Date: Fri 01-May-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

budget-vote-council

Full Text:

Small Turnout Approves Budget

BY STEVE BIGHAM

A $59.3 million municipal budget passed easily Tuesday by what is believed to

be the smallest turnout percentage in Newtown history.

Just 1,077 voters (8.8 percent of the 12,226 registered) made it to the polls.

Of those who showed up, 655 (or 61 percent) voted in favor of the proposal,

while 419 (or 39 percent) voted against it.

Tuesday's vote was the smallest turnout Town Clerk Cindy Simon can remember.

Last year's vote brought out 14 percent and most other referendums since the

mid-1980s have attracted between 20-30 percent of the voters.

So is it a severe case of apathy in Newtown, or were residents generally

satisfied with the overall package?

John Kortze, chairman of the Legislative Council's finance committee, believes

it was the latter. After all, he said, the council worked hard to make sure

the town was properly funded (the budget went up $6.7 million), while keeping

the mill rate increase to a minimum -- up just one mill (or 3.7 percent) --

from 25.9 mills to 26.9 mills.

Mr Kortze said the council managed to give the selectmen and Board of

Education about 90 percent of what they asked for and the taxes are going up

less than four percent.

"We haven't had a budget turned down in several years," noted longtime council

member Melissa Pilchard. "There wasn't a big increase, yet we added all these

things. There was a lot of clever planning that went on."

The key to keeping costs down this year was the large amount of revenue the

town managed to bring in to offset the increase in expenditures. Much of the

revenue comes from a grand list that will bring in an additional $1.8 million.

Earlier this month the town also received word that it would be given $600,000

more than it anticipates in state aid.

Of the $59.3 million overall package, $32 million will go to fund the Board of

Education, with the remaining $27.7 million to fund the selectmen's budget.

Though many school supporters spoke in opposition to the council's original

decision to cut $800,000 from the Board of Education's $3.1 million proposed

budget increase, there was no organized opposition to the budget.

As time moved along, school board members and parents became less upset over

the cut, thanks to some hard-nosed bargaining between the council and the

Board of Education. As it stands, the school system will still realize most of

what had originally been requested. Through a leasing program, the use of some

reserve money and with a little extra help from the state, the cut in proposed

education spending ended up being $200,000.