Voters Approve $84.4 Million Budget

By Jan Howard

In a reversal of last year when it took three townwide votes to approve a budget, voters on Tuesday decisively passed the proposed $84.4 million 2004-05 budget on the first try.

The vote may have been the result of a call to action by parents and Board of Education officials who vowed to get the vote out. During budget hearings and at board meetings, parents and town officials repeatedly said they would work hard to get the budget approved.

Thirty-five percent, or 5,227, of the town’s 14,958 voters cast their ballots Tuesday, passing the budget decisively by 1,055 votes, 3,141 to 2,086. Sixty percent voted Yes, 40 percent, No.

The $84,438,722 budget includes $31,320,265 for town government and $53,118,457 for the schools, a 6.4 percent increase over the current year’s budget of $79,737,162.

The estimated tax rate would be 24.9 mills, an increase of 1.5 mills from 23.4 for the current year’s budget. The Legislative Council will officially set the tax rate at an upcoming meeting.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said he was happy there was a decisive decision on behalf of the voters in supporting the actions of the Board of Selectman, Board of Education, Board of Finance, and Legislative Council.

“Sixty/forty is a healthy endorsement and shows the public is in support of our actions. The final word is the voters’, and they supported what their elected officials did,” he said. “Now all of us can go ahead and do the people’s business.”

He said having a budget in place is especially helpful to the Board of Education because it is in competition with other school districts in regard to hiring.

Board of Education Chairman Elaine McClure said she was “delighted” about the budget approval.

“There is a growing awareness in town to support education and the town budget,” she said.

Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff said he is pleased the budget passed on the first try, terming the education budget a “lean, responsible budget.”

“Now we have our work cut out for us to make cuts in our proposed budget,” he said. The cuts include $250,000 sliced from the budget by the Board of Finance and an anticipated reduction of $150,000 to $160,000 from the state, or about $400,000.

“It will be a challenge,” he said, noting, however, he was pleased the vote showed a mandate from the town with a difference of more than 1,000 votes and a 60 to 40 ratio.

“The message was that the town does not want to see the town have less quality in education,” Dr Pitkoff said. He praised the efforts made on behalf of the school budget. “The parents did an amazing job in getting the vote out this year.”

The budget approval follows several meetings and public hearings where residents and town officials turned out in large numbers to voice support for their individual causes. Despite those pleas, however, the Board of Finance made additional cuts to those previously made by the Board of Selectmen and Board of Education.

Following a public hearing, the Legislative Council voted 11-1 to support the Board of Finance-approved budget after restoring $78,800 for police patrol cars, which passed unanimously.

Representatives of the Tercentennial Commission, C.H. Booth Library, and the Board of Education were unsuccessful in their efforts to have the Legislative Council restore funds that were cut from their budgets by the Board of Finance.

The Tercentennial Commission lost its entire budget request of $75,000, the schools were cut $250,000, and the library sustained a $50,000 reduction in addition to the approximately $80,000 reduced from its request by the Board of Selectmen. The library budget as approved is $16,300 less than it received in the current year’s budget.

Last year, voters finally approved the budget on the third try, 2,714 to 2,577, with a margin of victory of 137 votes.