All Eight Questions Approved—

Heavy Voter Turnout Spells Referendum Success

By John Voket

According to town registrars, 6,200 voters or 38 percent of those eligible, turned out to Newtown Middle School and endorsed every measure on the complex referendum ballot April 22. By relevant margins on every line, the sequence of Yes votes outnumbered those in the No column authorizing the town’s highest municipal budget, and the single largest municipal spending investment in the town’s history.

Besides authorizing the $105,464,444 town budget, taxpayers said Yes to $1 million to underwrite engineering and plans for a combination community-senior center, and the $38,826,000 required to complete the Newtown High School expansion.

Although the budget and high school approval were big news, Board of Finance member Joseph Kearney was quietly celebrating the passage of charter question four this week. He believes the passing of that small but potent revision, along with the full budget and historic capital project endorsement by Newtown taxpayers, will deliver a likely bond rating increase in the coming months.

Legislative Council Chairman Will Rodgers was also glad to see the first round budget pass in conjunction with a long-sought Charter revision that will now permit the town to manage its annual fund balance. Mr Rogers joined Mr Kearney in hopes that the combination would bode well for a bond rating upgrade.

“At least this will ensure we hold the line [on a rating increase],” Mr Rodgers said. “But an increase would be more important to offset all this extra borrowing.”

Mr Kearney agreed wholeheartedly. He noted that two of the most recent town financial reviews by Moody’s Investment Service — the agency that rates Newtown’s bond credit worthiness — indicated the need for voters to pass the charter change and the budget on its first try.

“When Moody’s spells out the reason, twice, why we didn’t get an upgrade, because the town isn’t able to manage its own surplus, it’s an easy fix,” Mr Kearney said. He added that in the corporate world, if a company practice or by-law was preventing the savings of millions of dollars, “…there would have been a meeting, a change would have been passed and it would be done.”

Mr Kearney said in his opinion, there was no other question on the ballot that could deliver tax savings to the extent of what has been referred to as “the Moody’s provision.” In fact, Mr Kearney early on pleaded for council officials to set a single question charter revision just to address that single issue at the polls in November 2007.

“I only hope it’s not too late to have some impact on the borrowing we just approved,” he said.

The budget passed by a margin of 1,098, with 3,631 voting Yes. The high school expansion referendum passed 3,759 to 2,423 — a difference of 1,336. Only 824 votes pushed a planned senior-community center towards completion, and the closest vote of the day occurred on charter question eight, with a difference of just 27 votes.

First Selectman Joe Borst was beaming once the tallies were completed.

“Wonderful, this is wonderful,” he said. “This took a lot of hard work.”

School board chairman Elaine McClure expressed her gratitude to voters in a written statement: “I really want to thank the people of Newtown, who voted in support of the budget and the high school expansion. It is clear the town understands how important these initiatives are to the well being of the school system and the community.”

School Superintendent Janet Robinson said while the district awaits a traffic plan approval from the state, which is required to begin the bidding process for high school construction, she is working to minimize staff cuts in the wake of a $900,000 cut made to the district budget proposal before the referendum.

While she was planning on spreading staff cuts including two teachers and a number of educational assistants across the district, Ms Robinson said possible savings in health insurance may generate some cost savings to offset further job reductions.

“We’re refining all possible options before [considering] job cuts,” the superintendent told The Bee Wednesday, adding that she was pleased to see the outpouring of support from taxpayers on both the budget and the high school.

Getting both measures passed was really “a joint project,” Ms Robinson said.

Registrars of Voters LeReine Frampton and Karin Aurelia both brought high praise for poll workers and voters alike, who turned out in historic numbers and worked together to make the best of a busy polling place, and a complicated ballot.

“The 38 percent turnout was better than some November elections where we have four polling places open,” Ms Aurelia said. “Let’s go for 50 percent next year, we’ll be ready.”

Ms Frampton said by evening, she was calling in additional poll workers. As the doors closed on balloting at 8 pm Tuesday, there were still well over 100 people either actively voting or waiting in line to cast their ballot.

From the moment the polls opened at 6 am that morning, the traffic kept exceeding previous vote numbers with the differences against previous turnouts growing by the hour.

“We had no experience to gauge how long it would take for voters to complete the ballot, but we added five more privacy booths at the start, 10 more by 10 am, and by 11, we had them all up,” Ms Frampton said. “In the last few minutes we reminded people they didn’t have to use the booths, so a bunch of voters just started using the tables and the bleachers.”

Local PTA representative Mary Ann Jacob was on hand as the tallied votes were announced. She credited school supporters as well as all town elected officials for working collaboratively to bring a tough package of proposals forward and getting them all passed.

“I hope this is a sign of positive things to come,” Ms Jacob said. “This is the evidence of what can happen with cooperation and communication. And this is proof that organizations like PTAs and school parents can make something monumental happen.”