First Selectman Jim Marpe said today Westport is responding cautiously to a state request for town budget information for fear it may be part of a “picking our pockets” effort to help solve state budget woes.

He told a Board of Selectman meeting that he had received a letter on Monday from Ben Barnes, secretary of the state Office of Policy Management, requesting the information.

Barnes asked about the general fund total balance and unassigned fund balance as well as supplemental information on the potential impact of the state budget problems and Westport’s contingency plans to deal with them, Marpe said.

Specifically, Barnes wanted information about Westport’s possible plans to utilize the fund balance and any plans to issue supplemental tax notices.

After years of effort, the Town of Westport tonight succeeded in gaining approval to trim employee retirement benefits that a town negotiator said could eventually result in $1.3 million or more in annual savings.

By a vote of 30 to 0 with one abstention, Westport’s Representative Town Meeting (RTM) voted not to reject an arbitration award involving a pension plan for 13 different municipal and Board of Education unions — not including certified teachers and administrators.

The police and fire unions have had separate pension negotiations, and a fire arbitration decision is expected soon, according to town officials.

The RTM vote culminated an effort dating back at least six years to reduce employee retirement benefits to bring them more in line with the private sector, said Floyd J. Dugas, labor counsel for the town.

By Mark Pazniokas and Keith M. Phaneuf

On a tie-breaking vote by Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, the Senate gave final approval today to a state-employee concessions deal after Democratic leaders mollified three dissenting colleagues with a promise to make a good-faith effort for fiscal reforms.

Uniting all 18 members of the caucus hinged on the willingness by Senate Democratic leaders to at least endorse in concept a dozen fiscal and collective-bargaining reforms sought by three wary Democratic colleagues, any one of whom held the power to kill the deal by voting with Republicans in the evenly divided Senate.

”I’m very pleased that we achieved Democratic unity on this proposal today, and it now helps set us up for the remainder of what will be very difficult budget negotiations,” said Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven.

The show of unity did not go beyond the vote. The three holdouts — Sens. Paul Doyle of Wethersfield, Joan Hartley of Waterbury and Gayle Slossberg of Milford — skipped a post-session news conference with Looney and other Democrats, a sign of remaining difficulties in resolving an impasse that has left Connecticut without a budget for 31 days.

By Keith M. Phaneuf

As Connecticut begins its second month without a state budget next week, the cost to cities and towns will take a big leap, topping $100 million.

And while Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration warned the toll on municipalities gets much worse in September and October, the governor and his fellow Democrats in the legislature are nearing gridlock, weighing higher sales taxes against reductions in local aid.

The administration confirmed Thursday that, absent a budget, it will not release the $78 million in sales tax receipts due Tuesday to communities as part of a revenue-sharing program enacted two years ago.

The budget standoff already cost municipalities $30 million in road repair grants in July. And if it continues until Sept. 30, property tax relief grants that sent $182 million to cities and towns last fall also would be withheld.

By Keith M. Phaneuf

The House of Representatives today narrowly approved the state employees’ concessions deal that is expected to save as much as $1.57 billion this fiscal year and next combined.

The Democrat-controlled House voted 78-72 almost entirely along party lines to endorse the deal.

The concessions package, which workers ratified earlier this month, tentatively is scheduled to go before the Senate on July 31.

Meanwhile, House and Senate Republican leaders objected to today’s vote. They argued that nonpartisan analysts — who hadn’t received all documentation from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration until last Friday — were unable to conduct a full review.