Voters will have the opportunity to cast judgment upon not only the fates of the proposed 2025-26 municipal and education budgets, but also five capital projects, during polling hours from 6 am to 8 pm Tuesday, April 22. The referendum will be conducted at Newtown Middle School, 11 Queen Street.

Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia Halstead will have a special absentee voting session tomorrow. Her office within Newtown Municipal Center will be open 9 am to noon.

This year’s proposed budget is $49,866,665 for the town and $91,744,644 for the schools, for an overall bottom line of $141,611,309. The budgets include a 6.72% tax increase, as well as a 28.78 mill rate, a 1.81 increase from last year.

The five capital projects are:

A $4,600,000 special appropriation and $4,600,000 bond authorization for the planning, design, acquisition and construction of HVAC upgrades, replacements, and improvements at Cyrenius H. Booth Library be approved.

A $4,300,000 special appropriation and $4,300,000 bond authorization for the planning, design, construction, reconstruction, remediation and replacement to the A, B, and C wings of the Newtown High School roof be approved.

A $1,524,000 special appropriation and $1,524,000 bond authorization for the planning, design, acquisition and installation of the Newtown Community Center Pool HVAC unit be approved.

A $1,000,000 special appropriation and $1,000,000 bond authorization for the Bridge Replacement Program be approved.

An $855,000 special appropriation and $855,000 bond authorization for the planning, design, renovation and upgrades to Edmond Town Hall be approved.

Municipal Budget Details

The budgets had a long road to referendum over the past few months, with the Board of Selectmen making both cuts and additions to the first selectman’s proposed municipal budget in January and the Board of Finance making cuts to both the municipal and education budgets in February.

Cuts made by the finance board include reducing road improvements by $150,000; reducing the Parks & Recreation turf tractor line item by $17,500; reducing the Parks & Recreation seasonal staff by $2,250; reducing curbside recycling by $411,650; reducing recycling prepay bags by $60,000; reducing the library line item by $43,238; reducing the Newtown Youth & Family Services line item by $93,237; reducing Edmond Town Hall line item by $40,000; reducing a conference room large monitor upgrade by $3,800; reducing the tracked software line item by $13,000; reducing the activity support line item under Economic Development by $8,300; reducing the Social Services-Human Services salary reserve by $5,000; reducing the Public Works maintenance budget municipal building window refurbishment line item by $40,000; reducing health insurance retiree premiums with OPED trust funds by $74,531; and reducing Newtown Ambulance additional requested paramedic line item by $100,000.

The Board of Finance made one addition: $150,000 for fire department personal protection equipment (PPE).

The Board of Finance also removed $1,050,000 from revenues for the sale of 3 Main Street after a debate with First Selectman Jeff Capeci.

Board Of Education Budget

On March 26, Superintendent Anne Uberti began her budget presentation, saying her budget had taken a “long road” since she presented it to the Board of Education in January.

She noted that during the BOF presentation of the budget on March 19, the BOE budget was noted as “80 times the town budget,” yet Uberti felt there was little discussion around the BOE budget.

“Given the scale of that, and I’m not sure it is correct, there was surprisingly little said about the Board of Education budget,” said Uberti.

She noted her budget had a “$2 million hole” that came from the school budget needing to cover items previously paid for by town funds and that there was an “unprecedented increase” in the medical self-insurance fund, representing a 2.77 percent increase in the overall spending without considering increases in other line items.

A same services budget sat at a 7.87% spending increase.

Uberti said she eliminated 28.1 full-time equivalent positions from her initial presented budget in hopes of bringing the budget down to a level more likely to be found acceptable to voters, a fact that was not mentioned in the BOF’s March 19 presentation.

“We made 28 cuts critical for the BOE budget, but there was more discussion on recycling,” said Uberti.

She noted her initial budget had cut the Kindergarten through 6th grade Spanish program before the BOE added it back in on pushback from parents, but that addition was made by making cuts elsewhere as offsets to keep a 6% spending increase. However, the $900,000 cut made by the Board of Finance made it likely it would be again removed from the budget.

Uberti mentioned an “extra $100,000” the town had received from the state, but noted it was “not free money.”

“It’s a reimbursement for special education expenses already incurred,” said Uberti.

The school’s non-lapsing account sits at a $650,000 balance, but Uberti said $380,000 of that was “already earmarked for special education and can’t be used elsewhere.” As well, an additional expected $550,000 in costs for student outplacement will “wipe out the $100,000 this year and drain the entire contingency for next year.”

“This is why we save for a rainy day,” Uberti said.

According to Capeci at a Board of Selectmen meeting in January, the Town faces a number of “major headwinds” in the budget including motor vehicle valuation changes and total exemption for permanently disabled residents, meaning a $785,000 loss in revenue, the general fund balance reported at 9.4% in the fiscal year 2024 financials means a $1.2 million loss of fund balance revenue, other revenue reductions totaling $455,000, a $1.5 million for Town and $2.4 million for school employee health benefits increase, the Capital Non-Recurring Fund fully expended by the five-year CIP meaning no available capital funds, a significant Town need for public safety enhancements, and contractually obligated expenses not budgeted for in prior cycles.

The motor vehicle changes come from a 2024 State of Connecticut bill that changed how motor vehicles are valuated, changing it to being set by the original Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price and going down by a set percentage after each year. Capeci said this cost Newtown $30 million in motor vehicle valuation, which translated into nearly a $900,000 decrease in tax revenue.

Increases in medical costs for fiscal year 2024 exceeded normal medical costs in previous years and “had eaten away from the fund,” according to Capeci. This has required the town to use $2.5 million of the fund balance to pay for insurance costs.

Capeci said a “same services budget is impossible” this year, due to the aforementioned challenges.

The five capital projects all present pressing needs to the structures in question.

According to Board of Finance Vice Chairman Jim Gaston in a letter to The Newtown Bee this week, “the Referenda votes are no brainers.”

“If you vote No, you will be voting for the closing of the High School, the Library, the Community Center, and Bridges,” stated Gaston. “Without the high school roof, which is already leaking, you risk continued water deterioration and potential injury liability. Without the HVAC the library ceases to operate and the Historic records and artifacts are at risk. Without the Community Center bonding for the HVAC and the sinking pool structure, the Community Center closes.”

Of the library roof HVAC, the library trustees wrote in a letter this week, “this is an emergency for the library and the town, and we have to do this now.”

The trustees stated one of two “ancient” boilers for the library heating system has already failed and the other “can reasonably be described as day-to-day.” The air conditioning system leaks and the control panel melted down last summer.

“Expensive repairs of these systems no longer buy us time,” wrote the trustees. “That this day was coming has been known to the town for over a decade. In 2021, an engineering inspection of the existing HVAC systems of the library determined that the only solution would be complete replacement, within one to five years. As time passed — estimated costs of the project rose. We cannot reasonably hope to get another year or two out of the existing HVAC systems.”

All five of the capital projects are baked into the town’s budget through the Capital Improvement Plan and its planned bonding schedule. The town sticks to roughly 10% of its budget in borrowing each year, with one year of no new borrowing every five years, most recently in just this last budget cycle, the 2024-25 budget.

=====

Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.