Newtown taxpayers who may be otherwise engaged Tuesday, April 28, or who anticipate difficulties getting to the Newtown Middle School to cast their budget ballots, may do so in a special Saturday voting session in the town clerk’s office Saturday, April 25, from 9 am to noon.

Otherwise, per local charter directive, polls at the middle school gym will be open Tuesday from 6 am and 8 pm for taxpayers to render their split or bifurcated votes on an overall 2015-16 budget request of $111,730,513, which represents a 0.6 percent increase over the current year.

The school district request is $71,587,946, representing a 0.34 percent increase, and the town side or selectmen’s request including all municipal and school district capital debt service is $40,142,567 or a 1.06 percent increase. Capital debt service represents $10,110,702 of that overall municipal request.

If approved as presented to voters at referendum, the new spending plan would represent a net reduction in taxation of 0.71 percent, with a new tax rate of 33.07 mills, down from the current rate of 33.31. A mill represents one dollar for every $1,000 in taxable property.

Many officials say this is the first budget request in recent history that came forward with tax rate reduction.

Finance Director Robert Tait explained that overall taxation and the mill rate would be reduced even though the budget is calling for slightly more spending because of new grand list revenue, additional charges for services, and intergovernmental revenue totaling $664,309.

Along with a debt service cost reduction, significant savings were developed as a result of a positive claims trend in the town’s self-insured employee health plan.

Taxpayers who need to vote by absentee ballot, but miss the Saturday session, can still obtain and cast an absentee ballot in person Monday, April 27, between 8 am and 4:30 pm.

Any person who is a registered voter in the Town of Newtown or who is a US citizen assessed for at least $1,000 for real estate or motor vehicles on the 2014 Grand List for the Town of Newtown is qualified to vote at the referendum.

Any qualified person who meets any of the following criteria may vote by absentee ballot:

*Active service in the Armed Forces;

*Absence from the town during all the hours of voting;

*Illness;

*Physical disability;

*Religious tenets that forbid secular activity on the day of the referendum; or

*Duties as a referendum official at a polling place other than your own during all hours of voting.

The town clerk’s office is located in the Newtown Municipal Center at Fairfield Hills, at 3 Primrose Street.

Voters can expedite the process by downloading an absentee application in advance before visiting the town clerk. Download the application here.

Absentee ballots can be returned in person to the town clerk by 4:30 pm Monday, April 27, or the must be received by mail before the closing of the polls at 8 pm on referendum day.