First Round Budget Plan Fails

By John Voket

With 4,535 people, or about one of four eligible Newtown taxpayers, casting ballots, the first round 2012-13 budget proposal failed at referendum on April 24 by 607 votes. Democratic Registrar of Voters LeReine Frampton confirmed that 2,569 No votes were cast versus 1,962 Yes votes on Tuesday.

Those totals included all absentee and hand counted ballots.

Legislative Council Education Committee Chair Kathryn Fetchick said the overwhelming number of No votes was a mandate signaling a measurable reduction would be required to overcome the first round deficit.

That second-round referendum could occur as soon as Tuesday, May 8, according to Ms Frampton, but she noted that in several previous years when the proposal failed at its first attempt, the second round referendum occurred three weeks later, which would be May 15.

First Selectman Pat Llodra told The Bee following the vote that if she is required to find further cuts on the town side, they would affect either planned capital acquisitions or projects, planned programs, existing staff, or some combination of the three.

“Remember, this proposal is already reflecting staffing reductions and the redeployment of staff to cover [merged] positions in the Parks and Public Works Departments,” Mrs Llodra said.

School Board Chair Debbie Leidlein said she was not prepared to discuss contingencies for reducing the district budget request until she heard what the council had to say during deliberations Wednesday evening. (See separate story.)

Council Chairman Jeff Capeci ventured before the polls closed that the large turnout boded well for the budget passing, while noting that up until this week there was little evidence of anyone in town advocating for the budget proposal to pass.

But since Monday Mr Capeci said he had received several e-mails and saw numerous social network posts on the Internet advocating for Newtowners to get out and vote.

“A high turnout either means it’s going to pass, or there are a lot of passionate No voters,” the council chairman said.

Councilman Joe Girgasky said he did not support the spending plan as proposed to the council, although a number of good points were presented by all prior to the Legislative Council vote to move the initial budget request to referendum.

“The Board of Selectmen proposed a reasonable and clear budget,” Mr Girgasky said. “The same could not be said for the Board of Education’s proposal.”

Ms Frampton said 102 absentee budget ballots were filed, three blank and one no vote, along with ballots that 4,433 eligible taxpayers cast in person at the middle school. There are 16,011 eligible voters in town as of April 24, she added.

If the budget proposal had passed on the first attempt, it would have generated a 2.34 percent tax increase tied to $107,406,525 in expenditures, while requiring $107,806,525 in revenue. The $400,000 difference was being applied to the fund balance, bringing it up to 8.0 percent of the total budget on July 1, 2012 — one full year ahead of plan.

The finance board approved a town-side request of $27,980,942, representing a 0.43 percent increase over the current year. The school district’s request, was $69,355,794 — a 2.04 percent increase over the current year.