Budget Vote Is April 27

By Jan Howard

Voters will go to the polls April 27 to cast their ballots on the proposed $84,438,722 budget for fiscal year 2004-2005. The budget includes $31,320,265 for town government and $53,118,457 for the schools, a 6.4 percent increase over the current year’s budget of $79,737,162.

If approved, the estimated tax rate would be 24.9 mills, an increase of 1.5 mills from 23.4 for the current year’s budget. (See complete budget details on page  C-10.)

The polling place for all voting districts will be the gymnasium of the Newtown Middle School, 11 Queen Street. Voting will take place from 6 am to 8 pm.

Absentee ballots will be counted at Newtown Middle School gymnasium at noon and 6 pm.

Special hours for absentee voting will be held on Saturday, April 24, from 9 am to noon, at the town clerk’s office in Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street.

The Legislative Council voted 11-1 last week to support the Board of Finance-approved budget after the council restored $78,800 for police patrol cars, which passed unanimously.

Council members also voted unanimously to approve revenue figures of $15,623,238 with $68,815,484 to be raised from taxes.

Representatives of the Tercentennial Commission, C.H. Booth Library, and the schools were unsuccessful in their efforts to have the Legislative Council restore funds that were cut from their budgets by the Board of Finance.

The Tercentennial Commission lost its entire budget of $75,000, the schools were cut $250,000, and the library sustained a $50,000 reduction in addition to the approximately $80,000 reduced from its request by the Board of Selectmen. The reductions to the library set its budget at $16,300 less than it received in the current year’s budget.

The Board of Finance in March also reduced the Board of Selectmen’s budget as follows: Selectmen other account, nonrecurring supplies, $4,025; capital roads, $70,000; Town Hall Board of Managers, $25,000; emergency management/dive team, $8,000; and health insurance, $50,000. Proposed increases to several social service organizations that serve the needs of Newtown’s residents were reduced to the current levels of funding.

The Board of Finance also had voted to increase debt service by $75,000 to pay for principal and interest for another $1 million in open space acquisition and to reduce debt service funding of $125,000 for Fairfield Hills and $150,000 for the Head O’ Meadow climate control project.

The budget has received a great deal of attention this year as residents, mostly parents, showed up in large numbers at public hearings and meetings of the Board of Finance and Legislative Council. Only a few people spoke against the budget.

Because of reductions the school budget sustained last year that impacted students this year, the Board of Education was able to garner increased support for its budget. Many parents spoke in support of the budget as presented by the Board of Education and some asked for increases to it.

Many parents voiced their intentions to work to get the budget passed on the first try.

Last year, voters finally approved the budget on the third try, 2,714 to 2,577, with a margin of victory of 137.