, and the Groton Town Council included that request in the budget it passed last month. The request was a zero-percent increase over the previous year, said Bob Congdon, president of the Groton Long Point Association.

"We had been asked to consider the economic times, and we had put forward a request for zero increase for two years in a row; we're the only subdivision and agency, I believe, to do so," Congdon said. "We did that out of respect for the times and our fellow citizens of the town. And still, we were reduced to zero."

The RTM voted 19 to 17 in favor of eliminating the town's share of police funding. John Scott, the RTM's Finance Committee chairman who introduced the motion to cut the police funding, said the cut was made because Kelly Fogg, chief of the town's police department, has indicated the town could provide the same level of coverage to Groton Long Point for about the same amount as the town currently contributes, a savings of about $400,000 to Groton Long Point residents.

"There's going to be people, I think, that are going to be upset down there because this is something they've had for years," Scott said. "But why would they want to pay? This is a $400,000 share that they have to pay. This is lowering their tax obligations in the Groton Long Point Association. I think it's a win-win for everybody, and it goes toward an overall desire by everyone in town to start consolidating these things."

Should the subdivision seek to become covered by the town's police department, the Town Council would need to make a supplemental appropriation from contingency funds.

"It just struck me that here's the town who could absorb the coverage, the same type of police coverage that I get at my house in Old Mystic, for less than what that fire district could pay for itself," Scott said. "At the Town Council and RTM budget hearings, Groton Long Point residents were among those who cried the loudest for budget cuts. I saw this as an opportunity for people who cried the loudest to see a reduction in the mill rate they pay, to the town and the Groton Long Point Association, which is essentially a fire district."

The Groton Long Point Police Department comprises a chief and four officers who patrol Groton Long Point. Until about 2004, the town covered 50 percent of the subdivision's police budget. In a memo, Fogg said the town's police force could have officers patrolling Mystic and Noank cover Groton Long Point during the slower winter months and have officers specifically covering the area during the summer.

Groton Long Point's charter includes a provision that requires the town to pay 100 percent of its highway budget. There is nothing that requires the town pay for the police budget, wrote Town Manager Mark Oefinger in the draft budget he prepared for the Town Council and RTM.

Congdon said he expects the leadership of the Groton Long Point Association will meet soon to determine what to do in the wake of this budget cut, which will go into effect on July 1, the middle of the subdivision's busy budget season.

"I believe all of this cutting of our budget was simply because of our address and, in the way, a form of discrimination simply because of where we live," Congdon said. "Every time we do something to better our security, we seem to be in the news a lot. We do become a topic of conversation around town, and I believe there's this prevailing attitude that we are just some rich snobs. But really there are so many of us that have raised our families here and grew up here and work here."