Qualified local taxpayers and residents can begin reviewing 2017-18 Budget Referendum information, and can apply for and file absentee ballots ahead of the budget vote scheduled for Tuesday, April 25. Budget polls will be open that day at Newtown Middle School from 6 am to 8 pm, and a special Saturday absentee voting session is set for Saturday, April 22, from 9 am to noon, in the town clerk's office at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

Absentee ballots for the referendum will be available during office hours Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm. Pursuant to state law, 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 2016 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.

Absentee ballots can be returned in person to the office of the town clerk by 4:30 pm on Monday, April 24, or by mail or designee before the closing of the polls on referendum day - 8 pm on April 25. Any questions about absentee voting should be directed to the town clerk's office at 203-270-4210.

Budget Details

On April 5, the Legislative Council unanimously endorsed a proposed spending plan that, if approved, will fund a municipal budget request of $40,399,575, representing a three-tenths of a percent (-0.3 percent) reduction from the current year, and a $72,995,957 school district request representing a nine-tenths of a percent (-0.9 percent) reduction from the current year.

The municipal budget request includes planned spending for town operations, as well as debt service costs for capital bonding that includes all school district projects.

The total budget request for the 2017-18 fiscal year, if approved, will be $113,395,532, representing a seven-tenths of a percent (-0.7 percent) reduction from the current year that would generate a mill rate of 33.87 - an increase of 0.82 percent. A mill represents one dollar for every $1,000 in taxable property.

As in past years, budget voters will be asked to endorse or reject the municipal and education spending requests separately on a split ballot with the following language:

*Shall the sum of $40,399,575 be appropriated for the Board of Selectmen for the fiscal year?

*Shall the sum of $72,995,957 be appropriated for the Board of Education for the fiscal year?

As a result of a 2016 charter revision the ballot language on advisory questions was modified from previous versions, and asks voters:

*If the proposed sum of $40,399,575 for the Board of Selectmen is not approved, should the revised budget be higher?" Yes ___ No ___

*If the proposed sum of $72,995,957 for the Board of Education is not approved, should the revised budget be higher?" Yes ___ No ___

That charter revision also eliminated the town meeting for authorizing capital spending, so voters will be responsible for individually accepting or rejecting a half-dozen capital authorizations on the ballot.

While that charter revision increased the amount that the council could approve for each project up to $1.5 million, it also capped the total amount of capital spending the council could authorize. Since the council can only approve a total of 1 mill, or roughly $3 million in capital projects, any remaining requests also go to taxpayers at referendum.

After previous deliberation and a special appropriation process that involved review by the Boards of Selectmen and Finance, the council authorized moving a $1.8 million request for middle school improvements and a $3 million request for a new senior center to the ballot, along with a $750,000 request for the final phase of high school auditorium improvements; $850,000 for the Hawley School's roof replacement; $1 million for capital road spending; and a $300,000 request to begin the design phase for a new police headquarters to voters for consideration.

By a random drawing that occurred at a Board of Selectmen's meeting April 3, the order of those spending measures on the budget ballot will be: Hawley School roof replacement, middle school improvements, senior center design and construction, road repairs, police headquarters design, high school auditorium

Explanatory Text

In accordance with state law, town officials and related boards cannot advocate for the passage or rejection of any or all items on the local budget ballot. But the state does permit explanatory text to be provided to guide voters and help them understand the capital requests they will be asked to consider.

The explanatory language regarding the capital ballot measures is as follows:

1. "Shall the $850,000 appropriation bond authorization for the planning, design, engineering, replacement, and construction of a new roof at Hawley School, be approved?"

Approval of this resolution will allow the complete replacement of the 1948 and 1997 flat roof sections of the facility. The roof will be in its 20th year of service. Life span/warranty is 20 years.

2. "Shall the $1,800,000 appropriation and bond authorization for the planning, design, engineering, and construction of improvements at Newtown Middle School, be approved?"

Approval of this resolution will allow the replacement of the original boiler that is currently 60 years old to a higher efficiency forced hot water system and upgrading all lighting fixtures to LED, similar to what was done at Middle Gate School this year. The building is also being heated through a hybrid system of steam and forced hot water. This project also will involve a conversion from oil to natural gas.

3. "Shall the $3,000,000 appropriation and bond authorization for the planning, design, engineering and construction of a new Senior Center, be approved?"

Approval of this resolution will allow for an appropriation of $3,000,000 to pay for the planning, design, engineering and construction of a new senior center.

4. "Shall $300,000 appropriation and bond authorization for the planning and design of the Newtown Police facility and improvements, be approved?"

Approval of this resolution will allow an expenditure of up to $300,000 to prepare a schematic drawing and an artistic rendering of a new police facility. This will further allow a site selection process to proceed and will also allow for a determination of the actual cost of a new police facility.

5. "Shall the $750,000 appropriation and bond authorization for the planning, design, engineering, and construction of Newtown High School Auditorium Phase II Renovations and improvements, be approved?"

Approval of this resolution will allow the replacement of all stage lighting, lighting controls, AV equipment, rigging components, stage draperies, electrical components, and catwalk enhancements for safety. Phase I of this project includes all of the hard construction but does not address any of the equipment listed in the above description. This request for Phase II is to cover necessary expenses that were not able to be covered in the original project authorization.

Although explanatory language for the $1 million capital roads request is not included in the official documentation, the Capital Improvement Plan states that the funds would be used to ensure public safety by completing reconstruction of aging roads per the current capital road plan. The CIP detail goes on to state that the budget impact is that the road maintenance costs will be stable.

"The roads that are improved or replaced cost less to maintain, the roads we don't improve or replace cost more to maintain. So the recommended amounts we invest into roads enable us to have stable maintenance costs. During the 2014-15 budget process it was understood that the capital road program budget amount would be increased incrementally so that $2,000,000 would be reached by the 2017-18 fiscal year. This was delayed by one year. This plan increases that amount further so that by 2021-22 it will reach $2,500,000. This will depend on additional economic activity," the CIP states.

Get The Facts

Council Chair Mary Ann Jacob told The Newtown Bee that since the council passed the budget on to voters, she has been seeing and hearing more opinions being expressed as fact on social media, and in letters to the newspaper relating to the budget proposals, capital authorizations, and resolutions that were made to try and balance the ballot requests between under and over spending in a year where there is no clear indication from Hartford about how much the town will lose in state funding come July 1 - if any.

"I think the majority of the council felt that they tried to strike a balance between worst case scenario and best case scenario," Ms Jacob said. "And at the same time be respectful of our education funding."

She referenced comments she was seeing on social network that appeared to take issue with School Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, who has committed to the budget process as it has developed, and has asked taxpayers to trust that the team coalescing around the final stages of budget work got it as close to right as they possibly could given the cloud of uncertainty looming over State Capitol budget proceedings.

"For weeks before the final few budget meetings, everybody was saying 'trust Dr Erardi, trust Dr Erardi' - and after Dr Erardi very publicly says 'I'm working with this team, we think this is the best approach, I support this' - now I'm starting to see [posts saying] it's not time to trust Dr Erardi anymore," Ms Jacob said.

"The mistrust seems so deep that they even switch alliances when someone they trust jumps on board," she added. "That's meaningful. It's all about throwing shade on anything anybody who is elected does, regardless if its value or sense."

Ms Jacob said the effort received bipartisan support, and while support was not unanimous on all fronts, the process that resulted in the current spending request received broad support across a number of lead boards, commissions, and at the council.

Referring to combined spending reductions across town and school proposals, as well as accounting for new education grants promised in Governor Dannel Malloy's budget plan, and a resolution that the council would make the district budget whole if certain grants did not come to fruition, Ms Jacob reiterated that all officials involved did their best to craft the best spending requests possible to taxpayers.

Gov Malloy's proposal effectively hobbled local officials' ability to address concrete revenue projections. This was because of a proposed state budget that could, if approved as proposed by Gov Malloy, hit Newtown property owners with as much as $7 million in added taxation.

But in working with state officials, leaders from the town and school district proceeded through the final stage of local budget deliberations under the assumption that Newtown's net loss in state aid would equal about $3 million.

Diverging Opinions

A point of divergence occurred with the council over whether to try and account for overtaxing in a "best case scenario" by dealing with restoring funding to last minute reductions after July 1, or putting out the budget that was originally requested, and hitting residents with a supplemental tax bill in the middle of the summer if state funding or added mandates create an operational deficit.

The council agreed to support the first option.

"It clearly makes sense, it protects our education funding, and is respectful of the taxpayers," she said. "And I can't personally support sending a budget request to taxpayers - even though they are only technically approving spending - and say, wait, now we've got to tax you more money."

Ms Jacob believes that such emergency supplemental tax resolutions should be reserved for select emergency or unanticipated situations.

She said that despite an extremely challenging and contentious budget year because of the unknowns in Hartford, residents only need to look at the previous three budget cycles where referendums passed on both sides by measurable to wide margins. These were spending plans that were, for the most part, crafted by the same people that handled the current proposal, albeit with another year's experience.

"I think in the end we put forth a very creative effort to balance overspending and underfunding," she said. "These resolutions we put together were thoughtful."

Ms Jacob urged voters to get the facts, which she said are presented and affirmed in various official documents, in meeting minutes, and in dozens of hours of meeting videos that led up to the upcoming budget ballot.

"Voters should be allowed to make a decision based on facts," she said.

"Once you lose your trust, or doubt that officials will do what they promise to do and start getting into the world of alternative facts - how do you even combat that?"

The council chair answered her own question by saying that if any commitments made in council resolutions are not honored in the coming fiscal cycle, voters should hold elected officials' feet to the fire.

"People who may disagree, or who think we may be sending the wrong message to the state, ignore all the well-informed local elected officials who have been up at the Capitol advocating, talking with state officials who understand how this budget is forming, and what is likely - are less informed than you are in your living room," she said. "There has to be some acknowledgment that the people who serve, and who do this for a living, might have a better sense of what is going down. And that is our job."

Ms Jacob said she is also making herself available to any voter or taxpayer who has questions, and is volunteering to meet with them to ensure that any concerns or misinformation they may have been subject to, is corrected. She can be reached through e-mail by clicking on her name in the council section of the Government tab at newtown-ct.gov.